Simple Pocket Book Album.

I actually made this project in January right after I bought all the supplies from my local scrapbooking store. It was sitting there on the table and I absolutely LOVED IT and the owner was generous enough to tell me how to make it without having to pay for the class (I was going back up to school for the start of the Spring semester) and I just had to share this adorable mini. You can use it for a scrapbook, put tags in all the pockets, make it an idea book or whatever you want, really!

You'll need the following:

• Six 12X12 pieces of double sided cardstock/papers (mine is the ADORABLE Cashmere Dame Collection by Glitz) 
• I used the Gingham, Honeycomb, Chevron, Floral, Cherries and Banner (the Gingham was only used to make the piece that covers the binding)
• I also bought the "Whatnot" embellishments that the store had (they were too cute not to buy!)
• And you'll need whatever coordinating binding strips you want to use (I used black because it went with the collection beautifully)
• Black stamp pad (I used one by Ranger)
• Your preferred glue (I used Aleene's Tacky Glue)

Now the directions! :)

Take you first 12X12 paper and score it at 4" across (this will fold up to make the pockets) and then straight down the middle at 6". 

Score and fold the 4" mark, fold it up and glue down the left and right sides to close off the pockets. 

Do the same with the 6" mark and do this to each of your 12X12 pages. 

Then you'll need your binding cardstock/paper and 

Cut them at 1" across and 8" down. 

Score at 1/2 inch and fold. (For my album, I only needed 4 because I only had 5 papers.)

Then you can cut your outside binding strip at 4X8 

Score it at 1 1/4, flip it and score the other side at 1 1/4. 

Now that all your binding strips are ready, take a look at the pictures of my album and you can see where you attach them. You take the back of one folded page and attach the strip to the back of the first page and to the front of the other. 

I kept the pages simple and only used the embellishments that came in my "Whatnots" pack. 

 The beautiful swimmer girl is only attached to the pockets so that I can still slide things behind her as pockets. 

The embellishment on the left (and others like it in this album) are able to be used as pockets (I only glued down the left and bottom of them)

This embelly was one of the cards (like above) but I cut her out and attached her to the page and then cut out her words "Girls Just wanna have funds" 

I'm sorry that this was such a long post but I'm extremely excited to share this with all of you. And thank you, Deb for the amazing idea and project! 

If you make one too, send pictures! Also, if you have any questions about the construction, leave me a comment!

Simple Mini Album for a Friend

As most of you know, baby books are an addiction for me and so is making books out of them. You can see one project I made with one here. I thought I'd done a blog post on more of them but I guess I didn't. I'll make sure that makes it into the schedule. :)

But here's simple album I made for one of my friends that just started her own embroidery business. It was her birthday on the 18th and I made her this to use as a catalog or scrapbook for what she makes/made!

The covers of the book were made with just plain cardboard that I painted pink (her favorite color) and used my Disney Classics Cricut Cartridge to use the Tweedle's bow in her other favorite color. I outlined the bow with black glitter and used my Cricut (Ornamental Iron 2 cartridge) to cut out the words of her Business.

The inside pages are the sturdy kind from a baby book that I rounded the edges with my Crop-a-Dile corner rounder and painted them black. 

 For the back cover I did the same as the front but put when he business was established (I signed it afterwards) and I also bought her metallic markers so that she can write on the black pages. I just used some binder rings to keep everything together.

Tracy Weinzapfel February Creative Dare!

I know. I know. I've been a bad blogger and haven't updated every project just like I said that I would. 

BUT. I do have a bunch of projects to share with you and the first one is the February Creative Dare from Tracy Weinzapfel . This woman pushes my creative limits THAT'S FOR SURE. :) I participated in my first swap through her and our Mixed Media Facebook Group is a great place to meet new amazing artists and friends (even though I'm the baby of the group!). Okay. Enough with the mushy gushy blahblah. Haha. Here's what I made for this month!

The prompt was to make something using something on your bucket list. So here's my page in my Big Mama Journal (she's 11X14). 

Go to Seattle, WA

For this page, I kept it simple. Sometimes that's the best medicine. I gessoed the pages, mod podged the picture of Seattle (printed from Google) and embedded it in the background with gesso around the edges to make them disappear. Then I took my giant bottle of black Tempera Paint (Not DecoArt! Sorry!) and started started to circle the picture with a mixture of white paint and the black to get a gradient effect to it. 

The blue is "Bahama Blue" by Americana that I squeezed into a little bottle that has a fine point tip (got them from Hobby Lobby. 3 for $2.99) and just started to make the circles and make them drip. I blotted them with my wash cloth and got another effect!

I used the same color to write "go to seattle, wa"

Overall, I'm satisfied with it and I'm starting to get used to this sketchbook for my mixed media. I'm determined to fill it by the end of the year and so far so good! :)

I hope you take the challenge or join our group to become inspired and take a chance and push your limits.

It's already the 3rd day of Februrary

I honestly cannot believe it. I haven't really been doing much. My beautiful shoe storage didn't last long because it fell off the door. I did finish the Lucy portrait (just not the one I started in my sketchbook, ironically enough) and I love the way she turned out.

I originally had it drawn in my massive sketchbook but I was so afraid to start it. So I took a 12X12 piece of photo matting board that I got at Hobby Lobby and I redrew her onto the board and painted her using gouache. I use the Reeve's brand of gouache and it's in the violet and white. Those are the only two colors I used on Lucy herself. The background is turquoise gouache by Reeves as well. I'm really proud of her. :)

I just did this painting about an hour ago. I had originally had another idea for this elephant but then I fell in love with another idea that was in my head so I decided to go with that one because it was in my head. 

I used a grid for both of these paintings and I'm finding that they work really well for me. If you want to know more about how I did it (it's kind of a process in my head) just send me a comment or e-mail me. In the end, I'm extremely proud of both of these paintings. 

I hope you all have a creative day!