Saddling Up Some Good Times

Howdy there friends,
 So along with the invites I made for my son's Knott's Berry Farm party, I have a mini-album all ready to go for pics of the event :) No, I am not that organized (Tee Hee) It was a happy coincidence. I picked it up last month from Paisleys & Polka Dots which worked *perfectly* for the Knott's Western theme.
Here's the album cover page:

 Page 1 (back of cover)

(It's not upside down, the pages flip up :)

Page 2:

 Back of page 2:

 Page 3:

 Back of page 3:

 Page 4:

 Back of page 4:

 Last page:

I just luuuuv the shaped pages- especially the cowboy boot! The papers are from the Sasparilla collection from October Afternoon- which I have every intent on hoarding :) I have lots of boy pages to work on for my scrapbook & this line is boy perfection!

Thanks so much for peeking today!
Gotta go!

Mini-Album Season Finale

Hello there friends,
As the title of today's post indicates, I have the last of the mini-albums to share with ya. It's one of the current releases from Paisleys & Polka Dots just in time for Valentine's Day.
Here's the book with all the pages layered together:

Here are the innies:
front:

 back:

 front:

 back:

 front:

 back:

 front:

 back:

This is the last page:

It's a pocket page in the shape of an envelope with a pull out letter. As with other Paisley books, it's chock full of yummy details, & bits & pieces and yet, I still need to add my Viva pen to it :) ...and find some pretty ribbon & trim for the rings.

I feel so glad to have completed all these projects. I feel like maybe I'll be more productive in this new year :) It's Final Exams time at school so I'm super busy grading & updating my gradebook.

Thanks so much for peeking today!
Gotta Go!

Faith Mini-Album

Hi friends,
Discovery Channel has "Shark Week" and I've got "Mini-Album Week!". This album is one I've had for a looong time & finally completed. It's from Paisleys and Polka Dots  but sadly, it's no longer available. I think the finished book is oh so preeety :) It's definitely one of my fav albums.
Here's the cover:

I am still looking for just the right ribbon for the rings.

Here are the innies:

and the back cover:

The sentiment strips read:
 Life is built upon hope, strengthened by faith, and made richer by Love and friendship.
Walk in faith, trust in love.
Take pride in how far you have come, have faith in how far you can go.
Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future.
Faith is the courage to dance to it today.
Believe in a dream that allows you to fly, and the faith to pursue it no matter how high.

It's nice to have a book with sentiments to uplift & encourage :)

Thanks so much for peeking today. I am soooo thankful it's a long weekend cuz I'm plum tuckered out!
Have a great weekend & have some lovely crafternoons!

Family Record Book

Hi friends,
Here's the other book I made at the second Marion Smith class. Like the other album, I had to complete it myself.
Here's the cover:

Here are the innies:

 The page on the left has a waterfall element. You pull on the bottom tag & all the pics cascade down :)

This book has top loading & side-loading pockets for tags (as shown)

The page on the right is a pocket page.

This is the back cover:

I added lots of flowers & blingy goodness :) The metal flower embellishments on the cover & middle tag are from Marion's line for Prima & they're really pretty. The flowers are Prima & Recollections. The bling is Prima & ZVA. Even though this book has lots of flowers & bling,  I thought it would be great for some family pics---> the rich colors & distressing would go with the pics of my boys & the embellies would still make it a bit girly for me :)

Marion's Vintage Trinket collection can be found at the YMH Store---> HERE
and the bling can be found HERE.

Thanks so much for peeking today!
Gotta Go!

Sweet Things Mini Album

Hi ya friends,
I took a couple of classes with Marion Smith back in September so I got to make 2 of her mini-albums. I was really excited cuz she is a great designer & I luuuv her work. Without getting into it, let's just say I was pretty disappointed with the classes for various reasons. It wasn't the projects, they were really great, but mainly it was that we spent almost 6 hours in class & came away with a bare-bones book. :( Every time I attempted to work on it, the little crafter in my head would shriek, "You've already spent 6 hours on this!!!" so I would get really frustrated, put it back, and there it sat for months. I decided to pull it out & complete it during winter break cuz I didn't want to go into the new year with incomplete projects :( but in the end I really like how the book turned out & I got to do a lot of my own things to it.
Here's my book:

 

I want to add a pic here so the post card is just serving as a place holder.

Here are the inside pages:
First page has a side pocket:

All of the pages have a top-loading pocket for pics.

 Here, you can see the pink pull tabs & a closer peek at the binding. It's a simple accordion book, but I do like the punched border detail she showed us how to create :)

This pages has Stickles along the blue border

I cut out the umbrella out of the pattern paper & layered it on top for dimension. There's Stickles along the yellowish border along the blue edges.

I created a pocket with the chipboard piece so that tag pulls out.

 This is the back page: I'm adding a side pocket to this page too

 and this is the back cover

I added a lot of my own embellishments. The flowers & butterflies were from Recollections at Michaels, some of the flowers were from Prima, and the bling was from ZVA. I also added Crystal Stickles throughout & glossy accents to the clock faces. Someone mentioned that Prima makes the Recollections line for Michael's so I think that helped the embellies go together.

Marion has directions for making the album---> Here 
Although this was not the best experience, I really liked the project & techniques she showed.
I hope to make another of this type of accordian book in the future... so stayed tuned ;)