My mini addiction to mini-albums

I have a new addiction: mini-albums. They're great if you want to document a specific thing or you have too many pictures for a one-page or a two-page layout.

I am so excited about this first FABRIC ALBUM! I made this album about my kids and their closest friends and playmates. (Naturally, that's our friends' kids!) This book is made from fabric and embellishments from Amy Butler. Michaels' now carries the Amy Butler embellishments made by K & company but I ordered the fabric from etsy.com. This album is so touchable, cute and EASY! Here's how you do it:

Cover full 12"by 12" sheets of chipboard with fabric. I bought fat quarters of coordinating cotton fabrics and used Yes Paste to adhere it. Then using your heavy-duty pinking sheers, cut the fabric-covered chipboard into 5 1/2 by 5 1/2" squares. Punch a whole in the corner and use a binder ring to keep it all together. I also tied ribbon around the binder ring for added texture.Add your photos and embellish it. All the paper embellishments you see here come in the "Die Cut Cardstock" embellishment kit. Don't forget to journal! I liked putting a paper pocket in the album to hold some of the cute paper tags.

I also used some rhinestones, a couple brads, and silver ink to ink the edges.

This second album is a sentimental album. As many of you know, our dog Kona was hit by a car on the 4th of July. I made this mini-album to honor him and his very special place in our family. It's a simple 6" blackboard album made by Cosmo Cricket.

How lucky we were to have such a good friend!

I hope you found some inspiration here today! I'm off to see Mama Mia the movie with my friend Laurie tonight. I've seen the Broadway production already (with Laurie too) so I hope they've done a good job with the film.

Cheers,
Christy

New frames

In the spirit of cleaning out my closets, I made these frames. I've been stashing old and new frames for a while now. I had 6! I was inspired by an online class that I took from Janna Wilson. (She rocks! She is so crafty and creative. I learned a lot from her and it got me out of a little rut I was in. ) And when I get excited about something I tend to take it to extremes. Instead of making one, I'm making 6. Here are the first 4:

This was the first one. The frame was originally green but I painted it black and sanded the edges. The background is a fabulous flannel fabric I found at JoAnn's. I found the lace trim there too. The place for the 5" by 7" picture is mounted on chipboard and then adhered using foam tape. Look closely... yep, you can sew through chipboard. Fun, eh?

This one is my favorite! It's just like the previous one but this frame is really big. It was made to fit a 14" by 20" picture and like this, it will fit a 5" by 7". Flannel and flowers and felt... oh my!

These two will hold a 4" by 6". The background on these is fabric too. I love that black felt trim by Queen & Co.




Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to share how I made them. They're easier than you'd think! I'll post the other two frames soon. They're both in gold antiqued frames and very romantic looking.

Make it a great day!