Teeny Seth Apter Inspired Mini

A new challenge blog has launched this week, Mini Album Makers' Challenge, dedicated to the art of book making. I've been inspired by Seth Apter in my creation, who is the sponsor for this month's challenge. It's based on a tiny album he created a while back. I adore dinky things so was inspired to make my own, incorporating his dies and stamps, of course!

I've made a wee video so you peek inside.

Thanks for visiting!
Katy x

Christmas Planner for Rubber Dance

Plan your Christmas in style with my step-by-step mini planner tutorial over on the Rubber Dance blog today!

Katy xxx

First Banana Frog Project of the Day!

My very first Banana Frog DT project is a very dinky and cute mini album containing pictures of all my beloved Pandora beads and the stories behind them.

The book is created with a lovely stamp set called It's All About Hearts which is a bargain price in the sale right now.

Full details of my project can be found over on the Banana Frog blog! Do pop on over as it's a really inspirational place :).

Disneyland Paris - woo hooooooooooooooooo

I am sooooooooooooooooo excited - we've booked to go to Disneyland Paris in Dec for a few days. I've never done Disney at Xmas so obviously I am barely coping with the excitement LOL.

This is just a really simple little planner I made to keep all the holiday info in the same place. The pockets are made from trimmed down envelopes I lined with some old Disney paper I'd had lying around for ages. Each envelope pocket contains a little tag on which I can write info like parade times, meal bookings and (most importantly) my souvenir shopping list! It's a really simple little thing but it is meant to be functional, hence the decoration is minimal.

I thought the image of Mickey rather summed up my feelings about the forthcoming trip!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Paperbag album

Today I am sharing a paperbag album I made recently. My dear friend Sue showed me how to create the book on our weekend away - really easy to make but very effective. It's basically three paper bags stuck together and then trimmed to make the staggered effect. I NEED to make more of these so paper bags are now on the ever growing 'must buy' list!

The decoration is my own work. The only change I made to Sue's construction was to make the closure on the book magnetic instead of using a ribbon tie; I wanted the cover design fairly minimal.

The pictures are of Taliesin West, architect Frank Lloyd-Wright's winter home and studio in Scottsdale, Arizona, which I visited in 2005 and absolutely loved.

The papers are MME So Sophie, I didn't use a lot of embellishments as you need to keep the pages relatively flat to allow the book to close properly.

It's my turn on Gingersnaps this week so I'll be back on Wed with a card I made :).

Thanks for popping over,

Katy

Hybrid maze book

I do like making little hybrid mini albums as they are super quick to finish. To make this one I created the journaling pages using Photoshop and a feather brush. I reduced the opacity on the brush to blend it into the background. The papers are some old Basic Grey Offbeat ones.

The album is of a day trip we took to Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water - fab day out, loads of gorgeous birds (penguin feeding time was the highlight of the day!). And now I have all my memories recorded while they are still fresh in this little teeny maze book.

I won't put the instructions here- if you Google maze books there will be plenty of tutorials out there. It's basically a little book constructed by folding one sheet of 12x12 - well worth seeking out if you've never made one.

Thanks for popping over. See you soon I hope.

Katy x

Gingersnaps Challenge - Read

The theme for today's challenge on Gingersnap Creations is 'read'. Being a literal-minded sort, I've created a reading journal using my BIA for my contribution to the challenge. I love this stamp and I thought it appropriate as she looks like she is reading. I used up some Basic Grey paper I've had since the dawn of time, so that's another dent made in the stash mountain!

Materials...

Curious By Design stamps - Chere Amie

Stampendous stamps - Butterflies

Hero Arts stamp - Ledger

Elusive Images stamps - Curly Birds (flourish used inside)
Patterned papers

Chipboard pieces, 7 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches (covers)

Tim Holtz Idea-ology bookplate and brads

Letter stickers

Distress Ink: Barn Door; Brushed Corduroy

Versafine Ink: Black

Coloursoft pencils, Sansodor and blending stumps

Trim (Prima)

BIA and o-wire

Here's what I did:

1 Cover the chipboard pieces with paper leaving the reverse of the front cover uncovered until the after the bookplate is added later. On the front cover, add a panel of pink paper inked with Barn Door and with one corner rounded, and a panel of torn script paper inked with Brushed Cordoroy.

2 Stamp the girl (Curious by Design) onto a piece a plain Basic Grey paper and colour with pencils, blending the colours for a soft look. Round the top corner, ink the edges and add to the cover. Punch holes in the covers at this stage.

3 Stamp two butterflies, colour with pencils and cut out. Add along with the bookplate, trim and lettering as shown. Now you can cover the reverse of the front cover to hide the brads.

4 For the inside, stamp each page with the Hero Arts ledger stamp and the Elusive Images flourishes (or computer generate pages -believe me the stamping took an age!!!).

5 Bind the book and you are done.

I hope you like what I made - do pop and see what the rest of my lovely, talented teamies made and join in the challenge at Gingersnaps. If you don't want to make a journal, what about a bookmark or bookplate for this theme?

Katy x

Gingersnaps - Kraft challenge

Morning all!

It's Gingersnaps challenge day again - today the challenge is Kraft. Easy peasy for me, one of my favourite and most used colours.

I chose to make a mini album - I think Kraft is a perfect colour for seaside-themed creations. This 6x6 mini album will hold images of my holiday in Cape Cod. Confession time - I had planned to do a layout to show you here but I didn't get time....). I do wish life wouldn't get in the way of crafting - it's very inconvenient!!!

Here's how I made it:

Materials...
Card: Chipboard or mountboard sheet; Kraft cardstock; Blue Core'dinations cardstock; brown Bazzill cardstock
Stamps: Fancy Pants (swirls); ISC Picturesque (main image); Crafty Individuals (birds and small shell); Stampington Shore Cliff Elements (shell and starfish)
Inks: black Archival; Distress Broken China, Antique Linen, Faded Jeans; Memento Desert Sand, New Sprout; Versamark
Edge distresser and sandpaper
Chalk (Pebbles Inc)
Twine
Thickers letters
Distress Stickles: Antique Linen

1 Cut two covers from chipboard 6 1/2", cover with brown cardstock front and back.
2 Cut a piece of Kraft card 6" square and stamp with the flourishes (Fancy Pants) in Versamark, chalk over the Versamark in a tan coloured chalk. Distress edges. Cut a mat for this in sanded Core'dinations card and distress the edges of this too.
3 Stamp the Picturesque scene and colour with inks and a water brush. Stamp the birds at the top of the scene. Distress and add to the Kraft panel.
4 Stamp shells onto Kraft card, cut out and cover with Distress Stickles. When dry add using Silicone glue to get shape and dimension.
5 Assemble, adding with twine and letters. Punch holes for book rings. Decorate the inside covers with a stamped Kraft panel as created for the front. The pages inside are 6x6" Kraft card.
That's it - nice and simple :). Do go along to Gingersnaps and join the challenge!

Thanks for popping in!
Katy

Banana Frog Guest - part 2

Today my second lot of Guest DT creations for Banana Frog go live! This is a little BIA book I made using the Butterflies & Swirls set and the Willing Race alphabet set.

I used some of the new Distress Ink colours - Wild Honey and Crushed Olive - they are sooooooooooooooo gorgeous!!!

I made the book to store colour combinations I like - great for when I need a bit of inspiration. I've just scribbed pencils and pens, and smooshed inkpads onto the pages in combinations of colours. I've also stuck images out of mags on some of the pages. It's not neat and tidy inside but then it's meant to be a working document! Here's a little close up of the panels.

My other creations are over on the BF blog :). Thanks for stopping by!

Katy x

Snow!!!

More snow yesterday - about another two inches - eek!

Yesterday I took the camera out when I walked the dog and made this little tag book ready for my pics. It's a really quick make - the pages are made with a jumbo tag Sizzix die and it's simply decorated with a painted and Glimmer-Misted snowflake :). I'll hopefully show you more when I get around to filling it up!

Soppyness alert

Another minibook today. It's a book of reasons why I love my OH which is a little present for him. It's inspired by one I saw in a Simple Scrapbooks special 'Mini Albums in an Evening'. I've experimented a bit with hybrid scrapping here. The cover panel and panels inside are generated in Photoshop using just the standard shape elements and some nice fonts. The papers were a Christmas pressie from my dear friend Ally and were just perfect for this (am glad I still have some left for a layout as they are rather lovely).

I am sorry the photos are a bit rubbish but I am too tired to take the time to re-do them. A better camera is on my birthday list!

A mad little minibook

I absolutely love making minibooks! This one might seem a little odd but it has a bit of a story to it. I was looking through my photos of other half to make a minibook about him. Could I find any decent pictures? Barely any. Everytime I point the camera he pulls a stupid face - sometimes intentionally, sometimes he is trying to smile but it comes out as a giant gurn!!! So this book was born - it's full of pictures of my dearest pulling silly faces, messing about and being caught unawares in comedy poses. It's a whole heap of sillyness but one of his more endearing qualities is that he is funny. One of his less endearing qualities is that he is super vain so he of course thinks this book is hideous and is quite mortified it will be on public display!!!

The papers are Lime Rickey by BasicGrey - the patterns are a bit bonkers so I thought they suited the theme. Each page is numbered and the journalling for each is on the inside front and back covers.