A Gift from a Friend

Today is my friend Marilyn Mae's birthday - Happy Birthday Marilyn Mae!  I've known her for a few years.  She was a follower of my blog and one day called me up with some questions about Design Studio.  We talk on the phone every so often and I finally got to meet her in person at the Tim Holtz classes this spring.  In fact, without her help I wouldn't have been able to get signed up for the classes.

Marilyn Mae doesn't have a blog but she makes wonderful things.  She is much better than I am about getting cards sent to people - if I mention that I have a bit of a cold in a post on my blog, the next thing I know there is a get well card from Maine in my mailbox.  When we were together for the Tim Holtz weekend, she gave me an amazing album and I told her I'd like to share it with my blog readers.  

She told me it was fine to post photos of the book but that I should give credit to Laura Denison of Following the Paper Trail since she used Laura's design to create the album.  You can click on the red links to see the Following the Paper Trail blog and website.  I am not sure which set of directions Marilyn Mae used, so I hope she will pop in and tell us so I can add a link directly to the proper set.   

ETA The pattern she used is called Stack the Deck with Pockets Mini Album - just click on the name to go to the page on Laura's site where you can buy the pattern.

Please be sure to leave a comment for Marilyn Mae - to wish her a Happy Birthday and to tell her what a great job she did with this book - I just love it!

(just click on the photos to see them at a larger size)

front of album

spine of album

back cover

inside front cover

first page insert flipped over

first page insert unfolded

pages 2 and 3

pages 4 and 5 first view

pages 4 and 5 insert opened

pages 6 and 7

flamingo on page 7

pages 8 and 9 with insert opened

pages 8 and 9 back of insert

pages 10 and 11

page 12 and inside back cover

page 12 insert opened

inside back cover

black insert in each of the six pocket pages

There are so many little pockets and tags or inserts for adding photos or journaling.  I am fond of butterflies and she used lots and lots of them in this book.  I spotted some bits and pieces that I had sent Marilyn Mae sprinkled in on many pages.

I hope you find a lot of inspiration from these photos.   I know that I want to try to make something along these lines now that I have a bit more crafting time (and I know where I'll be sending it when I finish!).

Happy Birthday Marilyn Mae!  May you have many more wonderfully crafty years ahead.

Have a great weekend - it is the first weekend in quite a while that we will be home with no travel plans or visitors. 

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My Little Shoebox - Mini Album

One of the workshops I attended at CHA was by My Little Shoebox.  We made this acrylic mini-album in less than two hours!  The acrylic album with the fancy edges is by Maya Road.  This adorable album was designed by Pattie Beltran, Design Team Coordinator for My Little Shoebox.  Thanks to the efforts of Pattie and her team we had the most wonderfully organized kits and putting the album together was relaxing and fun.

You can see the finished album that was the class sample on the My Little Shoebox blog HERE.  If you look carefully at the first photo you may be able to spot me in the class!  My album is not totally finished - I need to add some photos and journaling and ribbon on the rings.  I also haven't had a chance to add the Stickles yet (we didn't do this in class so we wouldn't smear the pages).

We used the Playtime Collection for this book.  You can click HERE to find out more about this collection.  My Little Shoebox has teamed up with Cottage Cutz and Unity Stamps for coordinating dies and stamps for each of their six new collections.  One of the items in the paper line is this sheet of punch outs for making rolled flowers and banners.  These are similar to the type of rolled flowers that you can cut with the Cricut Flower Shoppe project cartridge or by designing your own file with Design Studio, the Gypsy or another software program.

I am just going to post the nearly finished pages of my book so you can see all of the little details.  Since this was an evening session we all were so appreciative of all the hard work that went into making our kits perfect so we could focus on the fun of putting it all together.

Cover - ribbons and title to be added

Page one and insert

back of insert and page two

pages three and four

pages five and six

pages seven and eight

pages nine and ten

back cover

I am banned from my craftroom while the finish is applied to our floors.  This is the last part of the repairs and renovations after the ice dam damage we experienced last winter.  It has been a little crazy around here - and rather noisy at times - but I think the end result will be well worth the inconvenience.  I had a very productive Thursday morning and made and photographed a lot of new things which I'll be sharing over the next few days - with luck I won't run out of things to write about before I can get back to my space!

I hope you have a lovely weekend - the weather has been a bit cooler here which is very refreshing after the heat.

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Retirement Album

I was asked by a friend to help put together a retirement tribute album for the woman who has been the Health Coordinator for our school district. She was the official representative to a parent committee I served on for a number of years and she worked with many of the parents in our community to promote healthy choices for our children. As is often the case when you ask for stories or tributes to be sent in before the event, there were not many people who actually got their tributes written and the emails sent. So we worked out a way to have the album prepared and ready for the retirement party brunch tomorrow which will be attended by many parents who worked on this committee.



I chose a Creative Memories landscape style (12 x 10) album - 8 x 8 seemed too small and 12 x 12 too bulky! This size was available for a limited time but I had some left in my inventory. We used a decorative paper pack called "Vintage" and a Milestones album kit, also in Vintage, which has lots of photo mats, journaling blocks and decorative 4 x 6 papers.



For the people in who sent their messages in advance, we were able to print the messages on the Vintage patterned paper or a matching parchment paper and arrange them in the book (the messages are covered in these photos). The paper pack we used was sized for the older version of the Creative Memories 12 inch albums which had pages slightly less than 12 inches wide due to the "jeeping" strip that reinforces the page edges. We trimmed these to 12 x 10 to "wallpaper" about half of the pages and use the remaining strips to decorate the opposite pages.



It really makes things so much simpler when you work with a coordinated set of papers. The book looked great with just the two packs of CM paper but I thought I could add a bit more style with some Cricut cuts. I chose various cuts from the Storybook cartridge and filled a mat with images. I cut these images in several colors to add as accents on the pages. The page at the center of the right side above that is just a background paper is waiting for a printed poem that one of the guests will be bringing tomorrow.



I did not put the the page protectors on the pages yet, but I can add them after the messages are completed. When people arrive at the brunch they will have a chance to write a few lines on one of the journal mats or in a blank area on any of the pages. I will have tabs on the pages that have empty spaces and make sure that all of the lined mats are used first.



I added the Storybook cuts on various pages to give a more finished look and I have a folder with lots of extras that can be added on the spot if there are any "blank" areas after everyone signs the book. Some of the mats would be suitable for photos and we may try to have a few photos taken at the event and have them printed to add to the book later.



For the cover page, I welded the words "Thank you" and the name together using the Cursive 101 cartridge - this cartridge is wonderful for welding! The leafy branches are from Storybook once again.

I am sure that by the end of the brunch this book will be full of messages and it will be a lovely memento for Kathy to take home and read through.


(If you want to see the pages at a larger size, just click on the photos. Here's a little quiz for you - how many Storybook cuts did I add to the album?)


One more note - our online classes have been going well so far - thanks to those who have participated! We have set up some more "Getting Started" classes for next week and will be adding new classes soon. Just click the link at the top right of this page to go to the teaching blog for class details.