Travel Mini Album

I'm officially calling 2014 the year of the mini album.  I am simply having too much fun creating them!  I only wish we traveled more so that I could dive into documenting travels into mini albums. Ha!  However, that doesn't mean I can't help others make the most of their memories.   My brother-in-law and his wife are heading to London soon for a business/personal vacation.  I'm excited for them to go on this journey together!  I thought it would be fun for them to have a little place to put down some memories so they could show off their fun time and have a great keepsake.

I worked with several of the Heidi Swapp lines to put this album together.  That is one of the things I love most about her products - you can mix them up across several lines.  It's a great way to get a bunch of different looks while using up supplies you have on hand.  Here is a look at the cover of the album:

I added a fun little banner to the top with lots of embellishments and then tucked a few under it.  It just made it a little different and more interesting to me.  I had these wooden letters on hand from Pink Paislee and thought they would make a perfect fit for the look of the album.

I added a few embellishments to each page leaving space for lots of photos and notes.  Here I used a 4x6 journal card to create a pocket where I tucked a little tag.  It could also hold more photos and memorabilia.

I had a travel themed mini flip book on hand from a long time back.  I tore out the pages from the cover and removed the 4x6 inserts.  That left me with several 4x6 cards that I punched holes along the side of and added them in as little mini pages.

I used color magic ephemera and some stitching to get some fun page accents. I got this idea here.

I also added in a little book or two using paper folded over.  I thought it was fun how they kinda looked like mini passports and fit with the travel them.  They will be a great place to tuck another little photo or two or simply to put some notes.

I hope they have a great trip!

Supplies used: (from Heidi Swapp) No Limits papers, Vintage Chic file folders, Color Magic file folders, Color Magic ephemera, Color Shine in various colors, Mixed Company Paper, Hello Today ephemera, Hello Today mini stamps and ink pads, Vintage Chic sticker labels, Hello Today chipboard stickers

Christmas Recap

I had so much fun this Christmas making my own album to document the holiday fun (see here) that I decided to make a few more for friends to do the same.  It was fun and also interesting to think about creating an album for someone else to fill in.  I hope they let me take a peek at how they completed it too!  I used the Heidi Swapp Believe Memory file kit for all three of them, as well as the ephemera, word stickers, and the 6x6 paper pack.  Here's a few snap shots:

Year in Review Handmade Album

 *This post is picture heavy!  Oh, and I only remembered to take photos of them right before I was wrapping them up for Christmas so I do apologize for the poor picture quality but I really wanted to share a few of the fun things I did regardless.

Back in October, I thought it would be fun to dive into making a year in review album of our family for the boy's grandparents.  Not of the big events but of the everyday little memories we made - some of the very things their grandparents don't always get to see.  I decided to use the No Limits collection by Heidi Swapp as my basic pages, but also threw in some color magic file folders and ephemera.  Above are the two covers and I had fun blending some color shine to make them awesome and unique!  Below are some additional pictures showing what I included.   I designed various page shapes in Photoshop before cutting them out on my Silhouette along with some tabs and banners, etc.  I basically just filled up a page with cuts and made sure I'd have plenty of fun flip pages and other goodies to embellish with.  The best part about this fun project was that I made no plans!  I simply went with ti!

 I used mini memory files inside to flip open for additional pages.  I also stacked paper in various shapes to make little flip books.  Using both front and back I could fit so many pictures - about 12 3x3 photos.  The entire book mainly consists of 3x3 and 3x4 photos.

 Here are some great views of all the various page shapes.  It made a fun layered project.  While it keeps the eye busy, I liked how it felt as if you were discovering something new everywhere you looked!

 By cutting a 12x12 paper into a 4x12 section and folding it every 4 inches, I made this little fold out full of pictures.  After adhering it into the book, I could fit 5 pictures on it!

When all done I used The Cinch to bind the book together.  There were lots of pages and an a 1" wire did the trick.  I'm really happy with how it turned out an it was fun to work on it.  Overall, I had about 90 pictures in each book and I know their grandparents enjoyed flipping through them and looking back on how much our boys had changed during the year.

New year, new freedom

Happy New Year!  I've been a little delayed in posting.  I'm not one for new year's resolutions but I do like a fresh perspective on things.  And the gift I'm giving myself this year is FREEDOM - freedom to do my memory keeping however I choose, freedom to enjoy the little things and let other things slide.  Maybe I should be doing One Little Word?  Hmmm...something to look into.

As for as my crafting goes, I'm really striving for freedom and just allowing myself to have a no pressure, fun filled time creating just how I choose.  It feels great!!  Here are a few things I've given freedom to:

1. Not all digital.  I LOVE digital memory keeping and have been doing it for many years.  I love that it's portable and creative, but that it's also easy to pass on to those I love.  However, I have also fallen in love with making mini albums.  I have made several for other people but Christmas was the first time I made one for myself.  I love it and well, I guess not all my memory keeping is going to be digital this year!

2. Pink is for boys.  Yup, that's right.  I'm tired of looking at pretty supplies that have pink in them and thinking I can't use that for my family of all males!  Well, guess what.  I can!!  So I still won't be using the overly girly kits but hey, toss in a little pink here and there because I love it and I'm a girl!

3. No pressure.  Create what I want, when I want, in order, out of order...get the picture?

4. I love my Etsy shop, but it's going to be pretty low pressure for me.  When I get inspired, there will be something new to put in there, but I may just be working on things for myself for a bit too.

As part of this freedom I have begun a new album with pictures of some of the everyday things that go on around here.  I love Heidi Swapp's products - they are chic, trendy, high quality, and all her lines have a way of working together that makes it more interesting and allows me to use up all the fun things I purchase.  The new Hello Today collection that just hit Michael's stores has a great little mini file album there too.  I picked one up and decided to just have fun with it!  I flipped through my iPhone and found lots of pictures of our January so far and decided to just run with it.  It's been fun to craft and also document a little bit about the everyday things that go on here with my little ones.

So hello today, hello FREEDOM!

Meal Planning

I struggle with planning meals for our family. 

It's not always a bad thing but I know that doing so might just make things go a bit smoother and give me less of a headache trying to decide what to have for dinner each day!  It will also help me to pull things out of the freezer on time.  That's not to say I'm not a good cook.  Over the last few years I've learned to whip up lots of great creations from the food we have in the fridge which means I'm buying fresh food at the best price and enjoying it!  I rarely follow recipes.

So why the change?  Well, having two little ones means the day doesn't always go as planned.  I can't step into the kitchen and get dinner going when I'm needed elsewhere.  Additionally, my husband is entering his busy season at work which means daddy won't be home early ever to help out during that time.  It will just be one less thing to.  So because of all that, I've created a simple meal planner to have handy. 

And I'm posting it here in case you are interested in using it too.  The download has two PDF file, one of which is editable so if you want to, you can keep it on your computer and type directly into the form.  And if you have any meal suggestions, just let me know. ;)