Friends Mini Album

Happy Unofficial Fall. I love that it is getting darker sooner and that all the kids in the neighborhood are back to school. You can smell everyone cooking breakfast around the same time! We got our shipment of firewood for our fireplace. We have been having fires outside cause it is still warm out but gets cool at night! I just love it! Well enough of that let me share a few things I have been working on.

On each tab it says, I LOVE MY FRIENDS... I used a ton of scraps to create this and left over rubons and bling. You know I love ribbon and that is what really makes the book complete.

Things I used to creative this mini album for my niece who's birthday was in August!

Scotch - Adhesive Refill for the Applicator ATG 700 Gun - Three Fourth Inch Gold Tape 36 Yards ,
Scotch ATG 700 - Adhesive Applicator Gun - Uses One Half Inch OR Three Fourth Inch Adhesive (Purchase Separately),
Maya Road - Chipboard Album - 5 Ring - Skinny Round Tab
SEI - Doodley-Doo Girl - Rub Ons ,
SEI - Doodley-Doo Girl - Assortment Pack this is the papers that were used. They worked really well because where my niece is a TWEEN, doodles are her life. Plus the most fantastic part about this paper is I got it at Amandalinz yard sale that Jenn and I went to a lonnnnnnnnng time ago. I saved it waiting for the perfect project to use it for.

Also used were rubons, stickers, bling and ribbons. I was smart and printing off pictures of her and her friends through her myspace page. She was so excited and thrilled that I did my research to get the pics, she had no idea what I was up too. Her girlfriends got a kick of seeing themselves in Jessy's birthday gift!

mini book! (and ali edwards)

Yo girls! I miss you! All this talk of the bus tour makes me wish I didn't live so dang far away. Y'all have to promise me ONE thing. If I can't go, will one of you snag me something awesome? Thanks.

Okay, so all day today I planned on starting the sketch challenge but got totally hung up on this mini board book I wanted to make. I know you all must know Ali Edwards, right? She has a blog, which I love, and also a Flickr account. She also has this life art newsletter she publishes every so often online with little challenges and articles. I've been reading her stuff lately and I love it. She's such a fabulous photographer, and we all know how wonderful her scrapbooking skills are. I have the Life Artist book, which I haven't finished reading. Just looking through it is enough to make me feel inspired. I've started working with paint more often, getting in touch with my roots so to speak.

ANYWAY, if you read her blog, her weekend entry features a mini book she created. She created the cover by layering items and then painting the whole thing one color. I loved this, and she challenged the internets to do something similar over the weekend. So I thought about it all weekend and finally did mine today.

I love green (even my iPod is green) and I've been running around painting things green lately. I'll have to post a picture of it but I even painted a jewelry box I got for Christmas GREEN. It looks great...much better than it did as a plain cherry stained box.

So I chose green for my cover.



This is actually not a photo of the FINISHED cover...I added aqua stickles all around the edges (sparingly) and around the white "baby" and the star. So it was simple. I didn't add a whole bunch of dimension to this smally book, just the star. But it gives the effect I wanted. Simple and subdued.

The theme is obviously baby memories. There are TONS of milestones/moments/memories I haven't scrapbooked yet. Eleana is growing SO fast that I barely have enough time to keep up with her. I've had these wallet sized pictures lying around the office forever, waiting to be put somewhere, in something. I finally just created this general book of favorites using those pictures, and I wish I had room to add more.



Making this book also gave me the chance to use up some of the baby themed items I have, that I NEVER used. Like the "sleep tight" sign. It's actually metal, and surprisingly thin for a metal embelleshment. And all these pinky stickers (like the one that says "naptime" above) are finally diminishing, though I still have half of a sheet left.

The journaling above reads: As an infant, any place in the apartment was suitable for a nap. Eleana felt most comfy on her Boppy (if she wasn't in our arms.) Naps were eratic and short, but seemed so blissful to our sweet girl.



Page 2 (above) is a little more personal, documenting (briefly) our time nursing. The journaling reads: Breastfeeding Eleana was one of the best things I've done for her as her mother, though challenging at times. We lasted 8 months, until Eleana decided she'd rather feed herself.

The picture of us together above is one of my all-time favorites of us. She looks so happy-go-lucky, which is exactly who she is, even today. The green strip between the two pictures of her eating says "nurture" but it didn't photograph well.



Okay, the last page in the book is all about Daddy. The bottom photo on the left is censored per Daddy's request. It's a picture of our 2-month-old girly laying on his bare chest. He hates when his chest is hairy, and in the picture it's super hairy, so he didn't want everyone to see it. Insert giggling here. There's no journaling on this page. No room. I love the picture on the right so much that I had to make it big. The color is off here too. The "bundle of joy" tag should be pink.




The back cover isn't fabulous...just plain and pretty.

Tomorrow I'm doing the sketch. I already know what picture I'm using and everything!
XOXOXO