Distressed Cigar Box with Mini Album for MOPS auction

This isn't the original cigar box I painted and crackled for the MOPS auction... I got a bit stumped with not having any embellishments in those colors at the moment and hitting a creative block with it too... So fast forwarding a bit, I painted the other one I had in the pink and brown crackling scheme and did a mini album to go inside of it instead. It isn't even decorated that much and I have to admit I struggled with it... have I mentioned it's painful being me sometimes? :)

Bonus layout for last night..

This layout was a "bonus" layout... I hadn't planned on doing another one, but my papers and pictures were still out, so I thought I'd do this basic 8x8 inch layout. I usually scrap 12x12's, but I have an 8" album for my daughter, so I figured it could go in there. And while doing so, maybe I could shake a little bit more rust off... I used a layout from http://www.littlebookofsketches.blogspot.com/ , this was also a "Featured Favorite" sketch I posted in Scrapping with Friends on Cafemom, back in December. I finally got to it now. It's a great picture of my best buddy and my daughter, about 2 years ago now, but it worked well for a one pic. layout. I used the George cartridge on the Cricut that she so generously gave me, and Stickled a bit here and there. I made a super easy photo corner with coordinating paper, and let me just say that I love the embroidery (?) type needles that have a really big eye on them, because it allowed me to thread the ribbon through the big button- I'm a nerd and that really excited me!

One of my favorite recent projects:

This is one of my favorite recent projects that I finished- I gave it as a gift to my best buddy who is the one who gave me the original box. I used crackling medium on it, with brown paint underneath and pink on the top, such a great combination! Other than that, I just added some chipboard that I painted and a few flowers and buttons. It was a lot of fun to try- I really want to make more!