Scrapping, kinda, with wood

I bought these wood hangers of sorts from Craft Warehouse. The example they showed had a picture scrapped on it. I decided to do the same thing, only after going from one idea to another with some pictures of a friend's boys. I'm really pretty pleased with how this ended up- especially since I finally decided on what to do with these "future projects" after they sat for a year in my craft stash.... No, I don't hoard... my husband would disagree- I purge every so often- a year or two is generally the maximum amount of time I'll keep something... but I digress. :) I suppose everything is pretty obvious what I did- stitching, distressing, brads, inking... Once I decided what I was going to do it went fast- only 6 months in the making or so, since I got the pictures...

Framed "Sisters" Layout

I finally finished this layout of two sweet sisters meeting for the first time. I love pictures, but I especially love scrapping those sweet moments captured by the camera. The pictures in this layout are of the meeting of a new sister. I love the wonder on big sister's face. These little girls belong to a friend of mine from church. I knew as soon as I saw these pictures that they should be framed, and so this became my gift instead of new baby clothes, toys, or diapers. Maybe I'm just a real sap when it comes to pictures and people... but... isn't that what makes a scrapper? (at least sometimes.. :) ? ) Ooh, and I played with the ribbon and ruffling this time, which I haven't tried before, and I think I'm hooked already..

Mini Album- masculine themed, with distressing and black and white pics...

This album is a gift for one of my good friends. I was inspired by some pictures she posted of herself with her boys- six of them in all! She's a great mom, and I thought it would be neat to celebrate that in an album, as she doesn't really get much time to scrap and is overwhelmed by it all. I started out with the pictures in color, but there were so many competing colors, that I thought it would get really distracting. So, for the very first time, I changed them to black and white, and worked with them in black and white, and was so much happier with how they worked with the paper colors and print. I also distressed and inked around the edges of the pictures- a first for me there also, and I'm really pleased with how it looked- especially with the black and white pictures. I hand stitched around the pictures and various aspects of the album- again, another first for me. I've been working on it since the latter part of September- it was supposed to be a birthday gift (in October), and yes, I'm aware that it's the middle of December... and very late.... Fortunately my friend is very understanding- I showed her what I had started when I saw her on her birthday, so she knew to a degree what was coming. I've changed and added a lot since I showed her the beginnings of it. I painted and crackled the chipboard on the cover and added the pearls- it coordinates with the layout I did with the same paper not too long ago-inspired by the album and using extra pictures from this project. I would have liked to have added some of the pearls to the inside, but I was trying hard to keep it masculine- being all boys for the album- and I thought I was kind of pushing it with the scroll/flourishes on the pages for accents, so I opted not to add them inside. The cover though, I thought I could get away with it more, and like I said, it coordinates with the layout I made and framed for her that matches this. So, stick me with a fork, for I am done.. finally...

Altered Notebook

This is a little project I finished a few days ago, it was quick and fun. I didn't do that much with it, other than inking and Stickles, and the obligatory ribbon... I decided to make it for a friend of mine in SWF in Cafemom, she's a real sweetheart! :) I used Stampin Up paper and Stickles, the ink was Colorbok Chalk Ink- I just love those chalk inks!

Word Bloom Album

This is the final product that I came up with for my tutorial on word bloom albums in Scrapping with Friends. I tried the word "family" first with smaller letters, and I found it impractical for decent size pictures, so I made bigger letters and hence the album got bigger. I was much happier with this version. I didn't do that much to it other than inking and Stickling and a few ribbon ties... my arms and hands weren't cooperating terribly well. I got the idea from http://www.craftbits.com/ . If you want to see the original version with the gal's tutorial/instructions, you can search "word bloom album" on the Craftbits site. You can also check out "word bloom album" in Scrapping with Friends on Cafemom for my little tutorial, too...

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!