Altered Candy Tins for Practical Scrappers

Today on the Practical Scrappers Blog we are sharing some of our altered items with you. Last April I made this to hold all my Stampin' Write markers.

I used an empty Poppy Cock tin and some of my Stampin' Up! supplies. I'm not sure why, but it never made it to my SU blog. Oh well, you are seeing it now! When the call came down for some altered items I was immediately reminded of this tin and I set out to make more.

Here they are in progress. As I was reorganizing my scrap supplies I recognized the need for better storage solutions for some of my supplies. Washi tape being one of them. I love that I can now take this tin to my desk or the dining room table or put the lid on it (the lids for all these containers are on the bottom in case I need them) and take it to a crop. One other thing that I find I collect a lot of but forget to use because they get buried, are extra shapes I've punched. The tin above labelled 'embellishments' is where the majority of these will go now.

Here's a look at my process.

I took the Almond Roca tin above  and covered it with a piece of scrap paper.

Then I punched some borders and attached them, layering some washi tape on top and a row of washi around the bottom too.

The addition of a pre-cut, pre-sticky fabric flower (found in my 'embellishments' tin!) and some alphabet stickers and I've now got a handy place to put all my extra flower embellishments. I seem to collect a lot of flowers!

Here they are all finished. I've now got handy places for my extra chipboard pieces, washi tape, embellishments, markers and flowers.

See? 

Thanks for stopping by today. How do you store your extra bits? I'd love to hear about them in the comments section.

Let's Get Sketchy - Last January Sketch

Welcome to the last January reveal for Let's Get Sketchy. You know what that means right? If you are at all interested in the $40 GC from Artful Delight then you've got to get those layouts submitted! To be eligible you need to have submitted to at least 3 of the 4 challenges. This week it was Team B's turn to wow us (hope you've checked out the blog for their versions of the sketch this week) but I am playing along too. Here's the sketch we are working with -  it's a gorgeous one from our very own Bev Code.

And here's what I did with it.

Last year I scrapped a picture of Marley at 4 - they were both taken at the same time so this is me "catching up"so to speak! I was hoping to post a link to the other one but I can't find it anywhere and it's among my lost photos now (hard drive blew up, remember?) Ah well. Doesn't matter!

It's amazing to me that Paige used to look like this! All chubby baby cheeks!! Sigh. They grow so fast!

Anyway, the orange swirly paper was one that I found during my inventory. It's an old Theresa Collins that came in her Gratitude mini album set. (For some reason I have 2 of those sets! Guess I'd better get busy!!) There's barely any orange in the picture of Paige but for some  reason when I put it underneath the photo it just felt so right! I've added a few highlights of pink to tie in the pink in her shirt and to keep it from feeling too "fall-like".

Here are some close up shots for you.

I had a lot of fun creating this floral detail. It's not my usual style but I really felt the sketch called for more than what I would normally do so ... sometimes you've just got to step out of your own box!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my layout this week. Hope you will play along with us! Have a great week everyone!

Family Friday ... er, SUNDAY Update!

Sorry about the delay in coming up with my Family Friday Update! Friday was a total Gong Show kind of a day and since I had another post scheduled for that day anyway, I knew I'd be bumping this one. I meant to do it yesterday but had an acute lactose ingestion attack after work which forced me to take to my bed (doesn't that sound like something from a Jane Austin novel? LOL!)

Anyway, here we are, only 2 days late! :)

This week started out well. I came home from work on Monday to this ...

My Blog Hop winnings from Jodi at Luv-a-lot Land! Check out how full this box was.

There are so many things in here that are totally my style and there are even new manufacturers (to me) like Authentique (those blue label stickers on top) that I am excited to use. A week that starts with a goody bag like this can only get better, right?

Thursday we hosted my Aunt Moira for dinner. It was a bit chaotic getting everything done in the morning in order to be able to pick her up, but we managed. Somehow! Honestly, I made 3 separate trips into Ladner that morning! Only one was officially in the books - a trip to the dentist then over to SaveOn to pick up the hot dogs, buns and chips for Hot Lunch day at the girls' school on Friday. But then I got word that my pay cheque and a donation for the school PAC dance in February were ready for pick up so I made a left instead of a right (which would have taken me out to New West to pick up Aunt Moira) and headed back into town to get those. Then, as I was picking up food for my poor starving Christine (and me!), SaveOn called to say they screwed up and accidentally gave me all the buns for another school and could I bring them back? Say what?! So back to the school I went to reload 6 bun trays into the back of my van to take them back to SaveOn. Then, I was finally able to make my way out of Delta!

Aunt Moira was very understanding and gracious despite my lateness! A stop at Tim Horton's on the way back to Ladner for a restorative cup of coffee helped too! Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day. Doing all that back and forth and in and out of the van in the rain with a 3 year old in tow is pretty much my idea of torture!

After dinner the girls and I played Sorry with Aunt Moira and I even remembered to take some pictures! So here you go, you're on the blog Aunty Moira!!

Paige won handily! There were many occasions that she was the only one with men out on the board!

I think she liked wining!!

Friday was Hot Lunch day at the school which, since I am one of the Hot Lunch Coordinators, means that I stay at the school after dropping the girls at their class rooms to get everything ready. Since it was hot dogs that day, I started the process right at 9 and generally don't get out of there til 1. It's a lot of work but the kids love their special lunch days so it's really all worth it. This time everything went off without a hitch! Pretty much unheard of on hot dog days! Last time we'd forgotten to book the room off so we were having to share with "Guitar Marty" (as the name suggests, he teaches the kids Guitar) and a stove that some how got turned off half way so one of the pots didn't boil properly. But this time the room was all ours, the stove worked (well, I caught the problem in time to fix it!!), the helpers arrived on time and we had enough rollers that all the hot dogs were filled and rolled in record time. I think the lunch bins were even delivered slightly early!! Totally unprecedented!!

I have probably just jinxed every hot dog day from now until the end of time!!

Yesterday was a long shift for me at Pier1 and then the already mentioned "taking to my bed". Won't bore you with those details. I did manage to get the girls' suitcases packed for Mexico though. Did I mention that we are going to Mexico? Greg had the opportunity to cash in on some of his severance so we decided to put it to good use and get some VitaminD in Peurto Vallarta. His parents have rented a condo down there for January and February and his sister and family headed down there yesterday so it will be a big Day Family reunion in the sunshine! T-Minus 2 days!

Today I have a rare Sunday off so am enjoying lounging in my pj's, catching up on my blog and then I get to take Marley and Christine to my niece's Fairy Birthday Party later. Paige has soccer so she will miss it but we are all staying for a family dinner after so she will get some cousin time then. 

I'll leave you today with this ...

	High (°C)	Low (°C)	Conditions
Monday January 28	34	21		Sunny
Tuesday January 29	32	21		Variable cloudiness
Wednesday January 30	32	17		Variable cloudiness
Thursday January 31	32	18		Cloudy with sunny breaks
Friday February 1	33	22		Cloudy periods
Saturday February 2	34	21		Sunny
Sunday February 3	33	19		Sunny
Monday February 4	34	20		Cloudy periods
Tuesday February 5	32	19		Variable cloudiness

Hee, hee, hee! I know, I'm evil!! 

Hasta luego Amigos!

Pre-LOAD213 - Scrap Happier Blog Hop

Hi everyone! Welcome to my little blog! Hopefully you are here for the Pre-LOAD213 Blog Hop and you have come from Heather's blog ... if not, head on back to her blog to start at the beginning. Although I suppose it doesn't really matter if you start from the beginning, middle or end, just as long as you're here and enjoy the Hop!

Some of my fellow Scrap Happy Sisters and I have decided to put on this Hop to get you in the mood for LOAD. Not familiar with LOAD? Well then, let me start by saying that LOAD stands for LayOut A Day and is run by our Scrap Happy Fearless Leader Lain Ehmann ... or should I say our Scrap Happy Super Hero Lain? :) (Little inside joke there!) She leads us through a month of creating one layout every day using (or not, whatever floats your boat) a different prompt each day. This will be my ... 5th (had to stop and think!) LOAD. I have had various degrees of "success" completing a full LOAD but I've ALWAYS had fun!

And that's what our theme is this time around ... indirectly. Check this out.

Isn't he a happy little guy? We are going to be Scrapping Happier next month!

How? Well, I'm glad you asked! When I said we will be creating one complete layout a day for 28 days some of you may have gasped and thought, how is that possible? I work full time, I have 6 kids, and a horse,  and a sick Auntie who I take daily meals to ... No worries Mate!

Insert gratuitous Hugh Jackman picture here.

(Another inside joke!)

There is NO PRESSURE to "finish". There are NO SCRAPBOOK POLICE patrolling the Flickr boards wondering where your layout for 2/13/13 is. There is NO WALL OF SHAME for those whose lives got "in the way" (gasp!) of scrapbooking (is that even possible?!) In short, THERE ARE NO RULES! 

Oh, I lied, there is one rule .... SCRAP HAPPY!

With that in mind, here are my top 5 tips on HOW TO SCRAP HAPPY DURING LOAD213.

1. Be prepared (see this post for my tips on getting prepped for LOAD). Short version, stock up on essentials.

2. Wake up every morning excited to watch a new video from Lain! Yay!! Is there a better way to greet the day than by hearing Lain's voice?

3. Don't forget to breathe. Once every few seconds should do the trick!

4. Put a small (or large, whatever makes you happier!) dish of your favourite candies next to your scrap table. If you need a pick me up, a shot of energy or just something that makes your tongue sing happy songs, then ingest one or two (handfuls) of the aforementioned candy and carry on scrapping.

5. DON'T PANIC! And if you are about to panic because your dog just ate the picture you were going to use that went perfectly with the prompt Lain gave and the piece of Authentique paper you smuggled home past your husband's watchful gaze, then STOP ... BREATHE ... and Google images of Hugh!

I hope I have got you to laugh today. Maybe while you're laughing you'll remember that in the end this is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby for us all. Don't take it or yourself too seriously and I know you will scrap happier!

Thanks for stopping by today. Now head on over to Dani's blog for some more ScrapHappier advice! If you're not signed up for LOAD yet (and why not, may I ask?!) you can go to Lain's site and see if there are any spots left. You won't be sorry!! See you in February!!

If you get lost along the way, here is a list of all the participants today. Have fun!!

Heather Dubarry: http://noexcusescrapbooking.com

Alison Day: http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.com/

Danielle Taylor: http://scrapperonthestreet.com

Alison Charlton: http://scrappinginsingapore.blogspot.com/

Christy Strickler: http://myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/

Lynnette Nagle: http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Julie Shepler: www.sheplerfamily.com

Joy McHargue: http://www.studiowowjoy.com/

Kelli Panique: http://scrapbookgirl71.com/

Cathy Holiday: pikespeakscrapper.blogspot.com

Leslie Smith: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/

Lori Martin: http://Www.chaosandcraziness.com/ 

Connie Hanks: http://ClickyChickCreates.wordpress.com

Betsye Erazo: betsyerose.blogspot.com

Marcia Fortunato: mfortunato.blogspot.com

Regina Huminski: http://ginabeth1.blogspot.com/

Beth Soler: http://www.scrappingwonders.com

Kristie Sloan: http://kristiesloan.com/blog/

Danielle Hunter: http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com/

Katrina Forman: http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com

Jessica Baldwin: www.inkyaddict.com

Cheryl McCain: http://cherylmccainphotography.com

Briel Schmitz: http://scrappingwindow.blogspot.com/

Marygail Mello: www.marygailscorner.blogspot.com

Oh, and if you liked the tone of this blog post, or you just want to know why I keep showing you pictures of Hugh Jackman, you may like being a part of our ScrapHappy community. We are pretty much like this 24/7 on the message boards. Funny, irreverent, sassy and extremely helpful!

See you on the message boards!

So, Just What is S.W.A.T?

A few days ago I posted to my Facebook page that I was asked to be a member of the design team for a BRAND NEW challenge blog called S.W.A.T (Scrap Warriors Advanced Training). We are spending the last couple weeks of January introducing ourselves before the first official challenge kicks off on February 2nd.

Today is my turn ... you can pop over to the SWAT blog for my bio - if you're a follower of mine then you probably know it all already! While you're over there be sure to start following the blog and our FB page so you won't miss out on any of the challenges. Each designer is sharing 3 of their favourite projects and while the pictures of the projects are included in my intro, I thought maybe a little background on why they are my favourites would be nice. A little context goes a long way!

My first favourite is this layout I did of my 3 girls - they are definitely my favourite scrapping subjects!!

In July of 2011 I became a Demonstrator for Stampin' Up! so this was created to showcase some of the products in a catalogue that was coming out. If you're interested in seeing detail shots you can visit my old SU blog by clicking here. Sometimes our vision meets our needs in an extremely pleasing manner. This was one of those times. I loved the colour combination. I loved how fun the giant accordion rosette was. I loved the way my title turned out and of course, I loved this picture of my girls. In fact, I loved this so much that I framed it and it sits on my kitchen windowsill ... see ...

(The small tile in front is an encaustic tile I made at a class offered by my store - The Upstart Crow. If you are local and crafty, you've got to check out their calendar of classes! I may even get to teach some eventually!)

My second favourite project led to a discovery. Here's the layout.

It was made during LOAD1012 and the prompt was (I think) to use a wood grain or wood element. I didn't have one that I felt went with the photos I wanted to use, so I made one! This was a regular piece of kraft card stock that I added white paint onto using a 1.5" foam roller. To get the wood grain lines I used a combination of a piece of cardboard - separated to show the inner folds - and the end of a paint brush. Here is the paper before adding the pictures etc.

I have since used this same technique to tone down a particularly bright piece of orange card stock.

Pretty cool, eh? Next time you're faced with a garish colour of paper, try putting a paint wash over top! You may be pleasantly surprised at the effect you discover.

My third favourite was a set of cards I made for a class I was promoting during my Stampin' Up days. I'm not the biggest card maker but every now and then I do enjoy the challenge of making cards. I find it a challenge anyway! Here are the cards.

I realize you can't see all the cards in this picture very well and if you're really interested in close ups of them all then please visit my Flickr Gallery here. Why are these a favourite project? Well, I put a lot of time and thought into these cards and I was really pleased with how they turned out. In fact, I think I will be sending them to my kids PAC as a part of a silent auction item for our Parent Dance next month. Assuming I still have them all that is!

Well, thanks for stopping by to check me out! I am looking forward to working with the talented set of designers Lanette has put together and to seeing what you guys come up with!

Your Story Matters: Winners of the Blog Hop

Congratulations to the three winners of our “Your Story Matters” blog hop! We had hundreds of entries, but these three random winners were chosen to receive a FREE copy of “Your Story Matters:”

Lori Horvatt! (from SassyScrapper)

Candyj! (from Ecoscrapbook)

Angel! (from ScrappinginSingapore)

If you are one of our lucky winners, please email support (at) layoutaday (dot) com to claim your prize by Wendesday, Jan. 23.

Didn’t win? You can still sweep up a copy of this most excellent idea book here.

Let's Get Sketchy Reveal Day

Can you believe it's Monday again already? It must be because there's a new sketch over at Let's Get Sketchy. Check it out ...

Please head over to the blog to see what the rest of my team did with this.

Here's mine.

I confess to cheating a tiny bit on this layout. I started with one of the pages I'd pre-planned for my Disney album! (Insert sheepish grin here!) When I say I'd pre-planned my page, I'd used Shimelle Lain's ideas from her "The Perfect Collection" class from True Scrap 3 (you can purchase it and other classes from True Scrap 3 here). She talked about taking a kit (either from a Kit Club or one you'd put together yourself for a specific project) and cutting the papers into various sized boxes straight away. Sounds scary I know but there is a method to her madness! Once the papers are cut up you create several base layouts - both single pages and double page spreads - and then all that's left is to add your pictures, embellishments and journaling. Before you know it you've got a pile of completed pages!

I was dithering over what to scrap for this sketch and in the end had to give myself a swift kick in the you know what and just get something DONE! Pre-made pages to the rescue! I felt the design of this was a good match to the sketch and then went from there. 

The flower here was made using some of the paper streamers the girls collected on this day. I used an extra large glue dot and just twisted and wrapped until it was covered. The brad finishes it off and is also handy for keeping stray ends in check.

I used lots of these word stickers on this and the stars were from my buddy Lain!

There wasn't a ton of space to journal but I managed to fit the basics on. If I want to add more at another time I can add a 6x12 insert or something.

While I technically did not use anything from my inventoried stash (yes, I am keeping track of all the papers I'm using up this year!) it still feels incredibly good to get one more Disney layout done. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you will play along this week - remember there is a $40 GC to Artful Delight up for grabs this month.

Family Friday Update

Here we are again. It's Friday so that means it's time to catch up in the goings on of the Day Family.

Not too much to report this week really ... oh, wait, what's that? I was published? Shucks. It's just a little eBook! (Insert shy grin and twisting of foot here!) But in all seriousness, it's true. Two of my layouts were published in an eBook that recently went on sale to the general public - you can read all about it here. An awesome lady by the name of Lain Ehmann runs the sites layoutaday.com and Scraphappy.org. Scrap Happy is the social site for devoted fans of her LOAD challenges, started because we wanted some way to keep in touch in between LOADs. For those of you who now think I've started talking a different language, LOAD is an acronym for LayOut A Day (a layout is what we call our scrap book pages). She asked her Scrap Happy members for help last summer and we heeded her call. I never imagined it would be sold outside our little circle as we originally thought of it as a "Church Ladies Cook Book" of sorts. Anyway, it's pretty exciting to think that there are people out there paying for something that has my work in it. And hopefully liking my work too!

Other items of note, it got really cold (for here) and we even had some snow at the beginning of the week. It's gone now but it continues to be dry, clear, sunny and cold. Very unusual for January but I'll take it! Marley and Paige's soccer Academy was cancelled on Monday night due to (I assume) snow on the turf field in Tsawwassen and the cold temperatures. On Tuesday I had my 6 month check up at the Colposcopy Clinic at VGH. Purely routine after the removal of the "naughty" cells from my cervix last summer. Yep, I've now delved into the realm of TMI! (Too Much Information!!)

On a lighter note, Christine's preschool had a field trip to the local leisure centre on Wednesday to go ice skating. 

She's been once before (Christmas of 2011) and refused to even TRY to stand on the ice so I was a bit worried about how much trouble this was going to be. But she did really well! Standing on her skates was a bit dicey at first but she eventually got the hang of it ... sort of. Initial attempts to move around the ice required the aide of  a bar.

Here's a short video showing her at the beginning of the field trip. As you can see, she has trouble keeping her feet underneath her!

As she got used to things, she tried other devices to stay standing like this chair.

But ultimately went back to the bar. Only this time she didn't lean on it as much. You can see in this video that she is mostly upright and looking more comfortable out there. I on the other hand almost fell in the shooting of this ... but that's a story for another time. :)

So that's it. Oh, one other thing that happened on Wednesday (it was a particularly busy day) was that I attended a talk at the girls' school on helping children navigate anxiety. I've talked before about our struggles and concerns over Paige's apparent anxious personality. I'd hoped to gain some insights into how we can more effectively help her. Not sure if I got those as we do try to do a lot of what the speaker suggested, but she did give out some websites to check out so we'll see what will come of it.

We've got the usual activities this weekend - swimming lessons for Christine followed by Jazz for Marley tomorrow, then soccer games on Sunday with a birthday party thrown into the middle for good measure. Christine and I are showing some symptoms of an upset tummy right now which hopefully passes quickly as I have 3 work shifts this weekend also. Hope you've all had a good week and have some fun planned for the weekend. Thanks for stopping by and I'll "see" you next Friday!

Your Story Matters Blog Hop

I am SOOOO excited! Today I can make the official announcement that I have been published!!! Eeek!

Last summer several of us from ScrapHappy (an online social group started by Lain Ehmann for her devoted LOAD and True Scrap fans) got together to create a "cook book" of scrapping prompts. It was intended as a free downloadable ebook for new members to the ScrapHappy family, but Lain decided that it was so awesome (and we were so talented) that it should be made available to the masses. 

Okay, I may be putting words in her mouth there a little bit! :)

Today is the day that this little bad boy goes live!! 

To celebrate, some of the contributors are hosting a Blog Hop. If you've been following along then you arrived here from Monica Bradford's site. If you stumbled across this because you're a regular reader of mine and you want to start at the beginning please go to Lain's Layout A Day site. (If you are looking for the Mini Album project for Practical Scrappers - go here.) 

This book was prompted by Lain's recent loss of her Mother after a battle with dementia  She realized, as she watched her Mother forget her own stories, that she wanted to help others capture theirs now. Before they faded or were lost to the sands of time. I think we often take for granted that we have tons of time to learn and hear about how Mom met Dad, or why they live where they do, or what Mom's average day looked like. As someone who lost their own parents at a young age I can relate to the need to capture the stories now. It is my main driving force as to why I have embraced this hobby so whole heartedly. I have half remembered stories from my childhood, a box of slides, a few precious letters and lots of blanks. The blanks will probably always remain blank and that makes me sad. I don't want to leave any blanks for MY children! I plan on living a very long time and retaining my memory until the day I die (that's not too much to ask, is it?) but just in case, I want to leave a legacy of stories for my children and grandchildren to enjoy. The pretty paper and embellishments is purely a happy byproduct!!

Anyway, those of us who wanted to help Lain by documenting some of our memories were assigned different topics. My first layout talks about why Moulin Rouge is my favourite movie.  (And not just because it stars Ewan McGregor  ... singing!) This layout is not the most embellished of all my layouts but it tells the story of my husband and my first date. Dinner and a movie seemed innocent enough at the time but before I knew it I was in love and planning a wedding. The picture was taken on our honeymoon in Paris at ... of course ... the Moulin Rouge!

Lots of layers, lots of red and I had fun created the windmill vanes out of scraps plus some doodling. 

 My second layout was about what I wished I'd learned at 18. Oh, there were a lot of things I could have talked about for that one!! The one I chose was that I wished I could have told 18 year old me that I truly love to run. Injuries suffered when I was 14 have now led to arthritis in my knees (left one in particular) that put the kybosh on my running career after the birth of Christine. Funny how you don't quite realize how much you love to do something (even though it's hard and you think it sucks when you're in the middle of long training run!) until you can't do it any more.

The large painted butterfly hides more journaling which talks about my weight/fitness struggles since finding out about the arthritis.

So what do you think? Want to see more? 

The book is available for purchase at the incredibly low introductory price of $7.00 US from Lain's site. Please click on the photo at the top of this post to be taken right there. It is an electronic download so you can instantly see all the wonderful layouts and stories inside.

But WAIT ...

Would you like a discount? 

Okay. Just for you! 

Use the coupon code HOP and receive $2 off. This coupon is good until midnight on 1/21/13. 

AND we will be giving away THREE copies of the book from comments made on ALL blogs (in other words, we will select three winners across all blogs). Please leave a comment about what story you feel is critical for every scrapbooker to document. Contest will close 1/19 and winners will be announced on the Layoutaday blog (http://www.layoutaday.com) on Monday, January 21. Prizes must be claimed by Wednesday, January 23. If you purchase a copy (taking advantage of the limited time coupon code of course!) and then win a copy, you will be fully reimbursed so you've nothing to lose!

Now hop on and enjoy what Paivi has to say. If you get lost along the way, here is the order of participants. 

Lain Ehmann: http://layoutaday.com

Leslie Smith: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com/

Alison Charlton: http://scrappinginsingapore.blogspot.com/

Heather Dubarry:  noexcusescrapbooking.com

Danielle Hunter: http://ecoscrapbook.blogspot.com

Cathy Holiday: http://pikespeakscrapper.blogspot.com/

Monica Bradford: http://scrapinspired.com/

Alison Day:  http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.ca/

Paivi Eerola: www.peonyandparakeet.com

Lynnette Nagle: sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com

Kelli Panique: http://scrapbookgirl71.com/

Danielle Taylor: http://scrapperonthestreet.com

One last thing. I just wanted to say a big thank you to Lain for believing in us, her "little people", for pushing us and for promoting us. Yes, you will see some "bigger" names as you go through this hop, but you'll also see average scrapbookers like myself who are really just doing this for fun. We're not professional (although we may dream of one day calling ourselves "professional scrapbookers") but having our little pieces of life and art out there for the general public to see and critique is so unbelievably awesome. So, thank you Lain! You rock!!

A Mini Album for Practical Scrappers

Today on the Practical Scrappers site we are sharing some Mini Album ideas with you. I hope you have checked out the other GORGEOUS mini's over there! Also, we are running another card contest - check out all the details here. First entries are due by Wednesday January 30th - I hope to see some familiar names in the entries!! Oh, and yes, the page says 2012 but that's just a typo!!

Okay, back to today's post topic.

As I was searching for pictures to scrap the other week I came across some cute ones of Christine and I from her Parent and Tot Gymnastics class (see this post for the layout). They were still in those folded cardboard holders that you get for all your kids sports team pictures. I was about to throw out the holder when I was struck with the idea of turning it (and several of the other ones just like it that I found at the same time - I do have 3 kids after all!!) into a mini album. Since I am not purchasing supplies and actively stash diving right now, this seemed like a super idea. Very PRACTICAL even!! I do have stacks of left over cardboard that I could have used instead to create the album but I liked the idea of being able to slide journaling cards or extra photos into the sleeves of the album.

I think it's time for some visual explanations!!

These are the photo cards that I'm talking about. We have a LOT of these kicking about - gymnastics, soccer, field hockey and dance! I started by punching holes into the fold, lining them up so I'd have one long side and then one short side all the way through the album.

Like this.

Then I pulled out my scrap drawer. I have recently moved to a larger drawer - not to encourage me to keep more scraps but because I wanted to be able to keep anything that was not a full 12x12 sheet in here. My previous scrap drawer was only able to hold papers that were a maximum of 8" wide so my paper racks could get a little messy with odd sized papers getting crushed etc. Plus, the larger drawer allows me to dig through everything more easily.

I also have a bag of my plain card stock scraps. These are all Stampin' Up scraps and at this point I haven't decided if I want to amalgamate them with the patterned paper scraps or go through my big drawer, pull out other card stock scraps and create two scrap piles. One for patterned paper and one for card stock. 

But that is not important for this post, just a glimpse into my current organization dilemmas! If you have suggestions or opinions be sure to pop them in the comments!

After going through all my scraps, I pulled out several large pieces of card stock in colours that made me happy. No thought was given to colour matching at this point.

I did the same with my patterned papers. Once I had a good choice of both card stock and patterned paper, I started playing around to see which patterns could feasibly go together and which card stocks coordinated. 

Eventually I ended up with something that looks like this.

My front cover. 

I covered the photo cards with papers and then sewed everything together adding a little heart shaped charm onto the bottom. I haven't (obviously) figured out a purpose for this mini yet but was thinking that I may create a book of people I love ... or something like that. You'll just have to stay tuned!!

Rather than comment a ton on my thought process (why the heck did I pair cupcakes with a distressed frame image, and other random bits) I'm just going to give you the photos of each page as they stand right now.

I kind of consciously didn't make this flow from page to page but did try to connect each page to the one opposite it - especially if they were drastically different prints, colours or styles. All in all, I'm quite happy with this! I will mull over how to use it for a bit. For now it's sitting on my shelf in my scrap room, waiting!

Oh, this is what one of the larger inserts looks like. I can put pictures here or lots of journaling. Or both!

And one of the smaller inserts looks like this.

One last view of my mini - because it's my blog and I wanted to show it off again! LOL!

Thanks for "tuning in" today. I hope I've inspired you to look at something you might normally throw away in a different light. I realize it's not feasible to keep everything but every now and then it pays to keep some things!

If you haven't seen my big announcement yet today please go to layoutaday.com (after 8AM PST) to see what's got me so excited - hope to see you back here after you do!