H2H Challenge - Back to School - Mini Autograph Ablum

This week's challenge at Heart to Heart Challenges is all about Back to School.  I decided to make this cute little autograph album that is just the right size to fit those little school pictures in that the girls love to exchange.  It also has lots of little tags and other space for special friend messages to be written in it.

Here's a picture of the front on the book. It's 3.25 inches square and about 3/4 of an inch thick.

The inside pages are made using the directions from here to make a meandering book, but instead of binding with a ring binding (I so want/need a Cinch!) I made it into a hard covered album.  Of course, because I created this on the one day I had home in between camping trips I totally forgot to take pictures of it in progress.  I do promise though that I will make another one and I'll post the directions with pictures for making a hard covered album sometime very soon.  Trying to write out the directions will only confuse, pictures are worth a thousand words!

Here are some more pictures of some of the parts of the book.

First the inside first page, two different views of it.

Now one of the inside pages.

And here are the tags for in the book, all the tags are cut using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.

Do you have any back to school projects that you've been working on?  Head on over to Heart 2 Heart Challenges and check out the other great inspiration and post a link to your work, I'd love to see it!!

CTMH products used:
Avonlea patterned paper
Slate and Whisper cardstock
Colour-ready seam binding ribbon
Olive Alcohol marker (to colour the ribbon)
Black and Sweet Leaf ink pads
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
August Stamp of the Month - Baroque Borders
National Stamping Month Special Stamps - It's your day (available until the end of September ONLY)
Friendship blessings stamp set
Natural Hemp
Burlap Ribbon

New Alcohol Based Markers

It's been a busy time here doing the last of the summer vacation things!  I haven't had much time to post anything, but I wanted to quickly pop in and show you this video about the new alcohol based markers from Close to my Heart.  I just got a couple here, I've never used alcohol markers before so I'm having some fun playing with them!

Let me know if you'd like to try one out.

Heart 2 Heart Challenges - Dog Days

This week at Heart 2 Heart the challenge is Dog Days, use an image of an animal in your artwork, take it up a step, even use a dog!

Head on over to Heart 2 Heart to check out the other great artwork from the design team and other entrants....and don't forget to enter your own creations!

Here's my page, pictures from a trip to visit Grandma this July...and of course, Grandma's baby (dog) Roxy was posing for pictures again!

I got the inspiration for the shading/colouring of the flowers and hearts from a talented fellow consultant named Gloria Rogers.  Here is a close up of some of the flowers.  I used the CTMH sponge daubers and CTMH dye based inks to do the colouring and shading.

So grab your CTMH supplies, get creative and come on out and join us at Heart 2 Heart.

La Belle Vie Birthday Card with sewing and Mojo Monday

Wow, summer is just flying by!! I can't believe we are already well into August.  I feel like I haven't been able to enjoy my summer yet, I haven't been able to de-stress enough yet I think!  Tonight I took a break and just played with paper for a little bit, I needed a birthday card for a friend and thought that something from the La Belle Vie would work great.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch for the inspiration for this card.

Unfortunately, it's late here, so no natural light, which makes this card look a little washed out. This next detail picture was able to capture the colours better.

I don't usually "do" pink but the pink in this kit is a soft pink and I actually like it.

I got out my sewing machine and stitched around the edges of all the pieces of this card...doing that circle was not fun!  A quick tip, when you are done, pull the thread from the front through to the back by pulling on the end thread in the back, then use a small piece of tape to tape down the threads on the back on the paper, that way you won't have any stitches coming undone on you.

Thanks for looking, hope you like the card!

Avonlea Layout - Great Sketch to try!

I just love this paper pack....with the help of the Heart2Heart Scrapbook sketch challenge this layout came together so easily and I love the look of it.

I was so upset when I finished the layout I was so upset I forgot to use my own Tip and Trick to save some of the beautiful exclusive Avonlea Teal paper!  I did save some of the Avonlea Off White paper though by not using it as the full base page, instead I used a plain white cardstock as the base and cut all the strips of cardstock and patterned paper and then attached them to the white, completely covering it. All three of the patterned paper used in this layout are from the same sheet of paper, I love those Zip Strips!

Check out the sketch from Heart2Heart and if you're inspired to create a layout from it, click here to launch the challenge blog and post/link to your creation, I'd love to see it!

This layout is also inspired by the Frosted Designs:Fabulous Friday Challenge which this is to use a single word for the title of your layout.