My Little Shoebox - Mini Album

One of the workshops I attended at CHA was by My Little Shoebox.  We made this acrylic mini-album in less than two hours!  The acrylic album with the fancy edges is by Maya Road.  This adorable album was designed by Pattie Beltran, Design Team Coordinator for My Little Shoebox.  Thanks to the efforts of Pattie and her team we had the most wonderfully organized kits and putting the album together was relaxing and fun.

You can see the finished album that was the class sample on the My Little Shoebox blog HERE.  If you look carefully at the first photo you may be able to spot me in the class!  My album is not totally finished - I need to add some photos and journaling and ribbon on the rings.  I also haven't had a chance to add the Stickles yet (we didn't do this in class so we wouldn't smear the pages).

We used the Playtime Collection for this book.  You can click HERE to find out more about this collection.  My Little Shoebox has teamed up with Cottage Cutz and Unity Stamps for coordinating dies and stamps for each of their six new collections.  One of the items in the paper line is this sheet of punch outs for making rolled flowers and banners.  These are similar to the type of rolled flowers that you can cut with the Cricut Flower Shoppe project cartridge or by designing your own file with Design Studio, the Gypsy or another software program.

I am just going to post the nearly finished pages of my book so you can see all of the little details.  Since this was an evening session we all were so appreciative of all the hard work that went into making our kits perfect so we could focus on the fun of putting it all together.

Cover - ribbons and title to be added

Page one and insert

back of insert and page two

pages three and four

pages five and six

pages seven and eight

pages nine and ten

back cover

I am banned from my craftroom while the finish is applied to our floors.  This is the last part of the repairs and renovations after the ice dam damage we experienced last winter.  It has been a little crazy around here - and rather noisy at times - but I think the end result will be well worth the inconvenience.  I had a very productive Thursday morning and made and photographed a lot of new things which I'll be sharing over the next few days - with luck I won't run out of things to write about before I can get back to my space!

I hope you have a lovely weekend - the weather has been a bit cooler here which is very refreshing after the heat.

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Digital Sale at Creative Memories

Quite a few people have contacted me with questions about the programs I use to do photo editing and digital pages and projects.  I use the two Creative Memories programs, Memory Manager 3.0 for photo organization and editing and Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 for digital scrapbooking and other projects.  These programs are quite powerful and offer sophisticated options but are quite easy to use with lots of great support on the Creative Memories sites.

The two programs are independent - you do not need to use both if you are happy with your photo organization and editing.  You can easily import your photos into the StoryBook program even if you edit them in another program.  There are also some basic photo editing options in the StoryBook program.

I posted some digital pages a few days ago (HERE) and then I found out that Creative Memories is offering a "Digi WOW" sale for the month of August.  The StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 (for PC) and the sbcStudio (for Mac) are 50% off (sale price $32.48) for the download version (no shipping costs!).  All of the downloadable digital content for both programs is also on sale at 30% off.  I am a Creative Memories consultant and i would be happy to help you with an order if you do not have a local consultant that you work with.

I did a few quick pages for this post with some photos of another neighborhood friend.  I think little girls in tutus look so cute!

There is a lot of information about these programs on the site HERE. You can find videos about various functions and more help on the training tab HERE.

A new upgrade to StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 (it will be 4.0) is coming soon.  I don't know all of the details yet but in the past there has been a specially priced offer for the program upgrades when they are introduced.    If you don't have version 3.0 you won't be able to upgrade to 4.0 from 2.0.  There is also a 50% sale discount on the upgrade (sale price $9.98) so people with the older program will be ready for the upgrade to 4.0.  Details about the price and timing of the upgrade will be announced at the Creative Memories Annual Showcase later this month.

You can find more details about the "Digi WOW" sale on my CM personal website HERE.  To get a really good look at the digital content, click HERE to find the index of PDFs for all of the various options.

The sale will run until the end of August so there is plenty of time to contact me for help with any questions you may have.  I will be more available next week - things are chaotic here with the floor resurfacing and I will soon be blocked from entering my craftroom - but I will have a laptop with me!


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Peanut Butter Heart

 

I opened a new jar of peanut butter yesterday.  When our boys were young, there was a commercial for one of the peanut butter brands (I think it was Skippy) where the mother drew a heart on the top of the peanut butter spread on a slice of bread before she gave it to her child.   I started drawing a heart on the top of each new peanut butter jar as I packed school lunches over the years.  If one of the boys was around when I opened the new jar I would make sure that they saw the heart - but usually it was just something I did on my own.  To this day, I still draw the heart when I am the one to open a new jar of peanut butter.

I finally remembered to take a picture of the peanut butter heart.  It was one of those things that I always thought about doing but never remembered at the actual time I was drawing the heart on the peanut butter.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my memory of this peanut butter "tradition" is much stronger than the memories of either of our sons - in fact, I asked our younger son and he only has a vague recollection of this ever happening.  I'm not sure why I still draw the hearts - it just gives me a happy feeling and makes me think that I am sending a little love to everyone who eats that peanut butter.

So why am I telling you about this?  I want to encourage you to take photos of things that will preserve a memory of some part of your daily life.  Too often, photos are only taken on "occasions" and the little things are forgotten.  This has changed somewhat with the move to digital photography and camera phones but I think there are many times that you could snap a quick photo to illustrate a family tradition or memory and then create a scrapbook page to tell the story behind the photo.  While it is a lot of fun to look at vacation, holiday and birthday photos, the pages that show ordinary everyday activities and interesting customs will probably be the ones that resonate with your family.

I have strayed quite far from my scrapbooking and I am going to make an effort to do more - some of the pages I make I will share but some will probably not be all that interesting to others.  I prefer a very simple style and I don't use a lot of bulky embellishments when I make scrapbook pages.  I like my books to close neatly and I save all of the "fancy stuff" for cards and other projects.

I am adding a linky tool to this post so  you can share a photo memory or tell a story.  If there is something you'd like to photograph and then create a page or a blog post to explain why it is meaningful to you I'd love to read about it (and I think some of the other "regulars" would enjoy it too!).  If it is easier for you to add your thoughts in a comment, please go ahead and leave a comment.  Just be careful, I think there is an upper limit to how long your comment can be so you should copy and paste it into a document or email before you try to post so you won't lose everything if it is rejected for length.

Every day we get a little closer to finishing the project - here are the new floor boards in place.  Today they will start sanding so don't be surprised if a thin veil of dust arrives with your email tomorrow!




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Some Creative Charms Favorites...

Today it is my turn to post on the Creative Charms blog.  Please stop over to the Creative Charms blog HERE to see my post and leave a comment - I have another little giveaway for someone who comments here or on the Creative Charms blog (leave a comment in both places to double your chances).

The winner from my last Creative Charms post is Donna

Please send me an email at capadiadesigns@gmail.com with your mailing information.  I'll be sending you one of the Christmas Multi-Dimensional Chipboard Sticker sets.

This week I made some cards in pastel colors.  I think I have had a bit too much "Christmas in July" and I just wanted to make some soft and pretty things!  This is a 5 x 7 card.  The front panel is actually something that I found at a rummage sale.  The color blocks are printed on the white card.  It was meant to be used to print an invitation or announcement.  I trimmed a bit from the edges so my lavender card base would show.  You could easily duplicate this look by using some of your scraps.

The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  I didn't have the right shade of lavender ink so I stamped it once on scrap paper and then stamped directly on the card without re-inking the stamp.  This "second generation" stamp was much closer to the color of the card and the lavender color block on the front panel.

In order to place the butterfly brads from the 3D Sparkly Garden Brads, I pierced the card front and inserted the brads before adhering the color blocked topper to the card base.

The medium size glue dots work perfectly to adhere the floral gems to the card.

I used large glue dots to secure the Flared Flowers they are lightweight but large so the craft glue dots work best.  The sparkly centers of these flowers are so pretty.

The second card is very simple and highlights the Vintage Poppy.  This is an A2 card.  The glittered cardstock is from the 8 x 8 DCWV Nana's Nursery Boy Stack and is cut at 4 x 5 1/4 inches.

The wide satin ribbon is from Anna Griffin and it is tied around the entire card front.  You could slip a gift card under the ribbon on the inside of the card.

The sentiment is stamped on ivory cardstock cut in a scalloped oval with a Nestabilities Petite Scalloped Oval die.  I used foam squares to raise it from the surface of the card.

A couple of Gradient Gem Stickers add a finishing touch to the sentiment.

I took out the pearl brad in the center of the poppy and replaced it with a  Vintage Jewel Brad.
 
There is not a new Deal or Kit of the month for August - there will be some great special offers through the month.

Don't miss this week's offer at Creative Charms - all remaining Deals of the Month and Kits of the Month are an additional 10% off this week only. Quantities are very limited so you should order right away if you want to pick up some more of these great kits! There is also a Creative Charms blog giveaway this week - click to go to THE GIVEAWAY POST and leave a comment to enter.


I haven't quite made it through all of the messages, emails and comments - but I hope to finish up today  If you are waiting for an answer on something and haven't heard from me, please don't hesitate to send a reminder note.  It is very easy for some things to get missed, particularly after such a long trip and with all of the construction activity around here!  The floors are on the agenda for today.

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Beautiful Butterflies

Happy Monday and Happy August!  Today is my day to post on the Scrappy-go-Lucky blog and I think you might enjoy learning about how I made these butterflies for some new cards.  You can read the post HERE.

Since it is the first of the month, it is also the day that Creative Charms announces the deal and kit of the month.  This month things are going to be a little different so be sure to check back here later today and I will update this post to give you all of the details.  I'll also be announcing the winner of the small giveaway from my last Creative Charms project post.

We had a busy weekend and made a lot of progress on the painting - the fourth color turned out to be the right one!  I haven't been online much so I'll be catching up on emails and comments today - and working on some more new projects with my own designs.


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