House album

Last Christmas, I created several house shaped albums as gifts. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t very good when I took the pictures and since I gave all the albums away, I can’t take better pictures. I hope you will bear with me and take a look any ways.


Front cover


Close up of door open


Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4
Page 5

Page 6
Back cover

I had to keep the pages simple in order to make enough albums in time for Christmas. I think they’ll look cute once the photos are adhered to the pages.

To get the house shape, I enlarged a picture of the Bare Elements Petey House Mini Book die from AccuCut's 2008 Craft Catalog & Idea Book. Then my husband cut four house shapes out of chipboard for each album. I was busy cutting all the paper and embellishments for the pages while he did the cutting :) So these albums were a joint effort and truly from both of us.

Materials used on all pages:
Paper: Bashful Blue, Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White card stock, Summer Picnic DSP and Holiday Treasures DSP (Fall-Winter 2008 catalog
Accessories: Bashful Blue brad, 1/8” circle punch, Crop-A-Dile, Trio flower punch, scallop edge punch, 5-petal flower punch, Boho Blossoms punch, key rings from Wal-Mart, ¼” Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, 5/8” Real Red grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen, ruler, bone folder, rub-ons, glue dots, SNAIL adhesive, Sticky Strip, paper cutter, scissors, house pattern, chipboard

If you have any questions, please let me know. Have fun stampin’ and creatin’!

Stamp Class projects

This past week, I hosted our monthly basic stamp class. We created these three Autumn/Thanksgiving themed projects:

From left to right: Free Standing Pop-Up card, Die cut pillow box, Paper Photo Album

Stamp set: Happy Blessings
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, More Mustard, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Ruby Red, Night of Navy Classic Ink, Black StazOn ink
Accessories: Blender pen, 5/8” Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, SNAIL adhesive, sticky strip, scissors, paper cutter, Stamp-a-ma-jig.

You can view the Free Standing Pop-Up card tutorial by Mary Jo Albright on Splitcoaststampers. I almost completely CASEd (Copy And Share Everything) this from my friend Alicia, who CASEd it from someone in her SU! family. I think the only thing I changed was the color combination and I added the loop of ribbon at the top.

You can slide the tag down so it lays flat and fits perfectly inside of a medium SU! envelope.

Stamp set: Thankful Thoughts
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Autumn Vine DSP, watercolor paper
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, More Mustard, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red Classic Ink, Black StazOn ink
Accessories: Blender pen, Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, SNAIL adhesive, sticky strip, scissors, paper cutter, 4 medium translucent envelopes.

I first learned how to make a paper photo album almost two years ago by Alicia at a stamping retreat in Kansas City, MO. I needed a refresher on how to make it so I watched the video created by Dawn over at Dawn's Stampin' Studio.

Stamp set: Thankful Thoughts
Paper: Old Olive, More Mustard, Very Vanilla
Ink: Old Olive, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, Black StazOn ink
Accessories: Blender pen, scallop circle punch, 1 3/8” circle punch, 5/8” Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, scissors, mini glue dots, SNAIL adhesive, sticky strip, 3 Hershey chocolate Kisses.

A big thanks to Alicia for cutting the pillow boxes for me on her Big Shot machine. I can’t wait until I get the Big Shot and can die cut things for other people! :)

Did you notice a trend with these projects? Aside from the Autumn/Thanksgiving theme, I mean :) My friend Alicia helped me in some capacity for each of these projects. I don’t think she knew that, but she will once she reads this post! ;) Thanks for all of your help, Alicia. You are the best!

To view Alicia’s blog, go to http://papercraftplayground.blogspot.com.

Have fun stampin’ and creatin’!

Mini Accordion Album

This is a mini accordion album we created in my stamp class last month. The butterfly is two dimensional but it didn’t show up very well in this picture.

To create this 9 page album, I used one 12 x 12 sheet of card stock. Cut a line along the length of the paper at 3 3/4”, 7 1/2” and 11 1/4”. Discard the left over narrow strip. Turn your strip horizontally and score at 3 3/4”, 7 1/2” and 11 1/4”. Score the other two strips identical to the first. Take one of the strips, and cut off the 3/4” portion at the bottom and discard it. Do not cut off this portion on the other two strips. Apply adhesive to the two 3/4” portions. Attach one strip at the 3/4” portion to the first square on the second strip. Then attach the second strip at the 3/4” portion to the first square on the third strip. Fold all 9 squares accordion style on the score lines. You now have the base for your album!

For the front cover, I cut a piece of Groovy Guava 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”, then a piece of Afternoon Tea DSP 3 1/4” x 3 1/4”. I stamped the butterfly from Garden Whimsy twice, and cut both out. I attached one butterfly cut out to the CS layers, using dimensionals. I made a score line in the middle of my second butterfly, folded the left side, then adhered the right side to the first butterfly. To get a 3-D effect, you will want to cut out a total of 3 butterflies and attach them accordingly. Then, I applied Crystal Effects randomly on the top butterfly, creating raised dots for dimension.

For the ribbon, I cut 19” of Wild Wasbai double stitched grosgrain ribbon. To add the ribbon to the album, I turned the completed accordion album over so the back was facing up. I laid the ribbon on the back (which was facing up), then turned the album over and tied the ribbon into a bow at the front. I did this first so I could position the bow where I wanted before it was permanently in place. Then I turned the album over again with the back facing up. I slid the ribbon up just slightly so I could add SNAIL adhesive, then moved the ribbon back into place, adhering it.

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Pages 8 and 9

For the inside pages, each layer of CS is 3 1/2” x 3 1/2”. The rest is self explanatory, but if you have any questions, please post your questions in the comment area of this post.

Stamp set: Garden Whimsy, Warm Words, It’s All Good
Paper: Afternoon Tea Designer Series Paper, Whisper White 12 x 12’, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White 8.5 x 11” CS
Ink: Groovy Guava, Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi Classic Ink
Accessories: Photo corner punch, 1/8”, 1 1/4”, 1 3/4” circle punches, scallop circle punch, tag corner punch, stampin’ dimensionals, Crystal Effects, SNAIL adhesive, scissors, sticky strip, paper cutter, double stitched ribbon- Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, button, mini envelope template