Heidi Swapp Inspired

As you can obviously tell, I am on a Mini Album kick right now. 

My latest one is of my sweet grand-baby, Aly. I decided I wanted to put all of my favorite pictures of her, from her 1st year, in one mini album. 

It was really hard to pick my favorites since there were so many.

I have been playing around with some of memory files by Heidi Swapp and thought the mini ones would make an adorable background for these photos and I was right!

So I chose a few of Heidi Swapp's mini memory files, along with a few other double sided papers from my scraps stash and here it is....

My goal for  this project was to try something different and new for each page.

 It was a challenge to myself and it made it so much more fun. 

Page one, I use my hand writing mixed with stamping. 

On this page,along with my handwriting and stamping, 

I tucked a tag with another picture just for fun.

I love little  hidden extras! Makes it so fun.

Simplicity on this page, I love it!

Water fall pages with banners and stars.

This one is my favorite!

 I had so much fun drawing this ribbon, turning a tag up side down and

 spraying with Gold Color Shine!  

Brackets and stacked flip pages 

 I incorporated Aly's birthday party invitation with Washi tape.

And there you have it...

My favorite mini album to date!

I can't wait to do the same for our sweet baby James this time next year! 

This one was so much fun that I may go ahead and get a head start on it now!

Another Mini Album

I can't help it, I am a minibookaholic!!

Here is a minibook  I made for my sister for Halloween. She has a Halloween open house every year and we all love it! 

It was so cool to see her looking through it and remembering things she had completely forgotten about through photos she didn't know I had taken. 

She loved it and I hope she will for years to come! 

The Big 5 0

Happy Birthday to my best friend, my Oy! 

Color Shine Tip

I had no idea that spraying a simple sheet of card stock with

 Gold Color Shine would make such a difference! 

On this page I sprayed a plain sheet of forest green card stock with Heidi Swapp's Gold Color Shine. I even sprayed the flower in the center. I love the change it made in the color and the glimmer it gives the page.

I will definitely be doing more of this.

A Great Tip From You Tube

Caramel Corn

Fall is here....
 at least it is at my house!
Simply because I have made the very first batch of Caramel Corn! 

That's how we know.

This is a recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs, Cooking on Clover Lane.
 I tried it and it was so good that now it is a tradition in our home.
Oh, and it is the perfect scrapbooking snack!

You can find the original recipe
 here.

I have been asked over and over again if I would please share the recipe, 

so here it is!

Caramel Corn

3 bags microwave butter popcorn

1 cup of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

1/2 cup Karo syrup

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Spray two large cookie sheets or large glass casserole dishes with Pam.

Pop the popcorn, and put in two large bowls,

In a sauce pan, melt butter. Add brown sugar, syrup and salt.

Bring to a soft rolling boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, set a timer for 4 minutes stirring continually.

At the end of four minutes, pull from stove and stir in vanilla and baking soda.

Pour evenly over both bowls of popcorn.

Stir to coat and then pour onto cookie sheets or baking dishes.

Bake for 15 minutes, take out and stir to coat, put it back in the oven for 15 minutes and repeat 2 more times.

(Although, it is perfectly fine after 3 times)
Let it cool and store in air tight containers.

Now go make some Caramel corn for  your family

 Happy Fall Ya'll

Aly Grace is 1

Happy Birthday to my sweet grand-baby! 

My cup runneth over! 

Beach Mini Album

I know, I am on a mini album kick right now. 

Since I purchased my "Bid it All", I have been making all kinds of little albums and I am loving it.
 I love the idea of finishing a project and being able to give each big event it's due. Yes, I will still do a simple two page layout in our family album, but some trips are just so special they deserve more than that. When it's that important, I believe a mini book is in order.

So with all that said, here is one more mini,

Our 2013 family beach trip...

This trip has been a tradition in my family since I was a little girl.
 My mother, brother, sister and all of their families take one week, every other year and plan our vacation together. 
It's so wonderful to have a chance to slow down and catch up with one another.

This album starts off with our Family portrait and a small  "flip open" page with our daily schedule for the week.
 This is the first time I've done this, and I love it. 
 It's a great way to document daily details I want to remember.

Why, yes that is a photo of the storage unit for our beach chairs.
Those are the tiny details I want to remember 
but would never use that photo in a regular two page layout.
 It would take up too much space, but not in a mini book!

This was my grand-daughter's first time seeing the ocean. 
She was not impressed.

I made several waterfall or photo stacks in this album.
Again, it's a great way to get more photo real estate!

I love this page! 
I bought this little tie-dyed t-shirt 23 years ago for my daughter at this same beach.
 We saved it all these years, and now my grand baby is wearing it!

Another photo stack

So there you go, one more Mini!

A New Mini, It just had to be done!

My granddaughter was given the sweetest little tutu by her other grandmother.
 She just looked so sweet in it, that I had my daughter
Mary, to do an impromptu photo shoot of her in it. 

Does it get any sweeter than this!!! 

 In case you are looking for a great photographer, Mary's contact info is here, 
https://www.facebook.com/marykphoto


The photo's turned out so beautiful, I just had to make a mini album! 

I actually made two, one for me and one for her other grandmother.
 I plan to give it to her at this sweet baby's 1st birthday party.

I made this mini album from one of Heidi Swapps Color Magic Memory files. 
This is one of the easiest and cutest albums I have tried so far.
Most of the embellishments are from the
 Heidi Swapp's Sugar Chic paper pad. (which is one my favorites)

I copied the idea from this video,
  Heidi Swapp Video Tutorial

I just love the way it turned out! 

So in the words of Heidi herself....

Go make pretty stuff!

Christmas Mini Album

 

A few days ago, I was asked if I would teach a class on making a mini album. 

They requested a mini album with a Christmas theme.

I was so excited about the opportunity,

 I came home and began working on an example right away. 

Here is what I came up with...

I decided on the "back to back" technique. 

I used 6 sheets of coordinating papers, a few embellishments and I had an album!

Here are some shots of the inside pages.... 

I love how the album lays flat when it is open.

I made the inside pages different lengths to add interest.

I love the way this project turned out!

I will definitely be making more of these!