WALLET MINI ALBUM

Did you see the Sandlot Mini Book template by Shanna Noel in the Studio Calico shop? After seeing Barbara Picinich's version of the mini book, I knew I had to make one too. I've three mini albums planned with photos from the summer. They're such perfect little presents. This first one I've made is for my son, and has photos of him from our trip to Norrköping. We visited the Kolmården zoo and an amazing travelling Harry Potter exhibition.

I filled in two of the templates with photos and digital printables. I left a few pages bare to add some Project Life cards when putting it together. This is how it looked in PSE before printing.

After printing on smooth cardstock I cut them up and folded at the lines. A scoring board would be best, but I used my Fiskars paper trimmer and a table knife. I'm low tech, LOL! Cut the grey tab off the last strip and put glue on the rest of them. Assemble the album!

The album measures 3x4", so the square cornered Project Life cards is a perfect fit. To see my full mini visit my Studio Calico gallery.

To make the wallet cover I cut a piece of kraft cardstock to a 4 1/4x7 1/2" rectangle. I folded from the right side of the cover at 1", 1/2", 3" and 1/2". I made the 3" part maybe a tenth of an inch wider to fit the mini inside. The last page of the mini is glued to the inside cover. I then used a 1/2" circle punch, two small brads and a string to keep the wallet closed.

I wanted to keep the cover simple, so I only used a stamp from the Special Delivery stamp set from Stromsvigt.

Happy crafting!

/Magdalena

NEW TEMPLATES

As you may know, I love using templates for PL. I was happy to see these new 4x6 templates from Paislee Press, and I used a whole bunch of them for my July PL pages.

I love how easy it is to add lots of photos to a spread using templates, but still have lots of white space.

/Magdalena

PINTEREST

I love using Pinterest for inspiration. I have a board I call "Future layouts?" where I post anything that would transform well into a layout. This is the pin that inspired me this time: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/38139928069276529/

I started out editing my photos in PSE and cropping them 2,2" squares. I knew I was going to use my 2" circle punch, and wanted a bit of a margin for error. There were originally 12 photos but I couldn't fit all of them in. 

I never plan my embellishments beforehand. After I had glued and stapled everything down I just kind of added what I liked. I printed the photos on matt photo paper and I didn't like how it tore at the edges when being punched, but it's perfect for adding stamps. Stazzon always slips and smears for me when stamping on glossy backgrounds. 

The woodgrain thickers were missing an S and an O, so I used the outlines instead. 

Materials: Skeeball, Fortune Teller and Spun Sugar (all 3 scrapbook addons from Studio Calico's July kit), badge from the Hello Hello PL kit

/Magdalena

PL JULY

And so it's half way through the year, and I'm starting a new PL album. Last year fit into one album,but this year the first one is already full. I'm getting much better at taking pictures and keeping things to add to the pages. I ended the first half by adding a bunch of diplomas and things the kids recieved for the end of the school year and for different activities they've taken part in.

I will make an intro page that I will post as soon as it's finished. The first two pages for July are already done. I was very inspired by this week's PL sketch. Awesome,huh?! And I also went a little crazy on the digi in general. I looooove digi for PL!

I use PSE for adding templates, printables, brushes and journaling. I've had comments from some of you that wants to do digi but don't know how. Neither did I when I first began using PSE. I haven't taken a class or anything, I just started experimenting. I've found lots of help from tutorials you can find at Studio Calico's website. There is also a forum where you can ask questions. They have two digi classes available. One basic (which is FREE!) and one advanced.

There are also great tutorials to be found on youtube. Whenever there's something specific you want to learn, search for it there. That is how I learned how to do a drop shadow on a digi brush, for example.

I'm veeery far from being any kind of expert, I only enjoy doing it. Barbara Picinich is a huge inspiration to me, and I'd love to learn all the cool stuff that she does. Just check out her gallery at SC!

All the photo circles above are created by using the cookie cutter tool, and then adding to a new canvas. The "WHAT FUN! circle is part of a free printable for SC's new Brighton Pier collection. I then added both journaling and title stamps on their own layers. 

The sun stamp was perfect for drawing attention to the bandaid on my daughter's arm. She'd just been the the doctor to get a vaccine shot. For the photo below of my beautiful hairdo (I'll bet you want a little hairdresser at home too now?) I used digi stamps to kind of make it look like a magazine cover. 

I'll be going away for a few days now. See you when I get back!

/Magdalena

REVEAL DAY

For Studio Calico - and me! Remember yesterday I wrote that something fun was happening today? This month I am the Member Spotlight at Studio Calico. I'm so happy to be asked! Read the blog post here.

I also have a layout to share. When making this I discovered I had mistakenly been given two V's and no Y in my package of veneer alphas. Originally I had planned to put the title in the middle of the grid and let it say HI YOU. But since I had to change it to HI LOVE the design changed into this, and I like it much better!

 

 

Right now I'm working on my first PL spread for July and I hope to be ready to share it tomorrow. I've gone a bit digi brush crazy on it, but it's fun!

 

 

/Magdalena

10 DOWN

40 to go! The Funnel Cake stamp with this month's Studio Calico kit inspired me to make a layout about my travels through the US. I used the digi stamp and colored in the states I've visited and printed on smooth white cardstock. The plan was to use the old photos I printed on the seconjd page of the layout, but I didn't like the way that looked. Instead I tucked them inside a vellum envelope. I love how the top photo peeks out just enough to see.

Also, stay tuned for tomorrow when fun things might happen!

/Magdalena

12 IN 14 JULY

It's time for another 12 in 14 challenge with the Stromsvigt DT. This month we're working with geometrics. I chose triangles:

Materials: triangle paper from SC Antiquary kit, June's SC Bonjour addon, woodgrain white cardstock, Mister HUey's in Inky Black, Versafine stamp pad and "love" stamp from the Good Stuff stamp set by Stromsvigt

To see all projects and play along with the challenge visit Nina's blog! 

/Magdalena

QUOTES

It was suggested to me by a friend to write a book of my son's quotes. He's always had a way with words and I've been collecting quotes from him since he was two. I've made a layout about it before, inspired by a PL page by Laura Kurz. 

Her comment gave me the idea to do a June Quotes page for my PL album:

I struggled with printing this large photo. The reason is the 3x4 cards need to be cut down to fit the pockets, and then the photo edges don't match up. I tried printing it in one piece and cut it with my paper trimmer, but that didn't work. Finally I printed it in 4x6 pieces instead. As you can see the bottom pieces don't match up perfectly, but it's good enough for me!

The grid paper is from an old SC kit and the embellishments come from the Bonjour addon. Digi stamps from the Hello Hello kit plus a class from way back. I think it's by Shanna Noel.

And here's the page that goes with the quote page:

/Magdalena