Mini brag books

Here they are .... I have been asked by my customers to make mini brag books to carry photo with them in their purse .... well here they are.  I got the idea form Vickie H a former angel with TAC.  She had received my trades at seminar this year and sent me her trades.  I changed the dimensions a little to make it more practical and easier to make but the idea is basically the same.  No stamping on them ... no these ... I decided to leave them plane so people could use them for what ever occasions they wanted. Notice how they fold out and then have three panels that open to hold more photos .... hey .... I think we made these a few years ago at a winter leadership in TX out of felt .... yea we did.  Here is a close up ...

I think they came out real cute.  How about you?

These and a few other ideas are what I am getting prepared for my fall craft shows which will be here real soon!

Medical Inforamtion Books

This project that has been in the works for about a year and a half. I wanted to make a medical book to keep all of a person/families medical information in it so if it is needed it is quick to get and share with medical personal. I knew it had to be made so the information could be changed and I wanted it to have easy access, easy to use, and a complete source for your medical information. I finally came up with the design I was looking for. I am so happy with the outcome!! I previewed it at my last craft show last Saturday and sold 13 of them right off the bat!!
I used my Bind-it-all and colored chipboard for the covers, and my Cricut to do the design elements. I used a retired TAC for some of the covers and the rest I printed on my computer.
The ribbon on the front can be used to hold prescriptions or other important papers you need inside along with the fabric covered rubber band on the back cover. The band on the back can be sued as a bookmark for the pockets or to hold it closed also.
I really wanted it to able to be used for males and females so I did not glam it up too much.
There are six inside pockets that hold file cards where you can print out your information. The pockets are labeled: emergency contacts, medications, doctors, insurance, medical history and a I left one blank to be filled in by the owner (blood pressure, weight, blood sugar etc.).


On the inside front cover I put a large label to put your name, allergies, birthday, phone and address.
If you wanted to use this for the whole family, then you could get colored file cards and use one color for each family member. A copy of your medical card would be great to keep in it also. I recommend carrying it with you when you travel alone so you have the information you need, use if for your babysitters, give it to a neighbor if you live alone, and carry it with you to the DR or hospital. I do have some of these in my Etsy store if you want to see more pictures or would like to purchase one for yourself. Blessings

Frosty Memories

I have been going to town making items to sell for my biggest craft show of the year this weekend. I great friend of mine gifted me with some gorgeous papers and I just had to make this book from one of the sheets!! The book is 8.5 by 8.5 and I used the Bind it all to put it together. All of the decorative paper in the book is from ONE SHEET of 12 x 12 paper!! Yes, I cut it in such a way it is used throughout the book. The cover was the first cut and all I added was the title!! Isn't it beautiful.
Then I cut the parts left in such a way as to accent the edges of the pages of the book. I used some of my retired TAC images for the embellishments.
This is the upper right hand corner of the paper and I put the stamp 'brrrr' on the top for accent.
Here is another corner with the sled. The opposite top corners are the over half of this square and they have swirls and snow in the paper so they accent to top of the pages.
Some of the edges I stamped snow flakes and added one of my retired TAC images of a deer to them in Charcoal ink.
This is the inside front cover and I cut the parts of the paper with the trees into two pieces, this one and one on the opposite page edge. I added ribbons to the binding and it was done! It looks so much better in person since it has glitter, shimmer and sparkles in the paper. I love it!

This weekend, tonight and all day Saturday I will be at St. Gab's in Mentor for their craft show. Next weekend at Lake Catholic HS in Mentor and the following weekend at St. Pasquale's in Richmond Heights. Stop in to visit if you can. I love to see people I know.

Have a wonderful weekend and blessings to all.

Bind it all & Cricut Mini Books

I just am having so much fun with my Cricut and Gypsy!! Here are a few mini books I will be selling at my craft show in the next few weeks. This one I used Gypsy Wanderings, Weddings and not sure about the words .. but I did use my Gypsy to weld them together. I did not have the color of pink paper I wanted for the words so I cut them in a lighter pink and colored over them with my Copic markers.
This one I use Gypsy Wanderings and again welded for the dress.
Here I used Animal Kingdom and Graphicly Speaking and a few more for the images inside of the book. They are so much fun to make. I sure hope people like them at the shows and buy them! Yes, I will show you my cat one too ..... I did not do only dogs.

My next show will be this Sunday Nov 1 at the Irish American Center in Euclid which is on Lakeshore Blvd. It starts at 10 ... stop in to see me if you can. Blessings

Monocromatic Star Book

A great friend of mine, Pat, made a star book last January for the Club Med swap at Retreat and I was lucky enough to get it!! She made her's with the theme of San Antonio since that is where we all were. Well, I took her idea and made my own here and will offering it for classes in Sept and Oct. I used one of the packs of Monochromatic Cardstocks on page 119 for the new TAC's Inspiration Book. Mine is Blue Greens but you can select any of the colors listed as long as I know at least 2 weeks in advance to order it for you. I used the set Simply Devine stamp set for mine but you can use any set(s) you would like. The top photo is the book closed .. it is very simple ...
... but when you open it you see lots of pictures and stamped image and you can journal in it also! I used my nature photos in mine, but you can select and BRING YOUR OWN PHOTOS. The photos should be no wider than 2.5" or less is better and no taller than 3". It is easier to put in photo which are vertical or portrait.
You can crop your photos or punch out parts of the image if you want. Please bring to class: Scor-pal, cutter, bone folder, lots of adhesive, your photos, and scissors. Here is a photo of two pages together, one even has a pop out!

You will be able to use the scrapes from cutting the pages to decorate your pages, and the rest to the pack you get to take home to make more. You will be doing all of your own cutting for this class! Here is what the book looks like from the top when it is open and tied together. Cost is $20 and I need RSVP's at least 2 weeks in advance.

Here are the dates I have planned at this time. Let me know if you are interested in attending. Only 5 per class please!!

• Sept 29 from 6-9 at my home in Painesville
• Oct 2 from 1-4 at my home in Painesville (one opening)
  
• Oct 4 from 2-5 at my home in Painesville
• Oct 8 from 6-9 at my home in Painesville (three openings)
  
• Oct 26 from 6-9 at my home in Painesville
• Oct 29 from 6-9 at my home in Painesville

Blessings

Altered Photo Books

Thanks to everyone for you compliments on my photo cards!! I have some more pictures coming to make more since they are so much fun. Today I was blessed to have 7 deer in my backyard and the dog or me on the desk flashing pictures of them did not disturb them. It was fun. To answer a question that was asked, I prefer the mat finish but it does not matter, it is your preference on the way you want the pictures to look.

Here are a few altered photo books I have been making for my Etsy store and up coming craft shows. They are black plastic and have 36 spaces for 4 x 6" pictures. I h ave been making them for all different occasions and for my personal use to store my zoo pictures, my backyard friend pics, and my Holden (nature park) pictures. Here are a few of the ones I will have on sale in my Etsy store. One of them is for pictures of a love one who you have lost and the others are for any occasion. I have more of them that I will be posting in the store also. If you want to see more pictures of them that is the place to look also. These are easy and fun to make. They are all made with TAC stamps and papers, Give it a try!! Blessings

Felt Mini Books

In the new TAC's Serendipity Magalogue they have the directions for making a Felt Flip Album. We made it while we were at Escape and I loved how easy it was to put together and how great it looks. I have included pictures of mine here. But then I took it a set farther and and made it with different felts that I had in my stash. They all look so cute! I have the others ones in my Etsy store if you are interested in seeing more pictures of them and/or purchasing them. I found the embossed felt like in the black one at JoAnn's and it comes in black, brown, tan, white and red. It is beautiful! The flower I have on mine was a pale orange color until I made it in to a patent leather black flower. Yes, the directions for that are in the magalogue also! To make the one here you will need:
Black felt, silk flower, Shimmer brads, Black and White Ribbon, White Scrapper's Floss, Nightsky VersaMagic Ink Pad, clear embossing powder, heating tool, Scor-Pal, Crop-a-Dile and large eyelets.

If you do not have your Serendipity yet ... let me know and I can help you out. It has a lot of great projects in it including our new stamp set!

Please keep these stampers in your prayers due to health reasons: Lori F, Sharon S, Andrea B, Sharon B's mom and Mary. Thanks & Blessings

Christmas mini album!

I thought I was all done with making things to sell and could start my personal Christmas cards but yesterday I had a call that they were running out of Christmas things at the store so I quickly make up more and took them over yesterday. I had sold out completely of my Christmas mini albums and Christmas Planner! I did not show you this mini book, I do not think, but I have made many of these with different themes. It is a 5 1/2" square fold out book with 6 pages to display pictures and a pocket to add more. I used my favorite tool on it, the Scor-pal to make the folds on a 12 x 12 and then folded and cut it so it would line up well with the thickness of the other pages. I hope you like it! I used retired TAC paper and a set that was a special purchase from TAC last year with all kinds of Christmas words in it. The holly is punched out of metallic green paper so it shines too much here but looks great in person. I added the holly berries with red Stickles. So TODAY I will start my personal cards!
Blogger is challenging me ... it keeps wanting to change the orientation of my pictures. I have more but can not get them going in the correct directions. Sorry! Blessings

PS. Could everyone please send out a prayer for my stamping friend Andrea? She is going through some serious health issues right now. Thanks so much!!

Mini albums with the BIA

Hope everyone had a wonderful day on Thanksgiving!! I know I did!! I even enjoyed leftovers today!

I made these mini albums last week for my craft fairs and thought I would share them. My next show will be Dec. 6 at St Mary's in Chardon, if you are local and can come visit. I used my new Bind it All ... it is really neat ... and the brown 1 1/4" brown wires. Doesn't it look fun with all of those ribbons! I made them with two different paper collections, Sands of Times and Willoughby. I added smaller pages which are a different color of paper on the inside for extra pictures or for journaling. So some of the pages are 5 x 8" and some are smaller. I love using my flower punches and on these I added flowers on each spread and on the front and back covers of the book. The front cover is acetate so you can see through it and the flowers are on the first page of the books (you see them through the cover). The back cover is a very strong sturdy piece of chipboard. It is so thick and it went through the BIA with no problems at all! I did not add any stamping or words inside so they could be used for many different occasions.

For the 3D flower on the cover, I punched out two flowers from different papers, scored a line down the middle of each of the petals and then pinched them. They are then attached to each other with mounting cushion. I love this 3D look! I added folded ribbon then for the petals. Remember you can click on the pictures to see a closer look. I am taking a mini trip on Saturday and will be teaching all day on Sunday so I probably will not be able to add more until next week. Have a great weekend! Blessings

Where does the time go???

To get everyone updated .. my Stamp-a-Stack was a great success!! There were 17 stampers who made a total of 380 cards in four hours!! I think everyone had a great time and had a relaxed day of stamping. It was so much fun. As for my craft show last weekend. All I can say is WOW!!!! I had the highest sales in my craft show experience! I sold out (or have one left) of at least four items, which are my top items and I thought I had made enough for the whole craft show season. Well, I have a lot of work to get done in the next two weeks to get ready for my next shows. But it is really fun work and customers came and gave me more ideas etc. I especially like it when last years customers come back and share with me what they did with the items they purchased the year before and how much they like them. I feel like I have made a difference in there life .. even though it is a small one. I saw so many people I know, it was so much fun seeing everyone and meeting new people also!!

OK you are here not to read all of this but to get more ideas. I made a few mini flip out albums like the Halloween one I had show. I started with a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock and scored it at 6" in both directions with my Score-Pal. (Great tool!!) Then cut one of the scores to the center and folded it up. After it is folded I like to cut off about 1/2" from each side so they are now even. When you fold them there is bulk from the other sections and this makes the sides nice and flat and even. Then I decorated the pages with my favorite set Always Remember, Friendship Strips, flower and oval punches, ribbon, dotted Swiss Cuttlebug embossing folder, tags and pull outs and Reese Soar with it Collection. These are easy and fun to make!

Last Tues (election day) I played hooky in the afternoon since we had 70 degree plus weather! It was great to get to go for a walk at the Arboretum with friends. Then I worked a few hours on Wed, Thurs and Friday afternoon (between stamping) getting my leaves done. But the leaves had not all fallen yet. Then the temperatures started to drop ... sleet ... rain and then this morning I woke up to about 2" of snow!! That is northeast Ohio for you, quick change of seasons. I still have leaves on the treas. Yuck!! Oh .. but no one told me I would get MORE birds coming to my feeder .... and more different types!!! I really enjoy watching them. There are so many more there this morning, it is do much fun watching them all. I need to get going and get some work done. Have two big workshops this week and lots of stamping and cleaning to do. My stamp room is unbelievable ..... I am not sure I will ever see the tables again. Have a great day and blessings.

Can't sleep ...

**** I just put the ones I have left in my Etsy store if you are interested in purchasing one. You can also see more pictures of it there.
so I thought I would post another project I have made for the craft show. This is a Christmas planner I made after reading Vicki's blog for Oct 15. She inspired me to give it a try ... but I used the Bind-it-All for my planner. I loved the site she posted to get the planner pages too. Check it out. I made the cover with some black (and black core) tag board that I can get in the area and a retired TAC paper collection, Vintage Holiday. I made the dividers for the sections different lengths and wider than the pages so they would stick out a little from the pages, but not from the cover. I put pockets on the insides of both of the covers for extra things too. There are five sections: Gift ideas, gift lists, holiday decor planner, menu planner and stocking stuffers. I added a pocket into the binding to keep receipts in also. These were fun and easy to make too! I think I have nine of them ready to go for the show. Well, I better try again to get some sleep I need to get up early on Saturday. Blessings

Halloween Flip Out Book

It has been so much fun this week just stamping and getting ready for my first craft show of the year! It is Saturday at Lake Catholic if you are local. Here is one of the new Flip Out Books I made. This one is for Halloween, but I made another one with the Always Remember set too. I made a practical little web address book and a really nice Christmas planner book with my Bind it all too for the shows. I hope to show them to you next week. I have more I need to get done today so I will just show this book today.

It was made with a 12 x 12 sheet of black cardstock and folded in half in both directions. I used by Scor-Pal for this book to make nice crisp folds. Then one side was cut to the center and folded up. I have found that is easier to make these books bigger than you want and then cutting them down, so this one is then cut (folded up) to a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch book. I decorated it with a retired TAC paper, by Sizzix dies, Cuddlebug embossing folders and some retired and current TAC stamps. The last page is a pocket page with pull outs for more pictures.

I have a busy weekend and start of next week but hope to be able to still post. Saturday is my craft show and then on Sunday I will be taking a day trip to Riverside, PA for a Medieval meal and play and some local shopping. It is a group tour with the local collage and I really enjoy these trips. I hope the leaves are still beautiful for the drive. Then on Monday I will be stamping all day with my TAC-eee Ladies, my stamping group. We always have fun!! I hope you enjoy your weekend too. Blessings

Diamond Island - Second Project

The island gals have decided to post one project from the island every Sunday and link our sites together so you can see the variations of the projects. So here is the second great project we learned while at Diamond Island in MI. It was presented to us by Teri, and she did an awesome job! It is a 6 x 6 scrapbooking purse all made from paper. I was given the Willoughby SWIC for mine. It has hand made stitching lines with the brown Memory Marker, pull our inserts, and lots of embellishments. I used Life Thoughts and Forever Family stamp sets for my book with Burnt Umber Ink. Remember too you can click on the pictures to make them larger.

I will be hosting a class on this in the future so if you are in the area, let me know if you are interested. The class will include one the the SWIC packs of your choice to make the purse and you will have the left overs to take home and use. The pictures here do not do the project justice.

If you would like to see other angel's versions from the island check here: Meri's blog, DawnMarie's blog and Pat's blog. I hope they have them all up and ready for you to see soon. Blessings.