Summer Mini Album at Big Picture Classes

I have a new mini book class up at Big Picture Classes today! Every summer we create a "summer bucket list" and this fun mini album is perfect for recording those memories!

The class includes SIX video tutorials for setting up your album and inside pages and lots of other neat ideas for minis!  I hope you will hop on over and check it out! I have six other classes in a variety of areas as well, so be sure to check those out too! Hope to see you in class!

5 Tips For Creating Photo Books

Seeing our photos printed and in some type of book just makes me so happy! I love a good novel, but some days, our photo books and mini albums are my book of choice. I love reminiscing with the kids and talking about all the things that we've done together. And it always amazes me that there is always a moment or memory that has slipped my mind. I'm so thankful for photos and the ability to relive our days!

Today, I'm over on the Pinhole Press blog sharing 5 tips for creating your own photo book!!  Go check it out and then print your own!!  

DIY Watercolor Mini Album

You just can't go wrong with mini albums in my opinion! They are so fun and easy to make and I just love that you can create them in any fashion you want - messy or simple, crazy or plain! Anything goes! Today, I have a quick video for you showing you how to create your own DIY watercolor mini album! All you really need is some paper, paints, stamps and a few of your favorite photos! This simple album is perfect for those times when you want to get messy with your watercolors!

For this album, I used some of my favorite photos + a few favorite stamps and created a unique and colorful album! Every album will be unique and of course, it would be the perfect gift for a loved one or friend!

I hope you enjoy this simple video and I hope I inspire you to create your own watercolor mini album! Have fun!!

Tutorial: Simplified Memory Keeping

I am having so much fun with my memory keeping processes this year! Between snapping photos, creating photo albums and adding stories to my Handbook, my days are full, but great! I love creating and playing with paper and not setting really high expectations for myself this year (like a weekly project) has been wonderful for my mind!  

My "simplified" handbook has slowly become my very favorite. I'm writing more stories and recording more of our everyday than I have in previous years even though I might have kept up with monthly albums or weekly spreads. I love the words. I love recording details that I so quickly forget.  And I love the photos. Photo collages have always been my favorite and they are definitely in abundance in this album! Sometimes it's hard to pick just ONE photo, right??

Today, I wanted to share a quick look at my 2016 album, as well as walk you through my process and encourage you to try something simplified and easy too!  As I mention in the video, this process would be perfect for anyone who has been wanting to start out in "memory keeping", but really just doesn't know where to start!  I'm a firm believer that you can make the process whatever you want! There is no right and there is no wrong! The most important thing is to tell your story and get your photos printed!

Are you keeping an album of your stories and memories this year?? How's it coming along??

DIY Art Journal

Sometimes I get an itch to create, but don't want to make a huge layout or complete mini book. That's where this fun little DIY Art Journal comes in. I made this fun "journal" when I was at Be Crafty with Amanda and Maggie using the cover of an old book and some book rings! We spray painted the book gold at the workshop and then I painted the black diagonal part onto the front for a little more character. I hot glued in ribbon at the front and back of the book so it had a cute tie closure! 

The inside pages are a mix of fun goodies, photos, book pages, embellishments and more.  The best part about books like this is that anything goes! You really can add in just about anything - painted pages, watercolored pages, envelopes, etc!  I find that I reach for this book a lot "just because" I want to make something! 

Here's a look at a few of my pages....

Do you keep a random "art journal"? A journal that you can dabble in, put away and pick up days or months later? It's very freeing to have some kind of creative outlet and using a smaller scale like this book is perfect for me!!  

xoxo

Tutorial: Full Spread Photos

I LOVE full spread photos! Adding them into my albums and mini books is one of my very favorite ways to showcase special photos.  These types of photo pages are SO easy to make and today, I thought I would share with you just how easy they are to create using your photos!!  This short video will show you step by step my process for creating fun full spread photos!  

So what did you think?? Easy, right??

Go print your favorite photos and create a full spread photo page in your albums!!!  They are just so fun! xoxo

DIY: Love Letters Mini Album

Love is in the air!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and this year I'm giving the gift of words to my three favorite people (and maybe some candy too...). 

I put together this sweet little Love Letter book using the new collection from One Little Bird, Cheri! I love making books like these because they are so fast and so easy - and such a perfect little gift!  

You can check out this walk through video to see how super easy they are to make!!  I hope you will make one for your family and friends too!  

I sewed my book together, but as I mentioned in the video, if you don't have a sewing machine, you can always use ribbon or even adhere the pages back-to-back!

And you don't have to print the embellishments on vellum, but I really think it adds a nice touch and texture to the book! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Go make a love letters book!! xoxo

December Daily 2015 - Days 5-14

All of my previous December Daily albums have been the 6x8 inch size, so I was really excited to switch things up a little this year.  I've had this gorgeous 4x4 album from Jamaica Edgell for years, so I pulled it out of my stash and decided to give the smaller size a go this season.

While I do LOVE square photos, I was really really worried that I wouldn't be able to "fit" all of our photos in this book.  But, thankfully, there was nothing to worry about!!  This size is just SO fun and so very easy to work with!  As you'll see from my pages below, I've kept this album VERY simple - usually a large 4x4 photo paired with a 4x4 journaling card (the Studio Calico 25 Days class kit has been perfect for this album)!

Day 5

I've still managed to add in lots of fun extras, like envelopes, tags, journaling cards and more.  Like in all of my albums, the "extras" are my favorite.

Day 5

Day 6

Each day, I print out my photo for the day (or a photo collage), pick out a coordinating journaling card, type my journaling (or maybe handwrite it), punch my holes and add it into my album.

Day 7

The smaller size definitely makes this project manageable for me right now. Things are busy, and keeping up with a big 6x8 album isn't in the cards for me now.  This repetitive size takes out all of the guesswork about what size photos to print, how many to print, etc...

Day 8

I'm using a mix of old December Daily kits and new December kits (as well as the SC class kit too) throughout my book.  Pulling out my older Christmas supplies ranks right up there with Christmas morning to me!

Day 9

For this day, Anna "stole" some of the journaling cards from the DD mini kit and starting drawing and writing.  I thought they were the perfect addition to the album. There's just something so magical about seeing her little Christmas tree, her spelling and her list in the book.  THIS is what a December Daily is all about to me.  

Day 10

Another simple day here with a photo (and a really cute "deer") and a 4x4 journaling card. Simple and easy!

Day 11

I didn't have a photo for this past Friday, so I decided to write a little about our day and snuggling on the couch to watch The Polar Express together.  I perused google and found a good image of the movie poster and printed it out onto a 4x4 piece of photo paper.  Ironically, this page is actually my kiddos favorite page...go figure. 

Day 12

We spent most of the day on Saturday either out running errands and shopping, or out playing at the park (Christmas picnic and all), so I created a little stitched pocket using my 4x4 photo and a 4x4 journaling card. Inside of the pocket is a "12" tag with my journaling written on the back .

Day 13

Yep. Simple and easy here again.

A "Sunday best" photo and some notes about our day. 

Day 14

Day 14 would pretty much be called a "photo shoot gone wrong". Between a dog who was DETERMINED to stand in front of me and two kids who had the giggles, we ended up with more out-takes than actually "good" photos, but I'm totally ok with that.  Since I had so many, I decided to create two collages of four photos and then pair them side-by-side for this day.  Have I ever mentioned that I love collages??

And that's a look at my book so far (the first 5 days are a part of the Studio Calico 25 Days class, so if you are taking that class, hop in there and check out my lessons)!

Are you doing a December album this year??  How is your book coming along? I know it's a lot of work, but honestly, this project is priceless. We all love looking back at the memories and moments I've captured over the years. And my, oh my, how fast these little ones grow up.

xoxo

September Project Life Album - Part I

As the year has gone, I've worried each month about being able to try something fun and new with this project.  That was pretty much my main goal for starting this monthly albums this past January.  I was kind of tired with the normal 12x12 Project Life pages, but still wanted to document our days and our memories.  

I love creating mini albums, so it was pretty much an easy decision when it came to creating albums every month.  And every month I stress about the size and how to do something "new", and then every month I fall in love with a different sized/type of album.

This month, I chose to use a Travelers Notebook for our memory keeping.  I have a few of these pretties, but mainly have used them for lists, notes, etc.  I hadn't merged the two yet.  Now I am SO glad I did.

The Travelers Notebook is the perfect little "album" for creating a mini album.  The base pages are white and clean and are already bound together (and super score that you can create your own inserts and pages).

I'm over on the Studio Calico blog today sharing a look at our September in the Travelers Notebook.  This month is by far my favorite.  I love how compact and simple this album - how the photos take the center stage and really pop from those white pages.  

In this month's video, I talk about some of my different tips and tricks for working with the Travelers Notebook, so be sure to check it out!!  Thanks so much for letting me share these monthly albums with you!  As the year comes to a close, I'm just so grateful that I have these books and all of these memories recorded.

AEB: Pregnancy and Baby Album

Oh baby.  Oh baby!

I'm so excited to share this sweet mini album with you!  When Seven Paper asked if I would like to work with their Clara collection, I threw my hands in the air with excitement.  Creating a pregnancy and baby album for Anna has been on my long list of to-do's for quite some time.  She has normal "fill in the blank" baby album, but I really wanted to document my pregnancy and her birth in a sweet little book.  

The Clara collection is just perfect for recording those precious memories!  And as you can see above, I altered the process a little and created a sewn mini album rather than using the Clara Handbook.  

I'm sharing a bit about my process, as well as more photos of my album over on the Seven Paper blog!  Hope you will pop on over and have a look!!  

DIY Accordion Album

Summer is slowly fading into fall around here.  The temps are starting to drop at night a little and there isn't as much humidity in the air during the day.  It's still pretty darn hot outside, but I can tell fall is on it's way.  

One thing I really enjoy doing every year is to create some type of "summer" album.  I have our June, July and August memories documented in my Project Life books, but sometimes it's nice to pull out my favorite photos from the summer and create a simple and easy mini album.

Accordion mini albums are so easy to make and are so perfect for a handful of photos.  If you've always wanted to try a mini album, but weren't sure where to start, then I highly recommend trying out a simple accordion book. It can be made with just ONE piece of 12x12 paper, and the only else you really need is your photos.  Hop on over to Maggie's blog to see a quick DIY tutorial, as well as the rest of my summer accordion album!