Nana's Brag Book

Things have been pretty quiet around this ol' blog for awhile. There's a good reason for that...wait, no not really. I've been working on projects like crazy, planning new ones (my first a quilt perhaps?!) and getting school wrapped up. Oh, and work. I just haven't been on here to talk about it all. 

But to start off the projects I've been working on, I have a fun mini scrapbook album I made for my mom for her birthday, which was yesterday. She loved it and so now that she's seen it, I can talk about it! Whooo! You know you are excited! Right? Right!

So I thought it would be fun for Mom to have a mini album of her grandkids. I tried to get Erin to send me an ultrasound of her little girl to include, but that didn't happen. So Erin--it's your fault she's not included. :)

So there's the album! I thought it turned out pretty cute--but it helped I started with really adorable subjects. 

Coming soon...more projects I've worked on! Including one that has been super top secret that no one knows about--except all the people I told about it. ha.

Rachel's 2013 ABC's Book

I had Caitlin and her family for Christmas (we're poor so we do name exchanges). Yay! That means presents for the bay-bays!

Funds were a bit scarce this year (ya know, with the unexpected surprise trip to Chicago! Ahh! So fun! :) ) and so I had to get a bit creative with what to give my sister and her family. Rachel probably won't remember this Christmas, so I knew it didn't have to be very fancy and I know that Caitlin is working with Rachel to help her learn (the kid already knows her body parts--including ones that no one taught her!) and since Rachel is turning 2, I thought I would make her a little ABC book to re-count her 2nd year of life. Almost like a scrapbook mini-album.

I found the perfect sized board book at a thrift store for $1.49--along with two others of same type, which I also got her. The books are "I Spy" books (which I love!) and I just took the one that I liked the least and recovered the pictures. There were exactly enough pages to do an ABC book.

So using a photoediting program, I edited pictures of Rachel and her family and put words on them for each letter. Then I measured the book so I knew what size to print the pictures, sized the pictures, printed, and then adhered them to the book using my trusty ATG tape gun. And because Rachel is 2 and has a drooly little brother (he's teething), I covered the pages with clear contact paper. And it was finished.

Here are the pictures I used.

(Note: when I put the collages together, the edges got cut off. They aren't in the actual book. And yes...I did stretch a couple of the letters. There are not that many words--as in none--in a 2-year old's world that start with X, okay?)

And here is a picture of the final book.

I thought it turned out really cute. Very easy, and pretty quick. Deciding on pictures and words to go with the letters was definitely the hardest part.

Merry Christmas to Rachel!

"A Typical Week" Mini Scrapbook Album

For National Scrapbooking Day, there was a week long challenge on one website to make a mini album about our daily lives. And since I conveniently wrote about it here just a couple of weeks ago, I decided to put one together. This is what I came up with. The journaling is the text from my blog post about my typical week.

The Cover:

Monday & Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

 

Friday & Saturday:

Sunday: 

I like how it came together and it was pretty quick to do, especially since I had it already typed up. :)

National Scrapbooking Day 2013!

Today was National Scrapbook Day and here are the different projects I worked on. I haven't really had much time to scrapbook the past few months, so it was fun to join a few online crops and challenges to get me going. 

This is how my desk area looked before I started...yeah, it was messy.

The first project I worked on was a set of 6 cards, including a cute little holder I cut with my amazing workhorse Cameo.

This page is about the different states that I got to visit during my trip to Chicago last year.

I loved how these pages turned out. It's about how beautiful it was in Nauvoo last year. 

Time to clean up! My last pages that need to dry over night. And now I'm ready for another scrap session.

And after a 16 hour day, I'm really glad my bed is cleaned up so I can go to sleep. :) 

Christmas Tags

This year I thought it would be fun to make some cute Christmas tags to attach to presents. Here are some that I made to go on the packages I sent to Erin and Jim.

 

Unfortunately I *thought* I was running really short on time (I thought the post office closed early one particular day...turns out they didn't) so I had to rush the last two tags, thus the perfect pearls are smeared. :( Oh well.

 

But I love the paper line that I used. It's called Handmade Holiday by Simple Stories. I love the rustic vibe to it.

Countdown to Christmas Activity Book

In case you haven't noticed, for some weird reason, I LOVE advent calendars. I have no idea why. But I love the idea of counting down to something, especially Christmas. 

Yeah, I'm weird.   

Anyway, I came across a fun idea for an activity based advent calendar--in a binder. And since I already have too many advent calendars, I thought I'd make this one and give it to someone as a present. (Hello Erin!)

It's pretty straight forward so here are the pictures:

I think it turned out pretty cute and I kinda want to keep it now. hahaha. I won't though. I already have too much Christmas stuff. :)