I haven’t met a mini book I didn’t love. I love mini books. I love the size. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish one. I love giving them as presents. In short, I love them.
This mini book, from Amber Zimmerman, is no exception. She took all the goodies from the August 2010 Main Kit and made the most adorable mini book ever. It’s so simple, but so sweet. Love it. Check it out:
To see more photos from Amber’s mini book, visit our Gallery.
The August Kits should have arrived to you by now and it’s time to get busy! Need some ideas on how to use your kit? Well, here’s a look at some layouts created by our design team.
First up? A little inspiration thanks to Miss Mara:
Now, here are some goodies from Katie Turner. I love, love Katie’s quirky style.
Check out more layouts from our design team the August Kits in our Gallery.
Making your own stencils or masks
By Kelly Hansen
I’ve always been one to try different techniques on my pages to make them interesting. One of the things I like using is scrapbooking mask by Tim Holtz,and Heidi Swapp. Unfortunately, some people are afraid to try them because they can be expensive.
This month I got creative. Using my Cricut machine (picture above) I cut my very own custom stencil. I cut out the days of the week just the way I wanted them displayed on my layout.
Using the negative space of the stencil, I taped down all 4 sides so It wouldn’t slide around when using my paint. I also glued down the negative space of the letters. Using the paint (you can also use glimmer mist, inks) I painted (picture above) over the days of the week.
This is what the finished product looks like (picture above). Making your own stencil/mask allows you to be creative in so many ways. This was a great way to accent my title without having to use big letters from a alphabet set. Here’s the finished layout:
Get in on the flower frenzy
By Kelly Hansen
Have you noticed the trend of flowers on projects lately? I have, and I’m loving it. When it comes to embellishments I’m always looking for something different, cute, and easy to make. Take a look at this layout made with handmade tissue paper flowers I made. It was so quick and easy!
This is what you’ll need:
- 3 to 4 sheets of white or color tissue paper
- pencil
- scissors
Step 1:
With all sheets together in a stack, free hand the shape and size you would like (photo below). I made 3 different sizes for more dimension.
Step 2: Holding all sheets in hand, cut out your flowers (photo below).
Check out what Grace did with the July 2010 Main Kit:
Layout #1 Beautiful Friend
In this layout, I used a bunch of the products in the kit. You will find rub ons, embellishments, paper and stickers in this layout. I because I ran out of the maroon “f”. I punched out a circle from a paper with the same color and layered the white/beige sticker on their. This technique still kept the word in the same color scheme. I punched out decorative borders from pattern papers and created a frame for my photo with it.
Layout#2 Cream Puff Heaven
This layout is pretty symmetrical. Everything was assembled in a “lined up” fashion. To break all the lines, I added some buttons, used a scallop edged journaling block sticker and added a cardstock strip with a border punch. I also liked the sugar/flour pattern paper. I thought it was the perfect thing to add to my cream puff layout.
Layout #3 Food trip
This is by far my favorite of all the layouts I made with this kit. I love it because I was able to play with the round scallop piece cut from the pattern paper. I was also inspired by the definitions rub on that I used it to describe our fun food “activity”. I added a strip of pattern paper to point to the title so that it’ll be connected to the rest of the layout.
Layout #4 Kindergarten Buddies
In this page I used the stars and the ruler ribbon to emphasize the “school” theme. I also used the a lot of “three” in the layout like the number of kids in my picture, the three stars in the bottom and the rub on three.
Layout #5 Swing me silly
In this page, I layered a lot of pattern papers. I added about four in this page. I also used the two sets of letter stickers and added a rubon bird. The journaling block sticker had some vintage edge that didn’t match really well with my page, so I cut out the unwanted frame before adding the block sticker to my page.
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For more photos of Grace’s work, visit our Gallery.
Now that you’re diving into your July Kits, I wanted to share some of the great mini book creations from our design team to spark your creativity.
Here’s what Amber Zimmerman did with the July mini book:
Here are a few more pictures of what Amber did with the book.
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Here’s a look at what Katie Turner did with her mini book. She based her book on Effer Dares’ Dare 119 and created a book of graphs and charts that correspond with random bits of my life!
For more photos of Katie’s mini book, visit our gallery.
A card by Mara Campbell using the July 2010 Main Kit
A card by Mara Campbell using the July 2010 Main Kit
Using Up Extra Photos
By Mara Campbell
If you are anything like me, you take lots of photos. Seriously, tons and tons of photos!! I get mine developed online, so I have to spend some time deciding and figuring out what I want to get make into prints. It’s not always easy, so I usually end up with lots of extra prints that I don’t use. And I don’t like to waste photos! When I saw the cute little star mini album in the July kit, I knew exactly what I was going to use it for. It seems I always have extra photos of my kids doing sports. Soccer, softball, baseball, track…I always have too many prints. So I decided to make an All-Star mini to use up all those photos that didn’t make it onto layouts.
I covered the cover with patterned paper, used my star punch to create a place for my title, and did lots of inking. I also added some small letters for my title (not included in the kit).
I added a title page that will tell what this book is all about and the date ranges of the photos in the book. That way I can add photos without being stressed about journaling and keeping things in perfect order.
My kids love looking at sports photos of themselves in this little album. And it was the perfect spot for all those extras. So the next time you have extra photos lying around, consider making a mini album with them!!
Happy Scrapping Everyone!
Your kits are being packed up and are about to ship to you. While you are waiting for your kits, here’s a peak at some wonderful layouts from Mara Campbell to spark your creativity. These pages are such a great celebration of summer and family. They make me want to pack my kids in the car, head out on a road trip and enjoy all things summer. Mara, thank you for the fabulous pages!
What are you scrapbooking these days? Are you scrapping your summer photos? Show us what you’re scrapping!
We hope you’re having a great summer. Check back tomorrow for a great July giveaway.
Save the date mini book
The cute JBS mini book that came in the main kit was adorable to say the least.
The idea of making a “save the date” book out of it was inspired by the Glitz sticker, the number paper and the stars.
Since dates are numbers, I decided to use the number paper to cover my front and back pages. I then used the save the date sticker as my title tag.
In the inside front page, I used some of the Pink Paislee stickers to add birthdays and then cut out a star from the GCD Studios paper.
In the back page I added another journaling sticker and hand wrote a little “note for me”.
This mini came together pretty fast and the best part of this project- it’s small enough that I can tow it in my purse and NEVER, EVER forget a birthday, anniversary or any other special dates ever again. *wink*
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