Coffee Sleeve Mini Album

I love Starbucks; Venti One-Shot Skinny Vanilla Latte - that's my standard drink and the one the barista usually starts making as soon as I approach the counter. They know me well at my local Starbucks, and I'm happy to have made many friends while visiting there.  So it's probably no surprise that I have a TON of coffee sleeves, and when the opportunity came to partner with someone for a swap using these little lovelies, I jumped at the chance. Here's the project I finally completed for my friend Sara. I used Prima's Nature's Garden collection - oh how these papers make my heart sing! There are oodles and oodles of goodies to play with; gorgeous paper, flowers, wood pieces, die cuts, journaling tags...the possibilities are endless. I think I may have to hoard the leftovers (no surprise there either...lol)

Here's a peek at some of the pages. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

A Little Sneaky Peeky.....

I had so much fun making this little coffee sleeve mini album for a swap over at MAS. I can show the entire album once my swap partner receives it. I sure hope she likes it! 

Authentique Mini Album

Oh how I love this paper line - Authentique Glory; Filled with nostalgia and has me feeling very patriotic, especially with the Olympics winding down soon. Here's a little mini I made for Be Yourself Creations, my sweet friend Terri's new store. Be sure to visit her blog too!

As always, thanks for stopping by today!

Hey Guys,

It's been a busy week. My friend's mom passed away unexpectedly last weekend and I've been wanting to spend lots of girlfriend time with her. They were so close and if there is any beauty to be seen in this situation, it's her attempt to extend the bond they shared even after her mom's death. I'm also working on a term paper that's due tomorrow night; this ought to be interesting...I'm not quite suer how that's going to happen but - oh well...I guess I'll just go with the flow...Hope you're all doing well.

I'll leave you with a few things I've been dabbling with.

These layouts are from the February Citrus Tree Studio kit. Here's a photo of the kit:
and here's my 2 layouts. Very simple and clean...I'm starting to dig that style right now.

I know it's weird taking a picture of someone eating, but I couldn't resist this shot. My girls and I stopped by the tea room for a quick lunch. My 16 year-old ordered a wrap not realizing how big it was. When they put this big sandwich in front of her she wasn't sure if she should use a knife and fork or just cave in and eat it with her hands. In the end she ditched her utensils and even though she was starving, she refused to snarf it all down (which is what I would have done!). She was perfectly proper and very neat. Yep, that's my Mandy, always the lady regardless of the circumstances; one of the many things I love about her!

Title Alphas are from my stash.

Our Westie is a bit spoiled (but we love him anyway!)..he really knows how to ham it up when the girls give him even the slightest bit of attention.

and this will be a gift for my sweet friend who just lost her mom:
and lastly this is a decorated tin with a little mini inside to remind me of how beautiful nature is this time of year (I'm studying Wordsworth in school so I'm kinda on a nature kick right now). I'll post more pics when I've decorated the enclosed mini.
That's it for now. By the way, I want to thank you all for your sweet comments. I love hearing from you and I've enjoyed visiting your blogs as well. You guys are so creative and fun to visit. See you in a few days!

xoxo
Cris

PS. Prima is having a DT call...so all you Prima lovers out there...start your engines!

Ninja Blog Hop...

I love my blog buddies. I have had the good fortune of meeting the most incredible friends while surfing the net and visiting their blogs. Recently my buddies Melanie, Deb and I wanted to do a scrapping project together, and since we all love kit clubs we thought it would be fun to pick one club, make a few projects, and do a blog hop. Once Deb introduced us to the Pink Ninja Addicts, we decided to use their Carousel kit. What fun club! And Ally, one of the owners, is so incredibly sweet. So if you're here because you're hopping along with us, thanks for visiting! I used the Carousel and Wind-It-Up add-on kits for my projects...
and here is what I came up with: First is this banner:

Here are close-ups of the panels. I made the white flowers from coffee filters and the centers are these cool flowers (and a pin) we got in our kits. I also used two vintage images (from my stash) on each end panel to add visual interest.

Love the cute hat pins in the following pic. The blue crocheted flower is really pretty. This is actually half of the flower -- it was pretty big! I saved the other half for another project... and look at that cute ballerina!

I fell in love with the "glass slipper" Thickers we got in the kit. They are sooooooo pretty in person...soooo pretty!

Notice the "bling" wings on the little girl (love those too!)... and I cut her crown from the Teresa Collins paper that was included...too stinkin' cute!

Here's the mini album I made. I decided that this would be a "sisters" theme album for my two teens. They're growing up so fast and have such different personalities...I hope they always stay close. For the base I used a small children's board book from the dollar section at Target. The cover is all Teresa Collins paper with another set of "bling" angel wings added on each side.

I silhouetted the photos and added the journaling in a "curve" around the images. The triangle page you see below was supposed to be part of the banner, but I decided to use it here. It's called a "tip-in" page, a term from my altered book days wherein you add a page to an already bound book. I'll post a tutorial on this technique if anyone is interested...

and finally I made this little card...hard to photograph since it's so windy here today. I used the lovely chipboard journaling stickers from the add-on kit. Oh my! I fell in love with these (well, it's Prima of course!)

That's it for my projects. Thanks so much for stopping by and if you haven't done so already, please be sure to visit Melanie and Deb's blogs to see their amazing work (really, they are so dang awesome!). This was so fun. I hope you're inspired to do something like this with your blog friends too!

xoxo

Cris

Another project originally designed by Miss Wendy..(I adore that chickie!). The base for the album is this sweet vintage 1908 Sears catalog. Wendy used a ton of cool paint techniques on her original, but since I didn't have the time or exact supplies to duplicate her amazing album, I had to make some stuff up on my own. The result is this little mini that stores the verses of my favorite love poem by Pablo Neruda. ACK! I just LOVE it! It's so lush and sparkly and pretty! I decided to use Wendy's paint techniques wherever I could, but also included vintage images from my own stash and some Melissa Frances crepe paper (yum, yum!) and other doo-dads. Love this little thang! Sorry for the dark pics..but I think you can get the idea. Oh, and I've included the entire poem below. Thanks for having a peek and for visiting with me today...xoxoxoxo

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda