Mini Matchbooks

Well, it's been a looooong time since I updated this blog. Not that I don't find inspiration everywhere, just that, well, you know - it's the time thing. I'm the biggest procrastinator ever! But speaking of being short on time, here is a little project that you can knock out in no time at all.

 

Mini matchbooks can be used for all sorts of things. I've put photos in some, used some for journaling, and even added magnets on the back to hang on the fridge. Keep them tucked in your purse with photos of the kids or grandkids. I keep a small one with Japanese phrases I want to remember for when I'm out shopping in town.

I've made some for party favors too. These are a bit larger and are just the right size for holding a Ghirardelli chocolate square.

Here's the measurements for making the smaller accordion ones for your purse. When they are open, they look like this.

1.     Cut a 1 ¾ x 5 inch strip of cardstock or double-sided patterned paper. Score at

2,  2 ¼ and 4 ½ inches. Fold on score lines. This will be the cover of your mini album.

2.    Cut a piece of paper 1 ½ x 9 ¼ inches. Score at

2 ¼, 4, 5 ¾ and 7 ½ inches. Fold on score lines. This will be the inside of your album. You can use it for small photos or perhaps for journaling.

3.    You will notice that once the accordion part is folded, that there is one longer end. Insert this longer piece inside the shorter  end of the cover and staple or secure with brads.  

 

That's it! You are done - except for a little bit of decorating. But these are so easy and you can use up your scraps of paper and left-over stickers, die cuts and gems. So simple, fun and pretty!

 

Making a Star Album for Christmas

Over the years I have taken many of my favorite family photos during the Christmas season, so I decided  why not highlight a few of those in a star-shaped mini album? Star albums are 6x6" mini albums that open up into a star-shape display.  You'll want to make one for yourself as well as a few for gifts. They are fun to make and easier than you may think but do take up a lot of cardstock and patterned paper  -- so make sure you have plenty before you get started.

Here is the supply list I used followed by some instructions. I would love to see how yours comes out, so please share a link if you use my instructions. Meanwhile, have a very Merry Christmas!

Supplies

1. Three sheets of Bazzill Red cardstock
2. Three sheets Bazzill Yukon Gold cardstock
3. Three sheets of Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper
4. Two pieces of chipboard 6x6”
5. Two sheets of Bazzill Metallic Gold paper for cover
6. Two 12” pieces of 1” wide ribbon
7. Heavy-duty adhesive such as Red Line tape or Book Binding Glue
8. Embellishments of your choice

Cover

A. Cut two pieces of Bazzill Metallic Gold paper into 8x8” squares.

B. Place these pieces face down and glue the 6x6” piece of chipboard in the center of the back of each.


Photo C.


C. Trim off each corner of the Metallic paper leaving a 1/8” of space on each corner. (Photo C)












D. Add some glue strips around each edge and fold over the edges of the paper. (Photo D)

E. Lay the two pieces down in front of you and glue a piece of ribbon onto each. The long ends of the ribbon should run to your left on the left page and to the right on the right-hand page.

Building the Star Points

A. Trim the tag ends off of the Wassail patterned paper.

B. Cut your cardstock as follows:

         a. Red – 12x6”

         b. Yukon Gold – 11x6”

         c. Wassail – 10x6”

C. You should now have 6 pieces of each color. Fold each in half.

D. Run a piece of Red Line tape along the short inside edges of the Red and the Yukon Gold papers.

E. Lay the Yukon Gold paper on top of the Red paper and adhere only the edges together.

F. Lay the Wassail paper on top of the Yukon Gold paper and adhere only the edges together.

G. Each star point is made of three layers of paper and now that you have six of these together, you will begin to see the star emerge.

 

Assembly

A. Glue the back of one of your stacks to the left-hand cover. 

B. Continue gluing each red layer back to back until you have glued the back cover on the last page.

C. Decorate the inside pages to your liking.

D. Tie the album open and display on a table.

I'm So Proud of my Students!

Kazumi, Waka, & Yuko

Though they are only into month 2 of their beginners' lessons, this week my scrapbook students really rocked the Casbah! I gave them each a page kit courtesy of Helen Croft from Scrap A Little which consisted of the same few elements - a background sheet; 2 paper flower shapes; four strips of various patterned papers; and a journaling block.

I lined the table with punches, ink, stickles, flowers, ribbon, twine and all the tools they could want and told them to be creative! At first I was greeted with a look of horror and shock. After all, though Waka and Yuko had been to 6 classes, Kazumi had only been to one of my classes so far.

I did provide my simple take on the use of the materials. But after settling in with a few sips of our Beauty & Vitamin Drinks, they took to the project with glee.

It is the beginner's inclination to want to use every pretty bit of glitterati and ribbon in sight, but with a few suggestions from me, they each used the kit in entirely different ways. At the end of the day they were all so pleased with themselves and with their creations that I think they have gained in confidence and are beginning to feel like imaginative, artistic scrappers.

Scrapbooking is still in it's infancy in Japan, but these three girls have taken to the art wholeheartedly and that makes me so proud!

And here's mine:

Going Postal

Do you remember the excitement of receiving birthday cards and other sentiments in the mail when you were a kid? These days with email being so fast and free, that personal touch is something I miss. It was always such a good feeling to know that someone cared enough to go through the effort to get that piece of paper to you.

Well recently I received a very nice surprise in my mail box. A handwritten 'Offical Poem on a Postcard' from my next-to-youngest sister. I thought the poem was sweet -- though she had labled it 'cheezy' and created her own little logo to go along with it. Here is a copy of her 'cheezy' poem. The front photos flip open and the postcards and supporting photos are behind the flaps.

As you can see, her poem calls for interaction, so of course I had to answer her in post card form. I hope she got as much enjoyment out of reading mine as I did hers.

And of course, what would a scrapper do, but turn the interaction into a scrapbook page. I used MT washi Masking tape to make the air mail-look border and Close To My Heart Flip Flap pockets to enclose the postcards. Surprise Trish! This is why I asked you for a photo of yourself sitting in your backyard. Thanks for brightening my day and bringing back that nostalgic feeling of opening the mail box and finding something special tucked inside!

Quiz fun!

This week's Funday Monday prompt at Creative Scrapbooking Divas is to take the quiz 'What Color is My Soul Painted' and use the results in your journaling.

I'm a fan of the quirky little quizes that sometimes are seen on FB or sent via email and this color quiz is one of my favorites. According to quiztron.com, 'This quiz was designed to explain the meaning of colors and how they represent the human persona.' Though many of these Internet quizes are meant for enlightenment, they simply end up as amusement for me and sometimes the results can be hilarious. So come join us, take the quiz, create a page with you results, and share in the fun!

Texting! 143!

We had some truly wonderful Top-10 pages in the last Funday Monday challenge and our winner was Jamelee Morano from the Phillipines. Her RAK is on the way!

So this week's Funday Monday challenge idea came to me from a challenge done at Making Memories For You and I thought it would be fun for us to do at MAF. I call it the Sign Language Challenge.

In today’s technology-based world, texting has become second nature to many of us. I Love You has been replaced with I “heart” U … “see you later” has become “C U L8R”.
I always use "143" to tell someone I love them, or "TTYL" for talk to you later. There are so many shortcuts to use when texting. What is your favorite?
For this challenge, replace one or more words in your title with a single letter, number, icon or graphic and upload it to your gallery at MAF. As usual, there is an RAK up for grabs!

I have a funny story to go with this challenge. My husband and I (married 28 years now) always leave each other little love notes. One day while I was out, my husband came home at lunch and decided to leave me a note. He wrote on our fridge in huge colorful letters 143 - I LOVE YOU. So of course when I came home I thought it was sweet but when I tried to wash it off the fridge, it would not come off! And this is not our fridge! We live in military housing and this is government property! My poor husband thought he had used erasable markers, but he had used permanent markers! We have tried every product imaginable to take off the marker and all we have managed to do is take the paint off the door. So the moral is, if you are going to text, do it on your cell phone or computer.




Do you have any funny texting stories? Leave me a comment here to be in a drawing for an additional RAK from me! Happy texting and TTYL!

Create with Washi Paper Masking Tape

We all know that masking tape is commonly used when we are painting to cover up areas we want to avoid. But recently, I’m drawn to the delicious variety of colors and designs found in the stationery stores around Japan. Soon I was picking up a role of red here and a 3-pack of teal patterns there and in no time at all, I had amassed quite a collection of pretty colors and knew I had to figure out a way to use it on my scrapbook pages.

There are a number of companies that make colorful masking tape, but most of mine seem to come from Kamoi Paper. As I opened the packages of Kamoi's MT masking tape, I was immediately inspired by the gorgeous hues and the soft feel of the tape. This is no ordinary tape; this is made of rice paper! Intrigued, I turned to the company’s website. Using Kamoi’s English Menu, I began to read about the making of washi masking tape and how they came to offer such fabulous colors.

It seems this little company was contacted by a customer who made a little book out of their tape and requested more colors. Kamoi's aim was to please this artistic customer, so a partnership was formed and they set about with a passion to color the rice paper in hues that make a crafter sigh with pleasure! The site not only includes their history, but a fun factory tour where you will learn how they color the rice paper and add the sticky. There is also a gallery where you can see the myriad of uses their customers have found for the rainbow of colors.

Speaking of rainbows, let me share with you my ideas for using washi masking tape in scrapbooking. The first page is inspired by a sketch at Let’s Scrap and created for the rainbow challenge at Scrapbook.com. It is constructed of Bazzill black cardstock, masking tape and Thickers. I’ve include a tutorial below on how to do the washi blossom at the end of this post.



The next page is inspired by a sketch by LG challenge at MAF.





So let's get on with the tutorial. I was inspired to make this flower out of washi tape after viewing Helen Croft's beautiful page at Scrapbook.com. To begin, you will need washi tape in the color or colors of your choice, a ruler, a small pair of scissors, a pencil, a glue stick, and some rough-cut circles. My biggest circle is about 2 inches across.

Start by covering a few of your circles with washi tape, trim off the excess tape and glue the circles together with the smallest on top.

Now choose a color of washi tape and cut it about six inches long. Lay it printed side down on the table - the sticky side will be up.

Take another piece of washi tape in the same color and lay it down on top of your six-inch strip - sticky sides together. Trim this peice off the role about a half to 3/4 inch longer than the first strip. Trim the other end so that there is no sticky showing at all.

Now, turn your circles over and attach the end with the 1/2 inch of sticky showing to the back of the circle. Flip it back right side up and wrap the long end around a pencil until your flower petals are the length you would like.

Now cut a tiny square of matching washi and lay it part way on the roll and part way on the longer part of the flower petal. This will hold the roll in place. I left mine sticking up a bit so you could see it, but you will want to smooth down the edges.

And there you have it - a pretty flower to add to your scrapbook pages!

Easy-to-do Mosaic Scrapbooking!

My daughter-in-law takes the most awesome nature shots and she made the most of her abilities while visiting the Tropical Dream Center in Okinawa. I wanted to get as many of these gorgeous photos on the page as I could, so I turned to Wish In The Wind products to help me make this mosaic. There are nine 3 1/2 x5 photos on this one page and the whole layout only took me about one hour to complete.



Want to know how to get started? You'll need some tools: a self-healing cutting mat with one-inch grids; a craft knife with a fresh blade; some repositional glue (tape runner, xyron machine, glue stick - any type of repositional will do); a cork-backed ruler; and some grid paper. http://www.wishinthewind.com/ has all the tools you need to get started, plus they sell the pre-printed grid paper in tons of colors. The grid paper makes laying out your mosaic super easy as the spacing is all figured out for you.


You'll also need to choose nine or ten photos and some cardstock in case you want to mat a photo or leave room for a title. It's best to choose some photos that are close-ups as well as some with a bit of background scenery for visual interest.Once you have chosen your photos, coat the back with the repositional glue and choose the photos that you would like to be your main focus. For Paradise Found, I chose three photos and a journaling block to start my page.




First, line your photo up on the mat so that one side and either the top or bottom edge are lined up along the dark guidelines on the mat.


Lay your ruller along the dark guidelines and cut your photo into squares using the craft knife.

Tips: If you are going to cut your photo into 1-inch pieces, be sure
your
subject's face falls between the dark gridlines. You don't want to cut into
their face or cut them off at the neck.

Also, if you are going to cut a
photo to fill more than one grid, you must
add 1/4 inch to each photo.

Once you have cut your photo into squares, it will look like this. I used 3 1/2 x5 inch photos. There will be a bit of extra on one short side and one long side of your photo. You can see in this photo that the squares on the bottom are definitely too small. And the squares on the right are just a tad too small. You don't want to use these. Just discard these bits. If you use 4x6 inch photos, you may not have extra bits.

Lay your main photos and journaling block on the grid, then begin filling in the grid with your one-inch squares. Don't be concerned if you cannot fit the entire picture in the empty spaces. This will give interest to your page, but don't throw out those extra squares just yet! You may be able to use them to fill in an empty spot. In 'Paradise Found' I used bits of green from the top center picture to fill in a space above the bottom yellow flower. I'll bet you did not notice until I told you so!

Have fun with this technique. It is quite easy once you get the hang of it and the final result can be stunning!

Win these gorgeous dimensional butterflies!

I'm so excited to be chosen as a Design Team Member for Memories Always Forever that I have decided to host a giveaway in celebration!

While I was visiting my daughter in Okinawa last week, I came across these beautiful butterflies. The good news for you is that I bought extra packs! Look at how beautiful these are! They seem to fly right off the page. They come in yellow or orange and there are 3 large, 4 medium and 10 small in each set.

It's easy to win - just complete 3 short steps:
1. Sign up on Memories Always - Forever. Click on the link at right to take you there. Be sure to say I sent you.
2. Complete a LO from my sketch below and post it to MAF.
3. Comment back here by July 30 with a link to your LO. I'll chose a winner at random.

Good luck and have fun! I can't wait to hear from you!

4th of July Hanabi

I had a lot of fun doing this layout of my grandson Gavin watching the fireworks last year in Okinawa, Japan. The holiday is important to our family - not just for it's patriotic aspect - but because we have 4 people within our family that celebrate their birthdays on July 4 and 5th.

I chose the colors for Monica's July Summer Challenge at Memories, Always Forever. Click the link on my sidebar to take you to this great new site. This layout, though based on a digital layout by KellyCali at SB.com, uses so many of the supplies I had on hand. The circles are cut with my Wishblade, but any circle cutter would do the trick. I used lots of buttons as per the Pile It On Challenge blogspot. Here is list of my supplies.

Bazzill cardstock in Red, White, Blue and Black
Karen Foster Sparkle Burst Brads
Bo Bunny Brads in blue and red
K & company Brenda Walters Rhinestones
Dress it Up Color Me White buttons
Junkitz Alphabet Buttons
Smartz Geo Shapes Paper Clips
ColorBok metal dots
Liquid Pearls in Ruby Red and White Opal
Stickles Waterfall
Red, white and blue glitter glues from the 100 yen store
Making Memories Dot letters in black and white
Blue Gel Writer
Fiskars Border Punch
plus assorted left over brads and eyelets from my stash.

Home Sweet Home

I come from a military family and have spent most of my life moving from one place to the next. Sometimes it is sad to leave a place you've grown to love or some wonderful friends you've made, but it's always exciting to look forward to learning about the new location.

One thing about the move, though, is that I've never had to make it alone. As we all look forward to the great American holiday weekend coming up, let me tell you about a true American hero- my Daughter-in-law.

Her husband is deployed to Afghanistan and she recently got orders to move into quarters on Camp Lejeune. With only the help of two preschool boys and one very large dog, Jenny oversaw the move virtually by herself. Now if you have not moved very often, you may not realize what this entails. There is that small amount of time where you are in limbo with the old house packed up and the new house still empty, meanwhile living out of suitcases while you wait for the things to be picked up and delivered. There are the kids to feed, the dog to walk and of course, the old house must be scrubbed spotless if you want your deposit back. Don't forget to change your address on all your correspondence and newspaper subscriptions, or turn off the electric, water, and garbage. It's just too much for one person to do - never mind with the kids and the dog and worrying about your loved one's safety on a daily basis.

But she managed it and let the boys have some fun in all the boxes as she got it all unpacked and the boxes sent back to the moving company. I know the house will feel cozier when her husband comes home again. But for now - this is where my American Hero lives, this is her Home Sweet Home.

Good Times!

I've made a page for the Pile It On Challenge (http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/) three weeks in a row now. The challenge is to pile on as many challenges as you like in one layout. It gives me a lot of inspiration to work this way and it is something I have been doing for some time, so I really love this site. For this week the requirement was to use purple, as well as fulfill at least one other challenge.

In addition to using the purple color for Pile It On, I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers ( http://creativescrappers.blogspot.com/2009/06/design-team-call.html) as well as using the word 'Good' in the title as per One Little Word's challenge (http://onelittleword.typepad.com/olw/).

I thought this photo of me in my purple jumpsuit circa 1977 was perfect for this challenge. Plus I really like using these old pictures of myself, well - because I was so much hotter then! ha ha.

I handmade the little record albums. I think they were important to the LO for the time frame that I was scrapping. I also made the balloons out of some scraps of vellum with silver stickles for the string.

Here is a list of my other supplies.

Bazzill cardstock in black, red and some purples

DCWV Posies Glitter Print

Liquid Pearls - Pewter

Color Box Pigment Brush Pad - Silver

K.Onishi Japan Lace Decore Seal

Catch a Wave!

I made this LO for a number of challenges:
1. I used a sketch over at Dixie Pieces
2. I used 2 ribbons plus combined other challenges for Pile It On Challenge
3. I used a picture of one of the guys in my life for Tami's Love Our Guys challenge over at Back Porch Memories.
4. I used a photo of someone in sunglasses for Fablady's Cool Shades Challenge over at sb.com

Want to know how to do this journaling? It is soooo easy. Here is a quick tutorial:
1. Gather your supplies. You will need a piece of scrap paper, a pencil, a white eraser, a ruler and a gel pen.

2. Measure how much room you have on your LO for your journaling, and on a peice of scrap paper, draw a box that size.

3. Begin with pencil. Drawing freehand, draw some slighly wavy lines in the box. Don't be too fussy about how it looks. The beauty is in the randomness of the pattern.

4. Now print your journaling in capital letters. Each letter should touch the top line and the bottom line. Don't begin the first letter of each new line directly beneath the one above. The letters need to be staggered a bit so that you can read them. This will give you a guide as to how much wording will fit in the space you have. For example, you will need to draw 6 lines, for 5 lines of journaling.

5, Once you have an idea of the way it will look, draw your lines lightly in pencil on your orginal journaling block, or directly on your LO as I did in the example above.

6. Now go over all the pencil lines with the gel pen. If your pencil lines show through, erase them gently with a white eraser. Here is how mine looked before I erased the lines.

Now your journaling is a work of handmade art that hadds a special touch to your page! Here is another example of how great this journaling style looks.