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Click HERE to head over to Veronica's blog and leave her a comment for your chance to win :0)

My latest ACRYLIC album!

I found this poor album at M's awhile back, the packaging was tattered but the album was in perfect condition! Oh, and did I mention the best part??? It was on clearance for like 7 bucks...can't beat that deal! I bought some K&Co Wild Saffron paper that day too, so I guess they were meant to be together :-) The pictures I have posted don't really go so much with what I am actually saying..LOL I didn't take pictures as I went. They are just for your viewing pleasure as you read ;-)

Okay, back on track! This is deffinetly one of those bold, large print paper packs, but I made some cards with it last week too. It sat for a long time, this album was probably on the corner of my desk for a week! Waiting for the front page to come to me.

Finally, I saw a scrap with the butterfly tilted in just the right direction and remembering I still had the other sheet of the paper, knew I could cut out the other matching butterfly and place it directly over the top of it for the very front page of the album. After the front was stacked and ready to go I started with the back page, made it with one of the largest sized mats I would use.

I love to use double sided papers on acrylic, then you can use it for the mat on the back side of the page too. Cutting out each pages mat, I made my way back to the front. One tip, leave that protective sheet on the album til you absolutely HAVE to take it off! I glue right to it with my Zig glue pen, I just give the glue a moment to dry a little so it is only a temporary bond. After I had all the mats finished i sat down at the sewing machine and stitched around each mat. The temporary glue allows you to pull off the mat, sew it, and stick it right back on! Too easy...

Next, I find homes for lots of pretty flowers, taking care to see what will hide the backs of each of them. Sometimes the edge of a mat works, sometimes it's just another flower. When you have a good idea of what will go where on your page, pull the mat back off ONE MORE TIME, and peal off that protective sheet. With very clean hands design your page, my favorite permanent adhesive these days are those wonderful little glue dots!

After each page was all put together, I pushed the edges of the pages into my white Stazon ink pad, just enough to accentuate the scalloped edge. they can really get lost IMO without a little definition! :-)

Now I just bind it together with some book rings, tie on my coordinating ribbons, and finally my album is complete!

Check it out on eBay!

Before I go, is it just me or is anyone else finding it hard to find  nice pretty paper collection and kits? I seem to be having a lot of trouble finding anything that trips my trigger! So many bold, large patterns... I have been thinking of going back to some previous lines for a bit. Who knows! If you have any suggestions, feel free to introduce me to them :-)

GOT CARDS?

I'm a little late as usual posting, but I have great news! I've been inspired to once again make a few cards! After making thousands of handmade greeting cards, most of which were sold on eBay, I suddenly grew tired of making them. I'm sure a new baby (my second child), many life changes, and of course my interest in mini albums, just drained me of my card making mojo. This week Pocket Full Of Papers is having a handmade greeting card challenge that is part of the Holiday Shoppe we're hosting this month.

Be sure to search PFOP on eBay to see all the handmade paper goodies and designer handmade cards,we have to offer this week!

 I had no idea when I started making a couple cards for the challenge I would end up with a whopping 25 so far!

Some of them really have a lot of my "oc" designs, like bouquets, or tiny flowers adorning a fence.

Something new for me in cardmaking has been machine sewing many of the layers. I love on cards just as much as on album pages!

Instead of using the regular quarter-fold size cards, I've given square, 5x5 cards a try. These have been a nice fun change too.

I listed two sets of cards on Sunday, and just listed three more this evening on eBay so be sure to check out the rest!

New eBay listings!

My oh my, I am so far behind on posting...AGAIN! I have two new albums listed on ebay right now. Both were created using DCWV papers. 

The first is from the Garden Party line, and I chose to use only the teal, green, and brown coordinating pages. 

With an any occasion theme, it's sure to suit a variety of your photos. Each page is adorned with butterflies and pretty prima flowers. 

It's 7x8 inches and features tabbed inner pages. Check it out! 

Secondly, is a 6x9 inch album with mixed shape pages. 

I made it using DCWV's Rustic papers. I just love every page in this line. Can't wait to use more! I named it Shine, using a K&Co chipboard word sticker. I was really impressed to find stickers that matched this line just right! It is very seldom I can cross brands and be happy with the way they go together. 

I scissor distressed each layer of the photo mats in it again, I tell you I'm hooked on that technique! 

I used stacked word stickers by K&Co to give each page a little bit of inspiration for choosing the perfect photo. A couple of gem swirl packs later... ta-da! Check out all the pictures here on ebay! 

Thank for reading, and have a great week :)

CHECK OUT this blog giveaway!

I have followed this blog for some time, after (hearting) this fabulous seller/crafter on Etsy. Right now Tam has an awesome RAK giveaway going on! Chipboard & Cosmo Cricket.....it doesn't get any better than this! The drawing is Oct. 20th, go check it out to see how you could be the lucky winner :)
LIVING OUT LOUD BLOG GIVEAWAY!

Pocket Full Of Papers Cancer Awarness Charity

Hello! I hope you like the new look to my blog, I had to do just a touch of fall decorating!

My post today is to announce that I have joined a new design team on ebay. You may have heard of them before... Pocket Full Of Papers! If you haven't, you had definitely better go check out their listings!! They are truly an elite group of paper crafters. I am so happy to be a member!October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and PFOP is holding it's annual charity auctions to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure!


Each members listing with the word "PINK" in the title will be donating a percentage of the final selling price to help save lives and end breast cancer forever.

Here is the beautiful album I have contributed, I posted on it a couple days ago,if you missed it you can find it here.

Inspiring Butterflies!

Well I think I said in my last post, that I loved fall/Halloween colors... Don't get me wrong, I do love this time of year. though the leaves have just begun to change here in southern Colorado, I really want to be done paper crafting in fall colors! I've still got some albums to finish up, but I had to take a break. This is what I came up with!
I knew after flipping through the pages of the DCWV Garden Party Stack at JoAnns I would be using some of the pages pretty quick!


One of them had glitter swirls atop various sizes of beautiful butterflies-- it is so pretty! I think I had the butterflies cut cut out before I even set up the album :) I also made many handmade flowers. I must say, luckily my DH was happy to help me out with these!! First I traced a circle shape and tore it out. Then I crumpled them into tiny balls and rolled the around and around and around..(get the picture?) in the palms of my hands. When you un-crumple them they are full of texture and the torn edges have been smoothed perfectly. I really like them! I have seen many similar ones, but I really like the *been pulverized* look!

So I went through my chipboard pages stash, picked out a couple pages from my Michaels $1 albums and traced and cut out the rest with my own hand drawn templates.


This page is from the butterfly album from Michaels but I trimmed the tops and bottoms off the wings so the shape better fit the butterflies on the pages. I never did like the shape of that butterfly album anyway! ;) I love this quote, i got it from quotegarden.com. Be sure to check there next time you are in need of a neat quote.







There aren't many DCWV embellishments, but I did find some K&Co epoxy stickers that matched great and really helped me with the theme of the album.
And there it is! I hope you like it as much as I do :) Check it out on ebay!

Let's Go A Haunting!

I love Halloween, it's one of my favorite holidays. Fall comes in colors of red, orange, brown...then BAM, Halloween comes and throws in purple and black and green, making for one of the most awesome color pallets!
Tonight I listed my first Halloween album. I like the horizontal rectangle, it gives great little layouts just the right room. This paper line is called Haunted by Cosmo Cricket. Yeah, I LOVE me some Cosmo Cricket!! The paper pack comes with awesome stickers, so you can't help but spend the extra $$$ and get the chipboard shapes that the stickers fit perfectly over top of!
After all that careful tracing, cutting, gluing, and of course finally sanding every edge, I had one pretty neat album to fill :) I have to point out one funny thing... this dang little swirl is suppose to show the bats flight pattern right? I made it from one straight row of connected pearls and it was soooo hard to get it right! LOL!
I love how this page turned out, I cut that leafy-vine-flourish thing out by hand and inked the chipboard bat with metallic ink. This picture really doesn't do it justice now that I stare at it for awhile! LOL
I have been a little bored with the usual machine stitching lately so I scribble stitched some photo mat corners by hand with orange thread. I scissor distressed all the photo mats and a few accents too. I think it turned out alright, I already have some plans for an album to finish off the papers though! Check it on ebay!

Brown Paper Bags: Not just for lunch!

I just love how paper bag scrapbook albums are so unique in their own special way! Though chipboard is my favorite base for mini albums, I can't help but make a bag album now and again. I prefer to use a heavy paper weight, so there isn't as much rippling of the pages from gluing. I also love to use my most favorite glue... the Zig Memory Two way glue pen. If you apply the glue and almost immediatly attach your papers it makes a perfect bond that dries superfast and never rinkles and ripples like other gluing can! I used up most of the rest of the fall themed paper pack I got by Making Memories for it. Unlike chipboard albums, there is no need for perfect trimming and sanding all the edges of the pages. For this album however, I distressed the edges and it made for quite a time consuming and dusty technique! Probably not a favorite of every buyer out there... let's just hope someone can't live without it :) I printed out a few fall sayings including the covers title and distressed them all too. For the distressing, I used a sharp pair of scissors, and scraped it along the sides of the papers. I love how no matter how gental you are, you can easily get a random tear or two along each side! Then I inked the edges just a little bit with some distress ink by Ranger Ink... looks like I used "antique linen", it's on the top of the pile in my drawer :)

Check it out on ebay!

SNEAK PEAK! Up coming FALL albums

Fall is here! It's my most favorite season! I thought I would take the opportunity to jump a head a few days and show you some new albums. I won't be listing them until next week, but this way I can post on some Halloween albums next week.
I made these two albums with precut chipboard shaped albums I bought from one of my favorite ebay stores, Fancy Fibers for Scrapbooking (her ebay id is nice2cu). Besides beautiful fibers and ribbons, she caries TONS of chipboard shapes and albums. I love 'em! She has awesome prices, even her shipping rates kick butt :-) These ones are even a little over sized to give you more room to design your pages!
The first one is done in Making Memories papers. I named it Thankful. They had the cute rhinestone word with the papers and embellish- ments at Michaels. I'm hooked on tearing up the edges of my papers, (hopefully in a good way) giving that worn- been- around- awhile feeling. It's amazing how you can find enjoyment in carefully planning and trimming photo mats and accents, only to take your scissors or even fingernail and just yuck up all the edges! I'm really trying to ad a little more to each page too. You've got to love the detail and placement of accents you can get on a 12x12 one picture layout! It's not all there..lol... but I really like adding just a little more.

The second album is much more whimsical. It has got to be my favorite album made for some time. I did my silly machine stitching on cricut cut photo mats and made it with a family/fall theme.
I feel really bad at the moment, I used what I could, recycled the scraps, and cannot remember who the paper is by! I remember it said Granny's Kitchen and was purchased at Michaels also, I'll post back after I have a chance to check and see who makes it!
I have some albums listed this week, I just never posted on them. Have a look see :)

Few new albums... and a few re-lists!

Finally I have something listed on ebay! I finished up a couple albums last week, but just couldn't get them listed!
First up, I have to show you a Hannah Montana Star shaped album. I made it with a little bitty kit I got from Micheal's. A few flowers & charms and ribbons & fibers later, I had a cute little keepsake album any Hannah fan would love!
I also finished up two smallish albums that I actually have had cut, bagged up and ready to go for many months. I named them both "Memories", and they are both made with My Minds Eye papers. On the teal one, I used primas pretty flower gems for the centers of some of the flowers and printed the memories title the little word blocks on each page, using a 50's style font.

The other is done in pink, red, and brown colored papers. The cover title was printed in a country font. Some of the pages have a pull out tag for journaling or an extra picture. It features white felt swirl accents and my very own pocket full of posies creation.

Next is two albums I'm re listing. I never posted on them, so why not show them off now?! The first is an acrylic album, made with the Delight line from fancy pants. I really lost my mind using these papers! They were very busy, and it was kinda tricky to find perfectly matching flowers etc. That added to the complexity of see thru pages... I was not too surprised the first time around when it never sold. Then I made another using the rest of the papers and didn't like it any better! To my complete surprise though, it sold last week for over $100! Isn't it *funny*just when the ones that could be your least favorite are just perfect in someone else's eyes?!

My second re list is a road trip album I listed earlier this summer. I used little epoxy stickers for the flower centers, and think it was a neat & different way to pull it all together. I used all different shaped pages, the cover being a hand designed and cut road sign shape.
Well this has been one loooong post! Check out the rest of the pictures at: http://shop.ebay.com/ocbrandy/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=
Thanks for looking!