My very first Mini Album... Finally! :-)

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all keeping well. A big welcome to my new followers - hope you enjoy your stay here, and you become frequent visitors! :-)

Today I would like to share with you my very first Mini Album. It's going to be a very loooong post but I promised on my YouTube video that I would share certain information about the album here, and so I need to keep my promise! There will also be plenty of photos of the album in this post - I am so happy with my creation that I just couldn't help it, sorry!

Have you ever wanted to make a mini but had no courage to start one, or no idea where to start? 

Trust me, I was there, too! And this is precisely why I decided to make this post so detailed - so that if any of you were hesitating until now, hopefully this post will give you some guidance and encouragement. Believe me, once you see what a few pieces of paper can be turned into, you'll get as excited and happy as I have! 

What did I use?

1) as explained on YouTube, I followed (rather closely) a tutorial by papercrafter45 (thank you for sharing it!). Fab tutorial, with lots of details and very clear instructions. And I really like the hinged method. You can find the first of the 9 tutorial videos here and you will be guided to the next ones from there

2) 10 sheets of 12x12 cardstock (I used black)

3) design papers - I used a 6x6 pad of Prima papers Rondelle

4) TONS of adhesive! I went through a whole roll of double sided 10mm tape (this one), a bit of the 5mm version, one or two glue rollers/snail adhesives (this one), some glue dots and I also used the hot glue gun to adhere the flowers to the cover

5) tyvek - used less than one sheet (purchased on eBay)

6) for the covers, I used - are you sitting? :o) - 2 pieces of chipboard I saved ages ago from shop-bought cakes. You know the gold/silver thick chipboard that is underneath the cakes? Yup, that's what I used! You can also use normal chipboard, of course!

7) embellishments (from my stash): flowers, pearls, printer printed sentiments, distress ink in Vintage Photo, lace, etc... And a die-cut frame here and there (Spellbinders)

How much time did I spend on making it?

If I say a week and a half, will that sound scary?! ;-) It shouldn't - I didn't work on the album every day (I skipped 2 or 3 days), and I only worked 1,5h - 2h a day, since I didn't have much more time in the evenings after work. Also, I am a precision freak, so if there was a line that was not straight - stuff had to be redone! Oh, and you could save time if you weren't inking/distressing each and every single edge of the paper sheets, or if you used roller/tape adhesive rather than double sided tape. 

Do you still have any questions?

Don't be shy - leave a comment under my video/post, or message me directly - I will be happy to help, if I can! 

Would you like me to make an album for you?

Same as above - get in touch! :-)

And now relax, sit comfortably, and have a look at the final result... (I was serious when I said that there would be lots of photos!)

Oh, and I almost forgot! The video:

I am entering my mini into the following challenges:

Paper crafting journey - anything goes

Cute card Thursday - Floral delights

Inky Impressions - Humor (see photo above the video, with the "every successful woman" sentiment :) )

Love to create - Bingo (Pink/Lace/Flowers)

Inky Chicks - Lace up!

Have a good weekend!

M.

Exploding box for a Special Mother...

Good evening Everyone and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you've had a good Monday... Did you have a day off? I was in work, but it was a good, relatively quiet day for a change, so it was worth going - especially when taking into consideration that I can take a day off of my choice instead, at some point in the future! ;-)

I have recently been asked to make an explosion/exploding box for a friend's mother's birthday, and I have to say - as usual, I had a lot of fun making it! They're really not that difficult, and for someone who has never seen one, they are a bit of paper magic... Apparently, the mum not only loved it, but also said that I should make a business out of making & selling these, and become a millionaire... Wishful thinking, I would probably need to make these boxes non-stop for the rest of my life to reach the six zeroes! 

Anyhow, here's the box in A LOT of photos, and I will share a little secret with you - it will be my DT project for Divas by Design this week... But I won't tell you just yet what the challenge theme is going to be - you'll have to wait till Wednesday!

I am entering the box into the following challenges:

Love to create - Classy and Elegant

A Gem of a Challenge - Mother's Day/Female Birthday/Special Lady

The East Wind - Spring

QKR Stampede - Anything goes

Moving along with the times - Make a box and decorate it

Cute Card Thursday - Girls girls girls

Hope you like the box, too! At the end of the day... "I wanna be a (b)millionaire... " ;-)

M.

For the boys!

Good evening Everyone,

Time for another DT project & a new challenge over at Divas by Design (time flies!)... This week's challenge is Let's hear it for the boys. Not an easy one for me, for sure, since I am usually rather useless with male cards. However, believe it or not, I actually have not one but TWO creations for this week's theme... I had a few manly occasions to celebrate recently ;-)

The first card is a little bit more traditional, with the oh so recently popular "tache" (of even a few of them!). The other one is more of a shaped card - having fun with different folds of cards is always most welcome for me - love making these a bit more quirky creations!

Hope you like these, have a great day!

A little mustache managed to hide even on the inside ;-)

 The card opens (when you "unhook" the front from underneath the collar) 

and reveals the message inside - fun!

I am entering my cards into the following challenges:

Inky Chicks - Monochromatic

Inky Impressions - 3D projects

QKR Stampede - Anything but a square card

Paper Crafting Journey - Make it manly/boyish

M.