3rd Birthday Blog Hop with Divas by Design!

I am sooo excited today to participate in my very first blog hop! Divas by Design are celebrating their 3rd birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), and we - the Design Team members - were asked to participate in a special birthday blog hop. How cool is that?!

You should have come here from Andie's blog (and oh boy is her creation cute!), next on your list is going to be Aunty Sue (oh yeah, some cuteness over there, too!).

Now, on to the card, the challenge information and... a surprise!

The challenge this week is the always very popular Anything goes. Please join us in the celebrations and participate, we can't wait to see your creations! As you will see from the information over at Divas, this week there's a prize to be won not only on the main challenge blog, but you are actually also in a chance to win something on each of our blogs! All you need to do is to leave a comment (one comment per person per blog, please!) on as many blogs participating in the hop as you want to (I would encourage you to try your luck on all of them! I know I would do so!), and... keep your fingers crossed :o)

My prize for the winner on my blog is the card I have created for this week's challenge, and... a small candy! Please leave a comment under this post if you want to be in a chance of winning the card, and if you want to get the candy also - I would appreciate if you could also follow my blog, in addition to leaving the comment. 

I have actually made 2 cards this time, both very similar... One is going to be sent to my beloved Godmother for her birthday, and the other one could be yours! The winner gets the chance to choose which of the 2 cards they want.* I can send the card blank, can stamp/print a sentiment/message inside the card, or write a few words inside the card - I will agree on the details with the winner...

The die cut shape is a Marianne Design Creatables Die - Butterfly 3 - LR0115

The papers come from the Prima Marketing collection: Sunrise Sunset 12x12 

And here's a photo of the candy - Whiff of Joy stamps, some ribbon, pink "Baby" confetti & little sparkly cupcake toppers:

I hope you like my butterfly creations, the blog hop and the prizes. Now get commenting, following, and hopping! Next stop - Aunty Sue. Have fun!

I am entering the cards into the following challenges:

Inky Chicks - Butterflies

A gem of a challenge - Ribbon and lace

Have a great day,

Mirella

* Sorry, Peeps, I only realised now that I have to post the card to my Godmother this Monday already, hence you won't be able to choose the card, but you will still have the chance to decide how you want me to finish the card!

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.