Getting ready...

 I promised to show how my latest mini album turned out after I added the photos and embellishments...but it's not quite done, you see. I got sidetracked (my middle name) with this little thing called Thanksgiving. I realized it's this Thursday and I hadn't decorated at all.
When I went to Jo-Ann's and Target last night to pick up some pretty fall decor, there was NONE. NADA.

Well, good thing I have craft supply on hand.

Thanks to the never ending inspiration called Pinterest I made a nice looking banner.

I used the Cricut cartridge called "Mother's Day Bouquet"

 and cut out leaves in different fall colors. I cut them 6 inch and 7 1/2 (I think).
For the letters I used the Songbird cartridge.

 I'm pretty sure I made them 5 inch big.

 
I inked all the edges and added pop-up dots between the smaller and larger leaves.
I used glue dots to attach the leaves to a ribbon. I'm not sure that was a smart idea...I don't know if it will hold. We will see once I start cooking and the temperature will rise in here...

Oh yeah, behind the leaves with the letters I added smaller leaves in different sizes.

Whatcha think?

New winner for giveaway

I had to draw a new winner for my latest giveaway. I didn't hear from the last one, which makes me sad. Someone won something and didn't know about it, plus she must not read my blog on regular basis:(

Anyways, someone else will be happy.This winner is not random. I picked her because she is always so sweet and leave comments. So this is my thank you for being a loyal blog reader:)

And the new winner is: Svjetlana.

Congrats to you! Email your address to scrapalittle@gmail.com and I will send this off in the mail:

Tutorial for mini album made with envelopes

YES! It's happening! A long overdue tutorial is here:) 
I want to share how to make an easy mini album made with envelopes.
 
Here's the first one I made, where I used old American Crafts paper.

 
For this one I was lazy and didn't even use the pockets- which is the whole idea with using envelopes.

 Here's another one I made, which turned out a bit more fun:

 
I used the pockets for pullouts with additional photos and journaling.

  
 
This is what you need to make a mini album like this;

• envelopes
• patterned paper
• trimmer
• adhesive
• ink(optional)
• hole puncher
• metal rings or ribbons to hold the album together
• embellishments

 
 Here we go:

Use any size or color envelopes.Whatever you have laying around at home. It's totally up to you how big you want your album to be. Some envelopes has the flaps one the side and some on top. Either one works.

Start with cutting off the flaps.

Some envelopes are really thin so then I will actually glue two of them together for more stability.
 
When you choose your papers for your mini, don't butcher your latest paper kit you just bought!! Mini albums are perfect to use for all those scraps or at least use some of that old paper you had for years.

Measure your patterned paper to cover the envelopes and make sure when you adhere it that you DON'T glue the part for the opening!

 

 

When you have covered all the envelopes front and back, you might need to trim some edges off.
For a more finished look, ink all the sides of the papers.

I use my "Big Bite", but any hole puncher works. I just eyeball where to punch the holes, but there's nothing wrong with measuring;)
 
Punch the first page and then use that page as a template for the rest.

And this is how it looks now.

What's left is just to add photos and decorate which I'm gonna go and do right now.
I'll be back to show the finished album tomorrow.

Hey, if you like this, you can always pin it...

See you tomorrow!

Teresa Collins

 

Last week I had the privilege to go to a class with TERESA COLLINS. Yes, I was a bit starstruck I admit, but she was extremely sweet and down to earth.

 

 

 

 
Teresa was teaching us how to make a mini album with her Vintage Finds collection. So pretty!

What was interesting was that almost every page in this album had a different size. She alternated between small and bigger pages to give it a visual interest. Wow, I would never have done that! I'm such a square person and I want everything to be the same size. But my album looked sooo good when it was done.

 

 

This album has pockets, flaps, pullouts and lots of pop-up pictures. It's awesome! I don't think I ever been so pleased with something I created...but I had professional help:)

If you want to see more of Teresa's fabulous work go to My Craft Channel where she has lots of different tutorials. She also has a blog and her website where you can find all her wonderful products.

I have already started another mini album with Teresa's papers. I think it will be another hit. This is the one I'm working on. Pictures to come later.

 

~

 

I'll be back in a little bit to announce the winner for the latest giveaway...

 

 

Photo editing

 

I'm wondering if I am the only one that edit 99.99% of all the photos that I print and scrap?

I've been doing that for years now and can't imagine not changing the lighting a bit or just pump up the colors.

I have always used Photoshop Elements and have no complaints about it, besides that it's not free.

 

I heard about this one website that offers FREE photo editing and I had to try it immediately.

The website is called www.picmonkey.com and not only is it FREE, but also EASY and FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

 

Here are some collages I made that took me minutes to create. The photos are from Halloween and our Halloween party (or Pinterest party as my son named it).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then I made a collage with some of my favorite layouts:

 

 

 

Of course you can do so much more than just collages. There is one tab for example where you can do your Facebook cover.

Check it out at www.picmonkey.com.

It's alive!!

  Sorry for my very long blogging absence.
We have been in California for 5 months now and yes, we are settled in, thank you.
I think my best excuse for being MIA is that California is just so sunny that you never wanna be inside:)

~

I found a very nice scrapbook store in my area - Ever After Scrapbooks- and on Friday night I went there for a canvas class. I thought the instructor would be some neighborhood rookie, but it turns out that Suzy West is a well known scrapper who travels the world to share her talent. Wow! She inspired me so much that I got my scrappy mojo back!
This is what I created in a few hours. My very first canvas project:

( this is all Suzy's design and I just did what she told me to do)

I had so much fun working with canvas that the very next day I went to Michael's to pick up the stuff I needed to create my own.
I made this cute picture for my daughter:

And then I continued to make this:

I think you could say that I'm totally hooked on canvases right now! What about you? I'm curious to find out how many of you have tried working on canvas. Please leave a comment on this post and you will be in the random drawing to win this:

It's a nice little fall kit with gorgeous papers from Bo Bunny plus some other stuff I had laying around. So don't forget to leave a comment:)

~

 

 I'm working on a tutorial right now for a mini album made with envelopes. Super easy and fun.

 

Take care and I'll be back soon...in a few months or so...ha,ha....

Hi from California!

I just wanted to let you know that we made it safely to California.
 We are staying in a hotel until we find somewhere to live.
4 people and 3 fur balls in one small room...do I need to say more...life is great!


Since all our belongings are on a ship somewhere on the seven seas, we planned a trip to Sweden for a few weeks leaving next week. 
Hopefully we will be settled in with all our stuff sometimes in July and I can start scrapping/blogging again.

~

I wanted to show you some photos that we had taken our last week on Okinawa. Oh, how my fingers itch to scrap when I see these pictures...

Take care and I'll be in touch!

New winner for giveaway

I had to draw a new winner for my latest giveaway.
( I didn't hear from the last one.) 
This time random.org gave me # 29 that turned out to be Birgit. Congrats to Birgit for winning some new Basic Grey papers!!!!

Please email your address to scrapalittle@gmail.com.

Got photos?

I came across this Australian blogger that every month post a photo challenge-  to take one photo per day.

I so like that idea, because I think we often forget to bring out our camera on an ordinary day. It's easy do document special occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, trips, and such. But what about the rest of our lives?

I accepted this challenge for March:

Here's what I took for March 3- Our neighborhood

And this is for March 5- A Smile.

 

After a few days I gave up and felt this whole idea was kind of silly. What would I do with all these random photos?
I know most of them would not end up on a scrapbook page.


Plus I think felt stressed that I HAD to take a particular photo each day.


I guess I should just use the prompts more as a guide line rather than a law.


I also think I would enjoy this challenge more if I knew how to use my camera.
I have this awesome camera and I always have the settings on Automatic. So depressing...

For years I wanted to take a class in photography, but who's got the time?

Then I heard about these applications for Ipad!!

If you go to the App Store

and search for your camera.

In my case Canon Rebel XSi. 

Several classes might come up.

I bought one from Jump Start for $24.99. It has a detailed overview of your camera and tips how to shot better pictures. I like the idea of hearing and watching something at the same time. I learn better that way. And at my age, I need to hear it over and over again.

Now, I haven't finished watching all the chapters in this class -again, a time issue- but as soon as I do I will let you know. 

If you are up to challenge yourself and your photography, here's the April prompts from www.fatmumslim.com.au

 Lot's of fun stuff- I think I will give it another go!

Konnichiwa

If you know what Konnichiwa means, then you know just about as much Japanese as I do. Honestly, I thought I would be fluent by now, but I know a total of five words in Japanese. So sad isn't it?

This will be my last giveaway from Japan and I thought it would be perfect to give away a brand new paper pack from Basic Grey.

 Isn't it just soooo pretty?


If you want to be in the random drawing for this paper pack, all you have to do is leave a comment to this post.


I will announce the winner in a week.

Back from the retreat

Excuses, excuses!

Do you want to hear them?

• I was exhausted after the retreat.
• I'm having major scanner issues.
• I'm suffering from big time moving stress.

These are some of the reasons I haven't blogged in A MONTH!

I think I have finally recovered from the retreat and I gave up with my scanner and just took some photos of my layouts instead.

Here's a few of the pages I have done lately. Nothing special, but I wanted to show some proof that I'm still a scrapper;)

I will be back soon with a nice giveaway...

Winner of sketch challenge

Thanks to all of you that participated in the sketch challenge.

Here's the sketch that you had to use:

And here's the winner by Kanako Sakurai.

Congrats to Kanako!!!

I love this layout. It's so fun and fresh!!!

Kanako, can you please email your address to scrapalittle@gmail.com so that I can send you this:

*

Even though I haven't blogged much lately, I want you to know that I scrap like a little maniac every night.

I have planned a scrapbook retreat and it's coming up this weekend. 14 ladies and I will leave our families behind and just scrap non-stop for THREE whole days. I can't wait.

This will be the last retreat here on Okinawa, because we are moving to (southern) California beginning of May.

I'm so super excited!

For those of you that have followed my blog from the beginning, might know that this is our second time we live in Okinawa. When we leave this time we have spent 9 (NINE) years on this island. We have done and seen it all here.

I can't wait to go to Target and Michael's and all that good stuff.

Is there by any chance any blog readers from SoCal?

I have to find myself some new scrapping buddies:)

*

I'll be back next week and show you what I got done during the weekend.

Take care!

Tutorial for covered Pringles tin

Yes, it is happening! I have a new ( long overdue) tutorial to share with you.

It's so easy to make that it barely needs a tutorial, but I'll show you anyways.

It's a Pringles tin that you cover with patterned paper and then decorate...all according to the season. Works great for Valentine's of course, but also for Christmas, Halloween, Easter and so on.

Perfect to give away your homemade cookies in or just some sweet treats.

 

I found the idea here. She used the regular size Pringles tin, but I don't wanna give away THAT many cookies;)

This is what you'll need:

Small Pringles tin
Mod Podge (or normal glue works too )
Paintbrush
Patterned paper
Paper trimmer
Whatever decorations you choose

Apply Mod Podge to your tin

Take your patterned paper ( approx. 3 2/16 inches x 10 inches ) and cover the tin. Let the sides overlap a bit and make sure your paper is tight and smooth all around.

Now you just have to decorate. Here I used a border punch and the Cricut. When you are done decorating apply some Mod Podge over the whole thing to seal it and give a bit of shine.

 

Then add a bow of some kind on top.

( My cookies were all gone when I took this last picture so this sad tin has nothing in it,ha,ha).

That's it for this time. I promise it won't take so long until next tutorial:)