Crafting Christmas Day 16 - Handmade Albums

Is anyone besides me making albums for Christmas presents?  I've made one and mailed out already, and WITHOUT TAKING PICS OF It!   My Bad!


front & back covers

 But this one I made sure to photograph the final results before mailing off!  I had received a Mixed Media Album Kit as a PIF from the group, but had never ventured to putit together until now.  I used My mind's Eye Paper Stack for most of the papers to keep it coordinated, and kept the colors in blues/teals/whites/silvers.  Anyone who has cropped with me knows I LOVE to rip my papers, so the cover shoiws off my style perfectly!  I had some extra alphas, and I used Copics on those whose colors were a little off.

Then it was just a matter of creating a design for each two-page "layout".   Here I used more alphas and inked and Stickled them for a shimmery effect.  I also inked paper doilies because they look so much like snowflakes!  I added some skittles on each page for added bling.
Photos or journaling can be added to these pages easily.

The next "layout" is for journaling, while highlighting the chilly fun to be had this winter.  I used papers from me & my BIG ideas paper stack, while the journaling diecut stickers are from the "Snow Globe" line from Reminisce.  All materials were sitting in my craft room, just waiting to be used up, so I didn't have to go out and buy anything new!


I just had to use some lace on the next set of pages.  I scored a shoebox full of lace at our church's rummage sale and have never regretted the
price I paid for it all.

I cut out circles with my Creative Memories circle cutting system as photo frames, and embellished with snowmen and snowflakes.  The snowman on the left page is an oversized ATC from another Yahoo group swap.  it perfectly in with my theme here!  The white background paper is textured and I used an ink pad to swipe some color on the raised circles.

Finally, I had to use this great winter quote I bought on clearance at Michael's years ago.  Together with the snowglobe with a floating snowman and several winter phrases, it seemed a good ending to my album.  More skittles and adhesive-backed pearls finish off the embellishments and I put the album in a plastic bag and placed it into my Priority box and am going out to mail it NOW before I forget.

I hope my little friend likes her gift.  She's a crafter like us all, just a little younger than us.  I RAKd her a butterfly-shaped mini album to create her own, along with some coordinating papers that are cut to the album.  I'm sure she'll have fun with it.  And that is the name of the game, isn't it?  We ALL have fun with our crafting, no matter if we give it all away or keep it all to ourselves.  It is our own little circle of Zen.

So keep crafting everyone, for Christmas and throughout the year.  If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life...