Hanukkah star album - guest post at D's Paper Studio

Debby from D's Paper Studio kindly invited me to write a guest post for her blog while she is celebrating the arrival of her new granddaughter. The blog post was up yesterday and I am reposting it here

When Debby asked me to write a guest post I knew I wanted to share a Hanukkah project. We take a lot of pictures during the eight days of Hanukkah - pictures of food, gifts, people, menorahs and more food. My favorites are pictures of candles. There is something magical in looking at the flickering candle fire. That is one of those rare moments when I feel connected to my ancestors.

After giving it some thought I decided to make a mini book, but not just any mini book - a star mini book. Years ago I took a class from Big Picture Classes (Big Picture Scrapbooking at that time) By Tena Sprenger. The class project was a hand sewn star mini book. I made one with pictures of my babies and it is one of my most favorite mini albums. I decided to make another star minibook  with some changes.

The original book is 6x6 and has 7 signatures. I made it 6x9 to include more pictures (did I say that I have a lot of pictures?) and used only 6 signatures. My star has 6 points like the Star of David.

I used three colors of Core'dinations cardstock for the book signatures that are hand sewn with waxed cotton thread. The patterned paper is from Hanukkah collection by Crafting Jewish Style.

For the cover I chose the patterned paper with an image of the Hanukkah Menorah and just added the title. The letters are Heidi Swapp invisible stickers lightly brushed with gold mist and the numbers are American Craft Thickers, of course. I added distress stickles in Antique Linen to the candle flames to make it a little more festive.

Here is how the album looks closed with all it's sewn signatures stacked neatly.

For the inside of the album I went with very simple design - one picture on the left in the Polaroid frame, two pictures of the right matted with coordinating cardstock.

I designed the Polaroid frames in Silhouette Studio software and cut them with my brand new Silhouette Cameo! Let me know if you are interested in the cut files, I will gladly email them to you.

The patterned paper is so bright and colorful that I didn't feel it needs anything else. The only embellishment is the file tab with a small Star of David sticker.

 

 

 

 

Small binder clip is holding the book covers together when the book is open.

For the next six weeks this book is going to live in our living room, reminding us about great time spent together with family and friends.

I can't wait to make new memories and take even more pictures this year. Five weeks till Hanukkah!

I wish you all happy and festive holiday season! 

That's was it. What do you think? I had so much fun designing these little frames in Silhouette Studio. I can't wait to do more and constantly planning other projects! Anyone else addicted to Silhouette??

Yellow Brick Road - part I

In spring 2008, when Lila was in 4th grade, she had an opportunity to participate in a school play. Her elementary school presented a musical - The Yellow Brick Road. 4th and 5th graders danced and performed songs from the Wizard of Oz and Merry Poppins. Lila loved every moment and 4 years later she still loves to participate in the theater productions of our Park and Rec department and plans to join the drama club in high school.

I like looking at Graphic 45 papers but I don't usually buy them. They are not my usual style. But this collection was a perfect fit. When I saw the papers from The Magic of Oz collection , especially the gorgeous Poppy Fields paper I knew that I want to scrap the pictures from the musical. I started with the group picture that we received after the musical. I made this layout as part of my November DT assignment for the Scrapbook Express. I made it simple, the letter are cut with the Lifestyle Crafts alpha dies from the patterned paper.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (Graphic 45), stickles (Ranger Ink), border punch (Fiskars), alpha dies and die cut machine (Lifestyle Crafts), white pen (Signo)

I cut out the poppies from the paper and layered them behind the title. Few drops of black stickles in the center of the flowers make them really pop out the page.

My next project was a mini album. The pages are 6x12 and I used American Crafts page protectors. The covers are plain chipboard covered with patterned paper. I had only paper scraps left when I made the covers so they are very simple.

The first page protector contains a page made from sheet of acetate cut to size that holds the title.

You can see it better in this picture.

Here are the first two pages side by side. In the album they are layered.

I used very simple format for the inner pages: one focus picture on the left with 6x6 square of patterned paper, 2 or 3 smaller pictures on the right. I kept the embellishments to the bare minimum since the pictures and the cardstock gave enough color to the pages.

The last pages is a collage from patterned paper, tickets, stickers and one last picture.

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts), patterned paper (Graphic 45), border punch (Fiskars), stickers (Paper House), dies (Lifestyle Crafts), letter stickers, acetate sheet, chipboard, binder rings

After I was done with the mini album I still had few pictures left. Stay tuned for part II to know what I did with them :)

1440 minutes

Few weeks ago Stephenie Haimen posted a cute little book she made to document one day in a life. Here is my version. I took the pictures yesterday, printed them this morning as 2.5x3.5 and just finished putting this all together. I used "Me and My Big Ideas" accordion album. I decided to go simple and used papers and stickers from the Creative Imaginations kit that I picked up at Michaels long time ago. I added only some orange Cloud 9 raindots and American Crafts letter stickers for the cover. It was quick but I think it is a good way of keeping those memories with us. Just a regular day.

Supplies: album (Me and My big Ideas), patterned paper and stickers (Creative Imaginations), raindots (Cloud 9), letter stickers (American Crafts), distress ink (Ranger), punch (Fiskars)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yes, October is full of birthdays. First my little sister, mine birthday was 2 weeks ago and today is my mom's birthday. So, just wanted to say - Happy birthday!

I made this little accordion book for my mom. The girls wrote their wishes for grandma and I added the pictures (that we taken in the rain and fog). Mom, I was late shipping it so I thought I will post it here to let you know that it is coming.

State Fair 2008

I made this quick mini album using a recipe (sketch) posted on Write.Click.Scrapbook All products are from Jenni Bowlin February 09 kit. The album is 8x6. I plan to mount the pages to the chipboard and bind them with my bind-it-all (as soon as I find it)

Pretty Girls and Flowers

My first Design Team assignment from JewishScrapbooking.com! :-)

I got an acrylic album from Green Geco Designs. Looking at the pretty flower shape of the album I thought it will be perfect to use for some pictures of flowers. I remembered about a trip to the Domes we took 4 years ago. We took some beautiful pictures that I never scrapped.

I used Heidi Swapp mask with acrylic paint on 2 pages and laced ribbon on other 3 pages. Other products used: Maya Road flowers, Jenni Bowlin paper, Making Memories rub-ons, Cloud 9 letter stickers and raindots, diamond glaze.

Cover and the second page

Pages 3 and 4

Page 5 and the view of the open album

Give Yourself a Present!

This mini album is my response to Stacy Julian challenge Give Yourself a Present.
That's what she said:
• Snap ten or twelve photos of your life right now. Or find recent photos that you've already taken.
• Compile these photos in one of these super-cute Bazzill Mono-Mini albums (keep reading)
• Keep or carry this album with you, tucked in your purse or desk drawer for one full year.
• Promise to glance through the album every time you stumble upon it or pull it out.
• On October 1st, 2009, create a scrapbook page about your experience.

I used the photos from the last two weeks of September and put them in the little minibook made using One Little Book Template from 3D Design challenge blog. The whole book is done from one piece of 12x12 cardstock! I added a ribbon closure and a patterned paper cover. I wanted to keep it very simple so I just dressed up the cover with my favorite Heidi Swapp mask and some paint. The little chipboard heart is by Heidi Grace.

2 weeks

It is Saturday, October 4th and that means my baby is 2 weeks old! The time is flying too fast :( Oh, and my little sister had a birthday today. Happy Birthday little sister! Love you!

Thank you all for the wonderful comments! I am going to print them and add to the Eli's greeting cards. Thank you, thank you! He is the sweetest little guy.

Here is Lila holding his hand. Too cute!

Few days ago we had another new arrival. My new sewing machine had arrived!! The best part - I won it during the chat with June Mellinger organized by Lead Fiskateer Rebecca! June is the Director of Education for Brother International. I was thinking about getting the sewing machine for a while and this will be perfect for me.

Now I just need to decide what to sew! :)

Few days ago I finally finished a project that I started in August. It is a star shaped mini album from the class taught by Tena Sprenger. It has 7 pages. I put 2 baby pictures of each of my kids. I still need to add one picture with 3 of them together. I love how it turned out.

The last thing for today is the layout made for Design You Life class by Cathy Zielske. The subject of this week is symmetrical balance.