Alex...and then there was you mini album

Now that I have 5 grandchildren, I've realized how many great subjects I have to keep me scrappin' happy for a very long time. The newest addition to our crew is Alex. He arrived in April, 2009, so it's about time I started an album just for him.

I just LOVE the MOSD chipboard sheets that are perfect for use in making mini albums. For this album, I started with 3 tabbed sheets and 3 square sheets. I trimmed the 3 square sheets to 5" w x 6" h so that the tabbed pages would extend past the edge of the "non tabbed" sheets.

Then I trimmed two of the three tabs from each tabbed sheet, leaving 1 top tab, one middle tab, and 1 bottom tab.

Then I went to my stash and pulled out my collection the Basic Grey "Granola" line...perfect for a boy themed book:) I found I had the "perfect" striped ribbon from SEI and a sheet of vellum quotes that I've had for YEARS!...so glad to be able to use them.

Of course, for those of you who know me, I can't complete a project without "grunging" it up. I used distress inks and a blending tool to grunge up each page edge as well as the vellum quotes I used. I was also happy to see I had some great buttons in my stash that worked perfectly for this project.

I also used some of the frames from my MOSD stash...I just LOVE these! Last month I used them to make some awesome cards and was able to incorporate them again this month. The reason I love these is that they are so easy to alter. I used Staz on ink on the one above. On those below, I used rub-ons, ribbon and some small buttons to spruce them up. Also below, I popped one up off the page so that I could "interlock" it with the second frame. I received SO MANY awesome colors in these frames! I'm sure they will be a staple in my future projects as they've been already.

I just showcased a few of the pages in my mini album. For a peak at the entire album, click here.

Thanks for visiting:)

Falling Down on the Job!

I know today is Friday and I promised you a look at my finished HodgePodge album...but that is not going to happen. I was not able to get my photos printed in time, so I'll have to show you next week. So I thought I'd take today to show you a few other beach themed projects I have made with MOSD products.

This first project is a clear 12x12 page that I turned into a calendar scrapbook layout. (Sorry for the distracting background!) I love working with clear 12x12 pages. They are really a lot of fun!

Next is a clear Step Album that I made into a "salute to CA" album. We have moved around a lot, and I am always afraid that we'll leave a location BEFORE I can see much of it. So, I made sure to see a lot of CA, from Lake Tahoe to San Diego!

This last album is something I made for CHA and is a larger version of the Tabbed Album. I turned the album on it's side and created a mini book for our trip to Myrtle Beach.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these beach-y things. I'll see you next week!

- Gloria

The True Meaning of Christmas

The girls at Faith Sisters had a 9-day challenge going on in October. You were to make a page about each of the Christmas symbols, based on a story they had posted. I finally got around to printing the story and making my project, using a MOSD album, of course!


I used a MOSD Cover to Cover Tabbed Album, which has two clear covers and six tabbed chipboard pages. I did have to trace two extra pages from some scrap chipboard in order to finish my album. But, I had some chipboard left over from an Expressions Build-a-Book project, so I was in good shape!

I painted the edges of my covers with Cranberry alcohol ink (Tim Holtz) and white acrylic paint (Tim Holtz paint dabber). The star is Cosmo Cricket naked chipboard that I sprayed with "Gloria Glimmer Mist." (To see a tutorial on how to make your own glimmer mist, go here.) I also used a red MOSD Twirly Gig Stick-On and cut some circles with my Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.

The rest of the book contains the printed story from Faith Sisters (I used the Ali's Handwriting font downloaded for free from the CK site). I used a lot of different papers again for this project. For each Christmas symbol, I tried to find an embellishment or a stock photo to match.

Here is the inside of the front cover.

And a close-up shot of page 1.

And here are the rest of the pages.

And the back cover. Do you love that Bo Bunny Christmas tag?! I stamped the Christmas phrase on it with cranberry ink.

And a top view:

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas Holiday (or other celebration) this past week. This is my last post for 2008, so I will see you again in 2009! Have a Happy and Blessed New Year!

- Gloria

(side note - the two photos I used in this project were downloaded from the Getty Images site.)

Let's Decorate!

This week at our house is our traditional "decorating week." We put the lights up on the outside of the house, decorate the tree and the inside of the house, and generally make things look festive. I really enjoy handmade items - a holdover from when I was a kid and we had very little money, so we made lots of stuff - everything from stringing cranberries and popcorn to making paper chains to salt dough ornaments!

I don't get quite so frugal with my decor as we did when I was a child, but I do enjoy making things for the house. When I saw these Cosmo Cricket chipboard snowmen and papers, I decided to make a little wall hanging for my powder room. This is a 6x6 size, but you could go larger or smaller.



Supplies Needed:


MOSD Clear Acrylic panel - I used the front cover of the Cover to Cover Tabbed Album, but turned it sideways so the holes are at the top of the panel

White paint or craft ink - to edge the panel and to stamp the images

Christmas stamp - I used one made by Inkadinkado

Chipboard embellishments - I used the Cosmo Cricket snowman

Decorative paper (to cover up the naked snowman!) - Cosmo Cricket - even the saying is cut from a Cosmo Cricket Strip Tease sheet

Black mini brads - for the Snowman's eyes

Christmas ribbon - I used some printed twill

Here is another view with a red background.

You can also see that I "roughed" Frosty up a bit with sandpaper and edged him with some brown ink, to make him look old. It goes with the style of papers I chose. Thanks for looking!

- Gloria