Butterfly Card Set

some simple cards that I made trying to keep my mojo flowing while I wait on some things for the mini I'm slaving over ^_^
Trying to decide on envelope color, and if I should add a white section to the inside. What do you think?

The whole set

another mini? sure! How about ... a TUTORIAL!

  This is going to be very pic heavy... Sorry. Until I can get a video that my memory card doesn't eat, this is all I've got.

   I did a mini to try and find my mojo. I've watched loads of videos, and have notebooks FULL of notes on pages, layouts, and folds, I can't recall where or when I may have seen/gotten these ideas, but I was asked to do a tut by the wonderful ladies at CC (cropchocolate.com should anyone here not know what CC is!) who wanted to try something similar. Its taken a few days ,but here we go! The original is in my previous post, and while some of the things are moved around in this one, its the same basic style.

    I used almost 4 12x12 sheets of cardstock, one of which was journal spots that I cut down for tags. This paper is form the Fancy Pants Winterland line. Such pretty non traditional colors!!

    This is the paper I chose as the main section of the album.

    these are some of the others that I had pulled out... I ended up not using the top one. Oops.

    The main sheet needs to be 11 1/2" x 10" I cut mine so that I didn't chop any of my favorite snowflakes ^_^ Score it in the middle of the 10" side, and at 4" and 8" on the other. (one section will be smaller, I planned mine so that the section with one small dark snowflake was the smaller section. You will see why later).
   Cut the score line from the top to the cross section score line. Same from the bottom, cut the center score line up to the cross section score line. You will have one strip in the middle that is 4" holding the two sides together. I hope that is easy to understand. If not, let me know and I'll mark the picture!

    Fold your paper in half on the score line, you now have a 5" by 11 1/2" paper... we are going to glue the center section around the edges to make a pocket.... glue JUST INSIDE the score lines on the center section. no need to glue the seam, and remember to leave the opening edge glue free. Your top and bottom should be open, and you can fold them back and forth a few times to loosen them up.

    We are now going to fold the bottom sections (yes, both of them) up. You can glue the outer edges of the first one down to form a pocket that opens at the top. The other section will be folded back onto itself (triangle in the pic below) and we will make two more pockets here. The first pocket is made by gluing the edge that wasn't folded down to the part we already glued down (it looks like an upside down L here.)

       So, the corner I'm holding gets glued down to the seam, and over to the top of that triangle...

    and then the triangle gets glued along this seam. Which forms a small pocket.

 Here is the larger of the two pockets.

    This is the smaller pocket, great for itty bitty tags, mementos, etc.

  This will now be the center of your mini, there should be two flaps, one to form the front page and one to form the back page.
    We can now start on the other pockets!
*You will need a 4 1/2" x 7 1/2" piece. Score it in half on the long side.
*One 3 1/2" x 11" piece, score at 3/4", 2", and 6" (the hole os from a circle punch, to show where one of the pockets are)
*One 3 1?2" x 12" piece scored at 3" and 7 1/2" (I rounded these corners because I decided that I wanted the mittens visible and wouldn't be making it into a pocket, you can glue the small flap down for a pocket if you prefer)

      Here they are with their score lines folded, ready to get glued down, you can easily change their places to give your entire album a different look.

     The first one, I attached to the top of the first 'page' I let a pocket under the right side for a tag, and the flap can hold three photos or a combo of pics and journaling.

    For this one ( the 3 1/2" x 11") you glue the small flap down....

then the edges of  section underneath to form a small pocket.

    and then glue the sides under it to form a second pocket...

    When you glue it into the mini, you can create a third pocket. All from one strip of paper!

(One pocket faces left, the others face right)

    The last strip, I glued to the bottom of the second page, leaving the left side open for ...another pocket.
This is the one that you could glue the small flap down and make another pocket, but I just adore those mittens! I figure it will be great for photos or journaling.

  

    Now here are a few pics of the finished mini! I left the cover pretty bare, at least for now.

Echo Park Be Mine mini

     I was bitten by the inspiration bug today , so I pulled out some of my favorite paper, Be Mine by Echo Park and decided to create a mini. The more I played around, the more it made me think of my baby girl so I figured that I would put it up for her as a gift... then I remembered that she doesn't like pink anymore. Oops! She says she likes it, but its not her favorite... lets hope that changes soon, shall we?

     This album measures 4" high and just under 6 1/2" wide. Its only half and inches deep right now, but that will change as photos are added I'm sure! Here is the cover, there is a pocket behind the 'title' that holds two small tags perfect for small photos or some journaling.

     The title is on a small flip up page, that has a journaling spot, and room for a photo. There is a pocket behind it that holds a tag perfect for more pics and has lines for journaling as well.

I couldn't resist adding the little hearts, what little girl doesn't love hearts?

     Inside, you find a page FULL of pockets and tags. the top has three pockets, and 5 tags!  The bottom pages has three pockets and 4 tags

the next (and last) set of pages has a pocket on the top, holding two tag/photo mats and the bottom has a surprise....

 It flips to the right and is hiding...two more pockets! these each hold one tag, and there are two photo mats for small pictures.

 I'm thrilled with how it turned out and the fact that I finished it in one day. I didn't ink it, and I almost wish I had... I was just playing with the idea when I started and had no idea I was going to like it so much. I hope my Haylo has as much fun filling it up as I did making it for her!

Hallowe'en Wall Hanging... (eep! I love Halloween!)

   oh... yeah. my blog. OOPS! I never remember to update this...so sorry! It IS on my to do list...

   A friend of mine posted a Halloween hanging on my FB wanting me to do one... so I did! I have been getting crafty as much as I can (I moved again... and I am now unpacked!) I made this Hallowe'en art to hand on my door, but now, I'm afraid the neighborhood kids may swipe it so it will be hung indoors. 

   I used the MME Lost and Found Halloween collection and some May Arts ribbon that my wonderful friend Jasmine sent me. You can check out her blog... http://www.wildflowerford.blogspot.com/
   She does lovely work!
   I also used some MM charms, the metal ones are colored with Ginger alcohol inks, a brad from last years MME line, Haunted, chipboard for the backing and black textured cardstock. It is inked with vintage photo distress ink too ^_^ The middle  center piece has burned edges, the other center pieces have a slightly distressed and inked edge. All the layers are 'popped' so that they stand out a bit and give good shadows
  This is a close up of the top section... It measures 7" x 6 1/4"

Here is the middle... it is 8" x 7 1/4"

And finally... the bottom, it is 9" x 8 1/4"

I'm thrilled with the way it came out... tho next time I will pay a bit more attention to ribbon placement. Not to bad for an attempt with a couple of kids who are set on driving me mad!

I would love some feedback!

Short and sweet this morning! I opened my Etsy. I don't have much listed, but I would love for anyone who stops by to go take a peek!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/playfulpandora23

I'm going to be working on more things today and I hope to have most listings this evening ^_^ Have a great Wonderful day!

I did what?

I wanted to get crafty. I wanted to work on some layouts. Really. I did.
Instead.... I made some jewelry, because right now I have more beads than paper. Sad but true! Here are the pieces I have made recently, I'm thinking about listing the black and blue/purple ones on Etsy, though I am kinda of nervous about doing so.
Soooo, you now see what I spent my morning doing, what did YOU do today? anything crafty?

I'm a bad blogger.
*shew that was easier than I thought!*

here are some pics to show you WHY I haven't been blogging. Other than that whole no net thing.... I'll spare you those details. 

sooo I have been busy. I've been moving, unpacking, crafting and of course my mommy duties too. Even today I made two very special friends surprises, I'd love to post those pics, but they *might* swing by and look. You just never know with them. Maybe I'll do it later. Thanks to any of you that have stuck around in-spite of my absence. I'll do my best to post more often!