Blog Makeover and My First Mini Album!

I got bored of my old look and when a friend asked about how I added elements to  my blog, I was motivated to making it better. I have been wanting a wider writing area for a long time. So here it is! My new blog look. I almost wanted to pay and get it done initially. I googled and found templates, videos and tutorials on how to do it. People in the crafting community are so generous! I found wonderful backgrounds, blog extras and tutorials. I couldn't get my background to go all the way up. Fixing that took some time. I added labels and tabs. I added a pic for the header with the blog title. I am happy with the way it looks now! At-least for sometime. I need to add details under the tabs. I love Chevron and the colors are inspired by the Skirt I am wearing. This is my favorite pic right now! I love Anurag's smile in this.

Well, A friend of mine just delivered a baby boy! He is so cute! I do remember Anurag being that small.  It brought back so many memories! I wanted to give her something personal and I know she has always liked my work. So, I decided to make a mini album for her. My first ever! It's been a couple of month since I got the Cinch. This was a good reason to start using it. Hopefully, now I will use it more!

This is the front of the album. I put a ribbon around it, so that it can tied together. Once the photos and  journaling will be added, the album is not going to close. The cover is extremely sturdy. I used bind it all chipboard covers. The album is 8 by 8. I liked that better than 6 by 6. Easier to add photos for someone who is really not into editing photos and re-sizing them into smaller photos to fit in the album.

This is how it look when the ribbon is untied. I added those buttons over the elephant's trunk for welcoming the baby. When the elephant is happy and playful , they make the aaawwaa sound with the trunk up or spray water. I used felt thickers to add the baby's name to the cover. This album essentially covers hospital to home. Homecoming Album is what I would call it. 

This is the first page of the album. I added the baby stats journaling card, some tags for photos and journaling. I added ribbon tabs on each page, so you don't have to touch the album to turn the pages. It is secured with a staple. Some stickles and flowers. Baby's first pic would go perfectly on this page.

I love this page. You can lift up the vellum tag to add the photo. I just love the paper I used for this one. I think this would be a perfect page to add the photos of the new parents with the baby.

I like the counting our blessings card! 

I love the cute little monkeys. I added a ticket and colored it blue. I think a pic of the baby with the grandparents and the visitors at the hospital would go nicely on this page. I added vellum bits everywhere to give it a nice soft look. 

This is my favorite page! I love love the tiny hands and feet vellum sheet! It is so wonderful! I added some vellum quotes on the right side. Each page has envelopes with tags to add extra photos and do journaling. Tags and the album by itself are extremely sturdy. Each page has two layers heavy cardstock plus pattern paper. It is heavy and nice. I love the embellishments on this page. I am happy how it turned out!

This is the last page of the album, meant for homecoming pics. I added a cute little truck with the vellum banner saying ' a new beginning'. I love the banner ! Again, added some extra journaling cards and photo tags.

I love the cute little bear on the back cover and the stamp! I added my signature and all done! I added ribbon to the spine to cover it a bit. It looks okay without it too, I just liked it better with it. Some may find it messy, depends on your personal preference!

She LOVED the album and so did everyone else who saw it! I am glad everyone liked it. I think there is an etsy shop in the near future with more Mini Albums! I enjoyed making these! Thanks for visiting me today! Please leave a link to your posts if you would like me to visit you! I would love to see your work as well! It keeps me motivated and I love the inspiration.

Supplies

Pattern Paper: Bella Blvd Baby Boy Collection ,Doodlebug Designs Snips and Snails and Scraps

Tools: Cinch,Bind It All Chipboard Covers and Bind It All 1 inch Spine, ATG Glue Gun and TH Mini Stapler

 Embellishments: Ribbons from my Stash, CTMH baby boy collection, Thickers, Vellum Bits by DCWV

Stamps and Ink:  CTMH Stamps, Distress Ink

Color Me Scrappy Challenge #10

The color combo for this challenge is totally awesome! Love it! Bright,Cheeful and everything I like!

And here is the layout I created using these fun colors!

We took these pictures in Central Park, NY. Love them! The green just pops on this paper! I cut the brackets and the Camera on the Cameo. I used Heidi Swapp neon washi to just add little pinch of bright color here and there. It actually comes with a warning 'Use Sparingly'!! LOL

I filled in all the grey tangerines with a light blue marker to give it a little something. I like this paper collection a lot. So happy happy. I layered  the stickers for the center.

I used Amy Tan's whitewash muse chipboard thickers for the word 'snapshots' and used her camera file from the Silhouette online store to cut out the camera. I like cameras!!

I thought I had too much space for journaling, I was wrong. I can journal much more! I can write and write and write. I love this pic of 3 of us, although Anurag is looking away knowingly. That is his new thing, not to look at the camera. I hope it changes soon:D I had the perfect pink vinyl thickers for title.

Hop on over to Color Me Scrappy blog to take a look at what the other designers came up with! Participate in this challenge to win a fab prize of 4 MME 6 by 6 paper pads! This challenge runs till August 31st. So there is a lot of time, have fun using these colors!

Supplies

Pattern Paper:  Recollections Amy Tan Sketchbook collection, Basic Grey

Embellishments: Amy Tan Sketchbook Collection, AC Thickers, Neon Washi

Ink: Memento  Pink

Glue: ATG 

Tools: Fiskars(Trimmer, Scissors), Silhouette Cameo

Pen: Memento Pink Marker and Light Blue Marker

Printer: Canon Pro 9000 Mark II

Silhouette Cameo Dust Cover

I saw the latest product by Silhouette, the dust cover for the Cameo. I thought why not make one. Found a pattern by MzDaisy. Thankyou for sharig the pattern:) I had leftover fabric from the dust cover I stitched for Pazzles and Big Shot. It wasn't too difficult. Took me about one hour. Anurag kept asking questions. I probably read a book or two in between! I really like my own personal dust cover( Much Cheaper!!). 

Sorry for the poor photo! I took it with my phone and no natural light. I made a fabric flower to give it a little pretty factor. For the pazzles, I had done a piping in the alternate fabric all around at the bottom. This time I was feeling lazy. LOL...that would have been easier considering my fingers are covered in fabri-tac from the flower! It ate my nail color! Super Sticky but good stuff!

I love the end result! Now, my lovely Cameo is not going to get dusty! I love how the rosette turned out! 

Well, I hope you will give this a try. It isn't too difficult ! And way more colorful ! I really wanted yellow cover but didn't want to cut the new fabric just for this. I do have a very cute yellow fabric I had bought to stitch a skirt...yes sometime in the future I will finish that project ;)

If you can't make one, let me know ! I will make you one for a little charge. It will support my paper addiction ;)

Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments! Have a good day!

Supplies

Dust Cover Pattern by Mz Daisy at Silhouette Plus Forum

Fabri-Tac for the Rosette

CMS and Sketches in Thyme - Challenge #9

I am so excited to announce that Sketches in Thyme is doing a combined challenge with us over at Color Me Scrappy! I love Sketches in Thyme! Fabulous Sketches. I am so honored to be a Guest Designer on their blog! Get Ready!!

The color palette provided for this month is yummy! Check it out! I knew which photo's I was going to scrap the moment I saw this combo.

The sketch #86 provided by Sketches in Thyme is absolutely lovely. It is so versatile! I had no trouble with it. It was just so adaptable ! Perfect Sketch!

This is what I came up with! I did a mirror image of the sketch and made it into a two pager. You must already know I love two pagers! Well, Photo selection was easy. I chose the recent July 4th pics. The color combo made it super easy and fun !

I won the July ribbon kit from Ribbon Carousel. Check them out! They have some great sale and super cute stuff! It was perfect for my layout. I had so much fun weaving the ribbon. I love the red and blue with white stars on it! The red,white and blue twine added a little extra edge to the hidden journaling tag. I made flags with toothpicks and added some ribbon and rhinestone to it as well. 

I actually misspelled Philly. LOL. I did correct it later. And my husband couldn't stop laughing about the gatorade. He thought it was weird that I wrote gatorade in the middle of all that. Hey in my defense, it was too hot!! Equally important part of the day:) Couldn't have done without it!

I just got a Cameo!! I was wanting one forever! I love how everybody is cutting all intricate stuff on it. I am so thrilled!!!! I used Silhouette Cameo to cut out 'happy'. It is a free font. I do have Pazzles too btw. Crazy isn't it?? What am I going to do with two, I still don't have an answer. I used Mister Huey's misting spray and some rhinestones for embellishing. I am not very good with sprays yet. I need to watch some You Tube videos and learn. I am loving those rhinestones! I wish I had picked up a ton of them at CKC. I was not sure if I am going to like it. But, now I do!! I love it!

Well, I hope you like my layout! I had an awesome time doing this one. Everything just fit right starting from the color combo, sketch, photos and papers!

I hope you'll stop by the Color Me Scrappy blog and Sketches in Thyme to take a look at what the rest of the Design Team made using these Colors and Sketch as inspiration! This challenge is open until August 15th, 2012. I hope you will join in on the fun to win the awesome stacks by MME!! LOL I wish I could participate ;-)

 Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments! I appreciate it! 

Supplies

Cardstock: Bazzill Off-White Cardstock, Bazzill Navy Blue Cardstock and AC pastel green cardstock.

Pattern Paper: American Made by MME

Embellishments: American Made by MME collection embellies, Rhinestones, Mister Huey's Spray, Ribbon, Toothpicks

Ink: Distress Ink-Barn Red

Glue: ATG and Foam Dots by Glue Arts

Tools: Fiskars(Trimmer, Scissors), Silhouette Cameo, Fiskars Upper Crest Border Punch and Fiskars Leave it to Weaver Border Punch (love fiskars)

Pen: AC black precision pen, Uniball White Signo Pen

Printer: Canon Pro 9000 Mark II

Color Me Scrappy Challenge #8

Oops I am so late in posting this! I thought I had it scheduled it, but I didn't! So this month we had a pretty cool color combo to work with. The colors worked perfect with the photos I chose!

This is what I came up with! It was SO MUCH FUN to make this layout! I am totally into lots of photos on a layout mode right now! This layout is based  on a sketch by Allison Davis, I changed the orientation and embellishments placement and title space etc to fit my liking!

I painted the bee-hive background with bubble wrap! It was so cool! I loved the effect. I printed the bees from the internet and cut them out with scissors and used a black marker to make the trail. I had so much journaling to do , that I ended up making an envelope to fit my journaling! Anurag was truly buzzing like a bee at the Please Touch museum in Philli. 

I hope you liked what I did! I hope you'll stop by the Color Me Scrappy blog and take a look at what the rest of the Design Team made using these colors as inspiration! The challenge is open until July 31st, 2012. I hope you will join in on the fun! Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments! I appreciate it! 

Color Me Scrappy Challenge #7

I totally loved this month's color combo! It is so me!! Bright, Happy and Colorful! Look at it!

The moment I saw this color combination, I knew the collection I wanted to use with them! It is my favorite collection!! Amy Tan's Sketchbook! This is what I came up with!

I totally love this layout! It just makes me happy!  I used the negatives of the hexagon cut outs. I painted the negative spaces yellow to make them pop! I love the 5 by 7 photo! Loving my new printer!

I hope you liked what I did! I hope you'll stop by the Color Me Scrappy blog and take a look at what the rest of the Design Team made using these colors as inspiration! The challenge is open until July 15th, 2012. I hope you will join in on the fun! Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments! I appreciate it!

Supplies 

Cardstock: Bazzill White Cardstock

Pattern Paper: American Craft Amy Tan Sketchbook

Embellishments: Amy Tan Sketchbook collection embellies, Anchor Thread, Rhinestones, Mister Huey's Spray, Thickers, Remarks Alphas, Doodlebug Alphas,  Folk Art Yellow Acrylic Paint

Ink: Memento Black

Glue: ATG 

Tools: Fiskars(Trimmer, Scissors), Pazzles Inspiration( to cut hexagons)

Stamps: Pink Paislee prairee hill collection stamp

Pen: AC black precision pen

Printer: Canon Pro 9000 Mark II

Color Me Scrappy Challenge #6

It is time for yet another challenge at Color Me Scrappy! The color palette given had two shades of pink. Pink is a very difficult color for me. Surprisingly I have very little pink in my stash, well not that surprising. I hardly ever buy pink. With two boys in the family, I rarely use pink and I never scrap myself. Hope project life changes that!

This challenge really made me go out of comfort zone. I pulled out whatever pinks I had and finally found something which worked with the colors. Here is what I came up with! 

You can click on the image to view it bigger. I used pazzles to cut the cupcakes and the frames. The title part in black was also cut on pazzles. The cupcake border was done using fiskars cupcake border punch. The white foam thickers are by Amy Tan. Some acrylic painted chipboards and it was done! This layout is based on a Allison Davis Sketch.

I hope you'll stop by the Color Me Scrappy blog and take a look at what the rest of the Design Team made using these colors as inspiration! The challenge is open until June 30th,2012. If you missed out on the first challenge this month, you can participate in this challenge and get your name in the random drawing for a chance to win a mystery bag full of scrappy goodness! I hope you will join in on the fun! Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments! I appreciate it!

DIY Washi Tape

After testing my tapes for acid levels, I decided to make my own tape. These are obviously not original washi but these work just the same. They can be torn and used. They are semi-transparent just like washi. These are very thin as well.

I got two products to make them.

1) I got the Miracle tapes from Viva Las Vegas Store. Do check them out! They have a value pack of Miracle Tape in various sizes. That's what I got. It is double sided. It is acid free. They are good for variety of uses not just to make washi tape. I am very happy with the quality. I am sure to get more when my stock runs thin, which btw is really going to take some major washi making spree as each tape is 55yards long!! The price is very reasonable compared to other brands out there.

2) The other thing I got is the Lineco Acid-free tissue paper from Amazon. These are the kind which go behind art work in galleries. I got the white of course. Good quality. Of course, you can use tissue tape from dollar store or any other place, but then the whole point of making it acid-free is lost! You get a whole lot for 14$ on amazon. It will last you a long time.

Process

I stamped, colored, water colored and ended up with so many designs! I looked through my stamps and found some very nice ones! I made a quick photo tutorial for you to see!

Here are the results!

I had made one more batch of washi tapes before these ones, I thought I had taken a picture of them! I used them up on my project life pages.

 It is fun to stamp and make your own washi tape. I am loving the process! Hope you liked what I made. Come back and visit me later if you want to see them on my project life pages.

Thanks for visiting me today!

Challenge #5 at Color Me Scrappy!

It's time for a new challenge! The color palette this time is very neutral...something which I would have never picked on my own. It was challenging to begin with, but once I picked out the papers, the layout just flowed. Take a look at the colors!

This is what I whipped up ! I used my new chevron misting mask by SC,one of my

 favorite border punches by fiskars, indie chic dimensional stickers, ribbons and stamps from my stash. I had to make two stickers of my own to go with the indie chic collection, because they didnt have the number 5 and more 2-d banners. Coming to think of it, there is some DIY in the future in this category for me! I loved making my own. It wasn't too difficult and ofcourse it will be way cheaper to make your own!

I hope you'll stop by the Color Me Scrappy blog and take a look at what the rest of the Design Team made using these colors as inspiration! The challenge is open until June 15th, 2012. And ofcourse, like always there is a wonderful prize! This time it is a mystery bag full of yummy goodies! I hope you will join in on the fun. Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments. I appreciate it!

Supplies 

Cardstock: American Craft Green Cardstock

Pattern Paper: DCWV dots,stripes and plaid

Embellishments: MME Indie Chic Dimensional stickers, Ribbon from my stash, AC Thickers and Sassafras alphas

Ink: Memento Cocoa Brown, Homemade Mist, Brown Distress Ink

Glue: ATG 

Tools: Fiskars(Trimmer, Scissors), SC Chevron Mask, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch

Stamps: Papersmooches Houndstooth border stamp

Pen: AC black precision pen

Challenge #4 at Color Me Scrappy!

I can't believe we are already at Challenge#4 !! This time the color palette is something which I almost never use! I never really use pinks in my layouts. This was a very nice change for me.

I made a single page layout of me and my sister and our kids. I cropped an old picture and printed all the photos as Polaroids. I cut out the dollie on Pazzles. I did the dot background using Crafter's workshop template. Some tearing,inking,chalking and voila this is what I ended up with! I love this layout! I gifted this to my sister. I feel very guilty for not including  my elder sister's pics. But, I didn't have any pictures of three of us together! Next time we meet, we need to take more pictures:)

I hope you'll stop by the Color Me Scrappy blog and take a look at what the rest of the Design Team made using these colors as inspiration! The challenge is open until May 31st, 2012. And ofcourse, like always there is a wonderful prize! Go and Check it out! I can't wait to see what you come up with! Thanks for visiting me and leaving comments! I appreciate it!