Gingerbread House Mini-Album

Cover

So I decided to break up the monotony of all cards and post a mini-album. 

Good morning scrapbookers.  Today I'm sharing a Gingerbread House album I created a about 2 years ago .... but I enjoyed it so much .... I wanted to share it with you again since I have some new followers.

When my children were growing up we used to make Gingerbread houses as part of our Christmas activities.  Some years we used the standard store bought houses.  But we were pretty serious and some years made our own gingerbread dough so we could be creative.  My kids came up with some crazy stuff over the years (you don't want to miss the army tank my son created below.  Hard to see in the photo .... but he has a candy Santa in front of it).    

I miss doing fun activities like this with my children.  They grow up so fast.
fondly reminiscing,
Melisa

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Project Details

Gingerbread Chipboard Album Kit : Creative Cuts and More

Cover

I used a few stamps and some mini Christmas ornaments from Hobby Lobby to embellish most of my album.

The cover was stamped in snow flakes.  First with VersaMark Ink and white embossing powder.  Then with Glue Pad and sprinkled with red glitter.  Because the glitter will not stick long term, I sprayed the background with several coats of Matte Fixative Spray.  The cute gingerbread man is a cute die-cut by Creative Cuts and More.  I used white paint for the icing lines and the pepperment is my pepperment stamp with the ends cut off.  The brick on the house is Layers of Color's "Brick Wall" cling art stamp colored with Copics.  The peppermint sticks on the house corners and chimney are handmade.  I used my T-Square to draw a series of lines, and then cut at an angle to create the diagonal look. Trace the openings of the window and door on white cardstock, cut openings out, and then trim around with deckled scissors.  Adhere around door and windows.  Add glitter using a 2-Way glue pen.  The swirly on the roof is May Road, painted white and covered in glitter.  The stocking button is a Dress It Up button purchased from Michaels.  I added fabric filler/padding on the side of the roof, applied Aleene's Tachy Glue, and sprinkled with glitter.  I painted the chipboard trim with white paint, applied white glue, and sprinkled with glitter.  The candy peppermints were handstamped, colored with Copics, and hand cut.  If you do not have a similar stamp, then consider using a pattern from a coloring book off the internet.  HERE.

 Pages 1 & 2

I was able to find some snow flakes, candy cane border, and peppermint stamps in my stash. They are all old, so I can't link you. I think the candy cane border and peppermint candy stamps were inexpensive stamps from the dollar bin at Michaels years back.

 Page 1

The 2 mini gingerbread die's are from CCM as well. 

I was able to find a peppermint border stamp HERE.  But you can also consider searching for a digital stamp or coloring book image as well.  I added white acrylic paint around the edges of all photo's.  Glitter was added to each around the edges after doodling.   I found the cutest poem that a teacher used on a bulletin board HERE.

Page 2

Embellish the inside of snowflakes with red Stickles. 

 Pages 3 & 4

I used a large polka dot background stamp on page 3.  And I found these cutie patootie gingerbread buttons at a local craft store.  They are called "Iced Cookie Gingerbread Men" by Dress It Up (Michaels).  Check out the buttons I found HERE that would be perfect for your album.  And check out the buttons for sale on this blog ...  scroll down to Oct 27th  HERE.

 Page 3

Page 4

I added pocket pages in my album.  I cut a sheet of cardstock 5 3/4" x 11" and then scored at 5 1/2".  The opening is along the side with the green scallops.  So I can tuck in some tags with journaling.  So page 4 is only 5 1/2" long and therefore you can see part of page 6.  I wanted to include gingerbread dough and icing recipes.  What you can't see is there is actually a second pocket page underneath this one and on the outside of the front and backs are the instrutions for preparing the dough and icing.

 Page 5 & 6

 Page 6

Page 6 includes some mini-ornaments found at Hobby Lobby.  They have 2 sections this year including gingerbread ornaments.  One is a mini tree section and then again in the large ornament section.  There were little hooks in the top that I unscrewed and removed.

 Pages 7 & 8

More mini ornaments on these 2 pages.  The edger punch on page 8 is by EK Success. This is not a traditional border punch.  It creates a paper ribbon.

 Page 7

 Page 8

 Pages 9 & 10

I used a large background stamp on these 2 pages.  The stamp is by Inkadinkado.

 Page 9

Yes that's an army tank shooting Santa!  I really wanted my kids to create houses with traditional christmas colors, but they wanted to do there own thing, and this is just one example.  Sometimes their creative idea's worked and sometimes they didn't.  One year my son and his girlfriend decided to do a "Disney" themed house.  They tried to build a roller coaster coming off the roof!  It all looked great, except the roller coaster didn't work out.

Page 10

The holly embellishments in the corners are by Favorite Findings (Michaels).

Page 11 & 12

Page 11

Page 12

The chipboard candy canes used on the roof are from Creative Cuts and More.  I painted them white, added lines with a Micron pen, and colored strips with a marker.  I crisscrossed 2 of them and embellished with the holly button.

Mini Album #5 : Altered Lunch Pails - Doggy Diary's

Hello Paper Crafters.  I have soooo many projects from way back when I wasn't blogging that I would like to gradually work into my blog and this is just one of them!  

These are some of my all time favorite projects featuring our pups.

My husband and I each got a pup when we turned 40.  Our kids were growing up and didn't seem to need us as much, so we wanted more babies, without the bottles and diapers, teehee.  So I had this idea to create them doggy diaries.  And the Basic Grey lunch pails were really big back then.  The idea was that I would store, their breed papers, vet records, and favorite photo's in them.

Ok I admit it.  I have a slightly unhealthy relationship with my pups.  I adore them.  They have never been boarded.  I have a rule, that if the dogs can't go, I don't go, teehee.  With the exception of 1 time, either my husband and I have been with them over night.  Only once have we went away and left them with someone else, daughter, and I called frequently.

And of course I needed a few accesories to go along with them!

Boy is this a bad photo.  It was taken years ago.

If you have pups, I hope you are inspired to create your own special doggy diaries!

Melisa

You can view all of my Altered Projects HERE

Mini Album #7 : So Thankful Altered Altoid Tin

Hello paper crafters.   I realized I had not posted since Aug 31st!  Boy does time fly.  Did I mention I started a new job??  I'm working more hours than I had been and it's really interferring with my creative mojo.  So after a long week, I decided I needed some shopping therapy.    I made the long drive to my not so local scrapbook store on Saturday - Archivers.  I hadn't been to one in greater than 6 months because they are all 50 min away.  So most my shopping has been online or at my local craft stores (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Joann's).  I was like a kid in a candy store!!  It was a little overwhelming though because I was trying to select things for so many different things, since I don't go that often.  I'm trying to do more scrapbooking, and I wanted to pick up some supplies to create a few Pink Persimmon projects.  As well as some things to use for future pub calls.  I was in there for hours!  

So tonight I wanted to share this little altered altoid tin I have had forever ... but never posted.  The supplies are so old, I'm not even going to list them.  But hopefully you can still get some inspiration from it.  In the photo above, you can see to strips of ribbon coming out of the tin.  these are adhered across the back of the last page and can be tied together in a bow.  I use them to lift the album out of the tin.

I'm also going to post a step by step tutorial on "how to alter an altoid tin".  So this will be a long one!

So basically, I cut lots of little mini pages with rounded corners.  I used strips of cardstock to "hold or bind" the pages together.  

After adhering the strips to the back side of the front of the pages you can see in the photo's, I covered the backs of each page and the binding strips with another page.  

Then I embellished each page with little pockets and pages that flip up exposing more photo's. 

I used decorative scissors, stamps, and flower punches to embellish my little album.

You can view all of my Altered Projects HERE

You can view all of my Mini - Albums HERE.

You can view all of my Fall Projects HERE.

Thanks for letting me share!

Have a great week!

Melisa

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Altering an Altoid Tin

In the past I have altered quite a few altoid tins.  I just thought they made the cutest little mini-albums and the tin protected the mini-album so well.  I actually created a template for the top of the lid, so I can quickly trace and cut those round corners.  After I made one out of paper, I converted it to chipboard.  I have another altered tin tutorial that shows you how to stamp on tissue paper.  It's actually a little bigger.  It's one of the gift tins from Michaels.  You can check out the step by step tutorial for that one HERE.

For this particular project I sanded down the edges of the tin.  

I rubbed black Staz-on ink around the edges.  

Trimmed out pattered paper for the top and bottom by sitting it on the back of the patterned paper, tracing around the edges with a pencil and then trimming a little inside that pencil line.  I also cut strips of paper to cover the sides by wrapping it around the tin.  I inked all the edges then used Mod Podge to adhere all the paper to the tin.  Easy!!  

Beach Mini Album

I had so much fun making this Beach Mini Album!  My basic supplies were paper, ink, and stamps!

I decided to use the Creative Cuts and More 6" x 6" album.   You can order an album kit, or the cover and pages individually.  You have the option of regular pages or pages with tab.  So many options.  I started with chipboard pages and and covered them with cardstock.

The albums come in other sizes and you can check out all of Creative Cuts and More album options HERE.  Don't forget to check out the kits as well.

I stamped the light blue cardstock with various swirls and seashells with "bashful blue" by SU.  I inked the edges of the label, light and medium blue cardstocks with Tsukineko Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate and  Pearlescent Beige.

Most of the images are from GinaK's "Gifts From the Sea".  I included a few images from Layers of Color "Under the Sea" and Crafty Secrets "Seaside" as well. 

You can achieve that beachy feel ...

by adding twine / raffia / jute and by distressing the edges with ink and a Tim Holtz distress tool.  Don't be afraid to add a little ink or paint around the edges of your photo as well.  Scroll all the way down to check out a few more idea's on how to achieve that beachy look, including sand.

The die used for the labels was Spellbinders Labels Eight with my Grand Calibur.

There is a lot of fussy cutting, but worth it!

Your next blog to visit is ...

Nanne'

the entire blog hop list is ...

Need a few more beachy idea's ??

If you want to add "sand" to your layouts ... use pumus.

And cheese cloth is another great product to use on your beachy layouts.

 I created this layout using the "Seaside" set by Crafty Secrets.

I created my own chipboard charms.

You can see the pumus - sand in this close-up.  You can get pumus in the artist section of your local craft store.  It comes in a grey color, but you can easily mix paint with it.

And you can see the cheese cloth in this close-up.

I hope you are inspired to scrapbook those summer photo's!

hugs, Melisa

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You can view more of my Mini-Albums HERE.

You can view more of my Beach / Summer projects HERE.

You can view more of my Creative Cuts and More Projects HERE.