My first ever tutorial!!

Man, oh man. If I appreciated tutorials found on blogs and SCS before, I REALLY appreciate them now! They are a tonne of work! I really wanted to try my hand at one so I had to come up with a project. I recently bought a Jack Johnson CD. The CD case is really neat so being the scrap freak that I am, I tore it apart and measured it, made a few alterations and this is what I came up with. I hope you guys like it. There are few errors as far as photos go but I'm sure you guys will forgive me...

Here's what you'll need:

One 10 1/2"x 6" piece of cardstock for the pocket

One 10 7/8"x 9 7/8" piece of cardstock for the cover and middle section

Key tag punch (other punches shown in photo are for decorating the album once complete)

Crop 'o dile

Sticky strip or other strong double sided tape

Snail

Snips

bone folder

scoring tool

Simply Scrappin' Kit (retired Summer Days kit shown here)

Bunch 'o stuff for embellishments

Magnetic snaps

Jumbo eyelets

Take the smaller piece of CS for the pocket and score on the 6" side at 3/8", 1/2", and 5 1/2"Turn the page to the 10 1/2" side and score at 5/8" and 5 9/16"You'll end up with a page that looks like this. Cut out the shaded areas.
You'll end up with this. Angle the corners with your snips as shown. You can't see it very well in the photo but the un-angled tab on the left has 2 score marks very close together. This is to give a bit of room for the flap to close when the album is assembled. Use your bone folder and fold all the score lines.
Put a strip of adhesive on the two angled tabs.
Also put an adhesive strip on the back of the un-angled tab.Close the pocket being careful to leave a bit of play as this is where the "mini mini" album will go. If it's too tight, the album will not fit.Use the key tag punch as shown. Set the pocket aside until later on.

Take the second, larger piece of CS and on the 10 7/8" side, score at 5 3/8", and 5 9/16.
Turn the CS to the 9 7/8" side and score at 4 15/16".

Cut out the shaded area of the CS.Fold with a bone folder on all the score lines.Add a strip of adhesive as shown in photo. Add another one on the left hand side too. I forgot to take a pic but you can see where to place it further down in the tutorial.Adhere your pocket that you assembled earlier as shown in photos.
Fold down the flap in the middle section so it covers the flap from the pocket.

Fold down the flap on the cover piece (see where the other piece of adhesive goes? I thought about it afterward...I told you guys, it's my first tutorial!) Before you do this, use the key tag punch on the cover flap like you did on the pocket. I used the 1 1/4" punch at first but I screwed up and ended up going back to use the key tag. Narf.
this is what the album will look like after it's all assembled. To keep the album closed, I used a magnetic snap. At first, I put it under the flap of the cover and inside the pocket. Then I re-thought it because I don't find the smaller mag snaps to be that strong. Instead, I put them under the patterned paper that I used to decorate the album. Worked like a charm!
Here's my final product. I hope you guys enjoyed my first ever tutorial. Especially because I almost went bald from pulling my hair out while typing this up on Blogger...ahem.





i made a tag to fit into the opening on the cover. It's to tight to hold much else.

I also made a "mini mini" album to fit in the pocket. There's six photos inside it. I didn't really measure it as I was making it so if you go with this option, just wing it. Logan got a real kick out of this album. he wants to bring it to daycare with him! That's it. I'm super happy with the result! OK, it's bike ride time with the kids. Slater, skaters.

EDIT: For some reason I didn't add the photo of the album totally opened up. You can kinda see it but I'm going to post the whole thing later on on Splitcoast.

Crafty Sally has candy! Here's the link: http://craftysally.blogspot.com/

WSC55

What would we stampers do without Beate and her challenges? She's like a pinata of inspiration. Only you don't have to hit her with a stick to get at the inspiration! LOL! Hey, how about that Washington Apple paper?? Love it. Ske-doosh.

Another one...

Had some time between loads of laundry and dishes. Now that I've got the housework done, I'll have that much more time to play this weekend!! I am so smart. S-M-R-T. We were supposed to go to QC this weekend but Skyler and now Logan aren't feeling so hot. There's definitely something going around town. So we're going to lie low this weekend and watch some movies and such. I go back to work on Tuesday! OMG! Do you guys think the boss will mind if I bring my stamp stuff to work?? Ya, probably. Blasted non-stampers...grumble, grumble. OK, I lied earlier. The laundry isn't TOTALLY done. I still have to fold it. Gak. Slater skaters. Oh, BTW. How do you guys like my new profile pic? It's one of the only decent pics I have of myself. That's what happens when you're always behind the camera!!!

Free standing pop-up card

I love this tutorial on SCS! It's a real WOW-er. So easy to do, too.

We got our new computer!!! Now I just have to re-organize everything and I'll be good to go. I had no idea it was so complicated to change a computer. Well, I'm computer inept so it could be super easy, I guess. I'm loving Windows Vista and am having a hard time figuring out why people don't like it. The dryer just stopped and I promised Phil I would get it ALL done today so I gotta boogie. I might be back later. Slater skaters.

Wet watercolors

Post and dash. Ske-doosh.

Vvvvvvv-vvvvvvvvvvvv

That's the sound of me vacuuming. Post and dash, my pretties. I've got a club tonight and I still haven't vacuumed my workshop. You can see the link for the technique I used on the BG in the last post. Slater skaters.

Mojo-licious

I'm on a roll people!!! I got so much done today. Amazing what not having continual interruptions can do for your mojo! I've got my fat girls meeting tonight so I gotta go. Up, up, and AWAAAAAAY! Captain Sweaty Fat Kid to the rescue! Slater skaters.

Edited to add: click here for the link to the technique I used on this card.

Reverse spotlight nightmare...

Oh this card made me want to sell all my stamping stuff and take up knitting. My blogging buddy, Lorie (hi Lorie!) was having difficulties with a card (totally beautiful) and I could feel her pain. I was telling her that I'm getting better at seeing bad cards through to the end instead of filing it under the big G (or the big P for my french readers). Something is just wrong about this card. It's a hot, hot, mess.

I'm feeling slightly less crispy today. I have to put a bra on tomorrow though and I can tell you that I'm NOT looking forward to it. Note to self: put on sunscreen the next time you go to the beach. I'm planning on getting a lot of stamping done this week as the boys start daycare on Monday but I don't start work until Friday. Woot woot! Uninterrupted stamping for four days!! OMG!!! I can't tell you guys how excited I am for the new computer to get here. I've had a total of 7 involuntary shutdowns today. Arghhhh! OK, gotta go. Slater skaters.

Burnt like bacon...

You'd think after 34 years of being a red head that I would remember to put on sunscreen. No. I'm not that smart. We spent the day at the beach yesterday and I, like the very large meat head that I am, got my hubs to cream my back but then only very quickly creamed my chest and shoulders. I creamed Logan and Skyler like I was sending them to Mars instead of to play on the beach. I wiped the excess cream from them onto the front of my legs then proceeded to sit in the sun from 11 a.m. until 4 in the afternoon. Awesome. Can you smell that? Ya, that's me burnt to a crisp. So, I hid in the basement all day (away from the unusually super cuddly Skyler and Logan. I swear, those two got a kick out of watching me cringe whenever they touched me today...) and did some more prep for my clubs. I also, for the very first time, did Beate's weekend sketch challenge. Tomorrow? Much more of the same. I'm going to rub some aloe on me and then I'm going to bed. Yawn. Slater skaters!

Bird-day and Wonderful You

I was a busy beaver last night. I'm trying my hardest to prepare and organize all of my clubs that start next week so I won't be up to my eyeballs in CS for the next 6 months. These are a few examples I'll be using for the clubs.

I'm happy the way they all turned out except for the "happy day" stamp. I liked it last night but in the light of the day...not so much. OK, back to work for me! Have a great day, ladies!

Bonheur butterflies

I'm in the midst of prepping all my stampers clubs so I need some fresh examples. The background on this card is the chalkboard technique. I masked a border for the butterflies using post-it notes but I had to much water on my aqua painter. It bled a little bit so I used the CChip taffeta ribbon to cover my oops. In my opinion, it's one of those oops that really improved the card! The image was a little too harsh for the soft background so I put a piece of card stock vellum over top of it. This card was inspired by one made by Marika Lemay. I'm having trouble finding that direct link to the card but you can find it on her site. It's a white card playing in a slide show on the right hand side of her blog. Check out her other stuff too, especially her club planners for demos. She rocks!

Skyler is starting daycare today. I start back to work next week and I can't believe how time flies. Skyler in daycare. I'm having a hard time swallowing that one. I'll live, I know. I'm just a wee bit bummed today. Nothing a little stamping can't cure.

No cards but...

This post is for purely selfish reasons. No cards, no paper crafts. Just my beautiful family. These are a few shots from our vacation this summer. Five minutes after we got to my in-laws place, a firetruck pulls up and parks right in front of their house. The fire fighters were doing their yearly rounds of the neighbourhood checking fire detectors and such. They just so happened to be about the nicest guys I've ever met. They let the boys (and me) crawl all over the rigs.
Two happier kids, there could not be.
Skyler was in awe of this truck!

Can you tell that Logan is a trouble maker?The adorable Skyler.
Can you believe I got this shot with my camera propped up on a sippy cup on a stroller? I rule.
Logan and my super hot husband, Phil.



This is one of the nicest photos I've ever taken. It's our nephew, Jérémie who is impossible to get a nice photo of so I feel like it's extra special.Skyler and the still hot, Phil.
The king of rock skippin'.

Thanks for indulging me! I've got a few family members that visit my blog so they'll get a kick out of the family shots. Hi Mom! Stop surfing the net and get back to work! Slater skaters.