Lots of photos

No worries Alex, I must hang my head in shame because I'm later than usual posting tonight, I hate traffic!!!

Never mind all that though, I have to tell you about the mini album I've made. I am so pleased with it. It contains photos of my neice. In my last post I said I wasn't sure about the colours of the American Crafts double sided paper in my kit. (I say paper but it is actually a cardstock of fantastic quality). In my kit was the Bookshelf range and I chose Grimm and Milne. I used them to cover some jumbo sized playing cards that were in my kit. As I knew I would be using quite a few embellies I wanted to make the album fairly sturdy.

I've used one or two items not in the kit but they are mainly little scraps of card and paper for matting, and I used a couple of my own rubber stamps. Perhaps this mini album can be my challenge entry because I used some really small scraps. It pays not to throw anything away!! LOL

I cut the names from a HOTP Round Alphabet Sheet. I chalked them in pale blue and pink, added a bit of glitter glue around the edges and added a silk flower attached with a brad, from the HOTP Cardmakers Creative Pack in Earths Palette.

The second and third page is handwritten with a couple of flowers attached with HOTP brads. The stamped bracket on the on left hand page and the stamped pink flowers on the right side are from the HOTP bi-monthly stamp kit. If you take a look at the I Love Hot Off The Press forum you will find the details of how to get these stamps. In case you are wondering, the writing on the right page is Welsh. It says Hi! Who are you? I'm Lucy.

The fourth page has really lovely metal embellishments. I think they are like flowers but could as easily be used as stars. On the fifth page on the right I used a Helix Alphabet Template to write the word 'artist'. I added a HOTP Paper ribbon and the brads are from the Cardmakers Creative Kit in Pretty.
On the sixth page I cut a small strip of American Crafts ribbon and put the button on it. To make the button look like it had been stitched on, I threaded a very thin strip of paper through the holes and stuck it down at the back. I also punched a couple of flowers . On the opposite page I cut out a mini file folder from the HOTP Library Card Holder and Mini File Folder template. I die cut some letters to stick on the front of the folder.

I secured it with a Cardmakers Accents Pewter mini clip . This old school photograph was ripped slightly on the one side so I added another flower to hide the tear, which worked quite well!

At the edge of the graduation photograph, I die cut letters to spell BA Hons and stuck them onto a piece of torn vellum and punched a couple of flowers from some scrap paper. Vellum and papers scraps are from the Cardmakers Creative Pack in Icy Rainbow and finished it with a metal emellishment that I already had in my stash.

The final photograph is Lucy and I when the family went up to London for the day to visit her. We are opposite Buckingham Palace as I recall! I stamped the words onto vellum. I matted this onto a scrap left from the HOTP Cardmakers Creative Pack in Citrus, with brads form the Cardmakers Creative Kit in Earths' Pallette. To finish this page I attached a HOTP Really Big Brad and added a Really Big Brad Rub On with 'laugh' on it.

I inked the edges of practically everything LOL. I also cut some tabs from the Teresa's Folder and Tabs Template to add to the pages.

At the risk of repeating myself, I am so pleased with this. I like the one patterned page, one plain page and I've changed my mind about the American Crafts Cardstock, I love it! My neice is visiting the first weekend in Novemeber and I think she will love this mini album when she sees it!

I've also made a card and again I am particularly pleased with it (its all about me!) I used the 12 x 12 Vintage Sarapapers. These papers are gorgeous, subtle and muted but not dull. They don't have to be just for vintage photos. I stamped the card with a modern flower stamp. I matted the paper onto brown cardstock and stamped a modern flower image onto it. I coloured around the edges of the image lightly with Tombow pens. I wrapped some ribbon from my kit around a strip of brown card and added some HOTP brads at the top.