Mini Albums can be QUICK and EASY!

Take a little photo shoot with some Christmas accessories and a few supplies and you can have a quick and easy gift or remembrance of a Holiday.

I just love putting together a mini album. I love that it is usually centered around one theme or occasion and it doesn't have to have a whole lot of photos to still pack the "wow" factor.

I started with a very simple paper mache' accordian album by Melissa Frances. All of my supplies were from my I Am A Scrapaholic November club kit. I love kit clubs because someone else has done all of the work to put supplies together that match and go together. All I need to do now is sit down and use them.

I wanted this album to be very simple in style so I used a large photo for each fold in the accordian. Then I only had to add one piece of patterned paper to each fold, adding the photo on top of that. I kept the front very simple with mostly my photo being the focus.

My main decoration is the first, inside page. The chipboard snowflake was coated with Platinum Stickles and I put a swath of white paint on the patterned paper so that my rhinestone word, Wonder, would show up against the patterned paper.

I didn't want any journaling but I did use alphabet stickers and some rub-on accents to be my finishing touches on the pages.

Thank you for visiting Pursuit Of CraftYness, Linda

WONDER – MINI ALBUM card

Materials list:
4”x6” Paper Mache’ Foldout book/Melissa Frances
Rhinestone word WONDER – KaiserCraft
Patterned papers – SEI Alpine Frost collection
Printed Poinsettia – Making Memories
Glitter alphabet stickers – Making Memories
Glitter flourish sticker – K&Co.
Journaling sticker – American Crafts
Chipboard snowflake – My Little Yellow Bicycle
Platinum Stickles - Ranger
Ric-Rac trim

White paint

Chipboard and Maya Mists

I've recently aquired some new Maya Mists, a new colouring medium by Maya Road. I particularly like using them to colour my chipboard pieces. The mists are very easy to use, the chipboard is dry within minutes and the coloured surface has a lovely matt finish.

Here's how to use the Mists

Lay out the chipboard you wish to use. Place a large piece of paper under your chipboard as the mist does cover a large area when sprayed.

A couple of sprays will be enough to cover the chipboard. Leave to dry.

In a couple of minutes your chipboard is dry for you to continue with your project.


Maya Mists can also be used to colour cardstock or paper, in this case the base of my card. A couple of sprays was sufficient to cover my card giving it a "spritzed" look.


I further enhanced the my chipboard pieces using my souffle pens to add a little glitter and glaze.

To finish off my card I glued the chipboard pieces to the card. The "icing" section was raised slightly with a foam adhesive. And I finished my cupcake with a little flower decoration on top.


This was a very simple and quick card to put together. The Maya Mists enabled me to colour my chipboard easily and I was able to assemble my card in less than 10 minutes.

Materials:

• Maya Road Chipboard: Cupcakes Chipboard set and Noah Chipboard Alphabet set.
• Maya Road Maya Mists: Pink Mist, Brown Mist and Green Mist.
• Maya Road Trinkets Crochet Shimmer Blossom.
• Sakura Pens: Gelly Roll Glaze and Gelly Roll Stardust.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you have a great day.

Cheers

Fiona

Canvas Art with your Kids

Summer is here and I don’t know about you, but we enjoy doing crafts together. And with gas prices the way they are, finding things to do with your kids... at home and with on-hand supplies is even better!

Not long ago I was blog hopping and came across a fun kids project by Arounna Khounnoraj at the Book Hour Craft Projects Blog. She created this amazing Alphabet Poster using old wood typeset letters & numbers. Such a simple, but beautiful piece for any wall and I was instantly inspired. What a fun project to do yourself and have your kids make one too!

At first I thought we could use some of the alphabet stamps I already have so it would be similar. But then I came across the large, 8 inch chipboard “M” by Making Memories that I bought forever ago. Who knows what I had planned for it way back then, but I’m glad I saved it because now I had the perfect project for it. It inspired me to do a monogrammed canvas instead! Isn't it funny how inspiration works!

Then the fun began with digging through all the chipboard, metal and other fun M’s that I could find in my supplies. I dug pretty deep, because if you've been scrapping for a while, you'll notice some older products on there too. Here's what I was inspired to create. A simple, colorful monogrammed piece of art.

My canvas is 14" x 18" and I have a pretty big variety of products on there. The largest M is from Making Memories. I think I've had that for at least 2 years, so I'm not sure if you can still find them or not. The large green M on the top right is from Creative Imaginations Bare Elements line and the pink M is a felt one that I picked up on clearance at Joann's. There's pretty much a little of everything on here. I even painted a few of my chipboard pieces with Twinkling H2o's. Just have fun using what you have on-hand!

I started with the large 8 inch “M” and then worked my way around it until I liked the way everything looked. I then took a photo so that I could refer back to it as necessary. Next I painted the bare chipboard pieces and my canvas. Once everything was dry, I started gluing.

Here’s the one my 9 year old son, Tyler made and he loves it! I kept his a little easier to manage by having him work on a 6 x 8 canvas. It was a Target $1 spot item I already had in my supplies. I then had him stick to mostly alphabet stickers, using just a few larger chipboard pieces. He sure had fun going through all of my alphabets to find what he liked! I really like the tan color he used for his canvas and the green he chose for the large T inspired me to use that color too.

You can find lots of fun & inspiring projects on the internet for all ages, including the one I linked above. And remember, your local library is always a good source for some kids craft books.

Go find something that inspired you and enjoy doing something crafty with your kids this summer!