Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

Limited Edition Albums - Memories by the Month

As many of you know, scrapbooking and memory keeping is one of my biggest passions. It's something I try to pass on to others. The new "Memories by the Month - Limited Edition Albums" is my way of helping you to make your memory keeping and scrapbooking easy, fast and fun!

What is "Memories by the Month?"

"Memories by the Month" is simply a listing on the first of each month of 10-12 limited edition albums on my Etsy shop. Once they're gone, they're gone.

There's no club to join and no sign-up. 

On the first of each month, I'll have 10-12 handmade, unique, limited edition albums listed in my Etsy shop for purchase. I'll send out an email to let you all know when they're up and available for purchase.

Once they're gone, they're gone! So you don't want to wait!

Click here to see this month's limited edition albums...

This month's albums are up and ready and they're BEAUTIFUL!

They feature hand stitched details, lots of texture, fabric, ribbons, felt, chipboard...and they're ready for you to put your photos and memories in. You can even use them as guest books or journals!

Each album has a total of 24 pages and are decorated with small fabric flowers with epoxy centers. A fabric-covered chipboard back cover keeps your album sturdy. There's 10 different albums to choose from of all different colors and patterns.

Click here to see this month's limited edition albums...

Remember, these are limited edition albums! Once they're gone, they're gone!

They're a quick, easy and beautiful way to get your memories in an album!

Happy Memory Keeping!

 

Coaster Mini Books Trilogy Tutorial CD & To-Go Kits

Coasters are great to put under your drinks to keep your table dry, but there's so many more uses for these simple, sturdy pieces of cardboard than just drinks.

Did you know that coasters can make the most amazing mini-books? And did you know that I have 3 brand new tutorials to walk you through 3 fun and easy books!

I'm pleased to announce the......

Coaster Mini-Books Trilogy Tutorial CD & To-Go Kits!

3 Mini Book Tutorials in one CD!

You get 3 mini book tutorials in one CD.....or you can get everything prepped for you and ready to assemble in the To-Go kit!

Click here for more details, more pictures and ordering information ---> Coaster Mini Books Trilogy Tutorial CD & To-Go Kit!

Paper Bag Book....

A while back, I got into making handmade albums. These evolved into my Paper Bag Albums. These are, by far, one of my most favorite projects to make.

I have these books down to a science now. I no longer have to look at my list of dimensions to know what to cut my paper at, what to cut my ribbon at or what to cut and score my binding at. I can almost make these books with my eyes closed.

The best thing about these books is that with all the awesome patterned paper and embellishments out there, you can just keep making and making these and they'll never turn out the same.

While I love to use all kinds of paper and embellishments, my favorite product to use is Stampin' Up's Simply Scrappin' Kits. I love that all the papers and cardstocks coordinate and all the embellishments are right there in the kit! The only thing I have to come up with is some ribbon for the tie on the book and that's not hard at all considering that I'm a ribbon hoarder (yes, I admit it, I hoard EVERYTHING!).

When I say that I have these books down to a science, I really do. I can actually create one in under 2 hours!  I DID tell you they were one of my favorite projects!

These books make amazing gifts for new moms (I just brought one along as a gift to a baby shower that my daughter and I attended recently), for a young woman going off to college, as a travel journal for a friend going away on a summer trip, a gift to a teacher.....or even as a way to create a whole library of interesting and interactive albums of your own.

You can put all sorts of things on the pages.....pictures, journaling blocks, stickers, etc. And you can put all sorts of things in the paper bag pages, as well. Pamphlets from tourist destinations, boarding passes and train tickets, receipts, recipes, pictures, tags with hidden journaling, etc. These albums truly become interactive and treasured keepsakes. They're so much more than an album. So much more than a book. So much more than a scrapbook. They're ALL of those things and more.

The holidays are coming up.....these make the perfect home made gift. Even for the non-crafters on your wish list. You could make the album and the kids could help you put the pictures and trinkets inside....a true family made gift.

For the semi-crafter, you could make the album and let them finish it off with their own pictures and memorabilia.

And for the crafter on your wish list, you could give them the gift of creativity....by getting them the Paper Bag Book Tutorial CD and some goodies to craft with.

Hope you all have had a wonderful Tuesday! I'll be back tomorrow with some new projects to share!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

A cute little handmade book....

Here's a project that I made earlier this past spring. I had gotten a HUGE bag of plain white coasters and wanted to put some of them to use. At that time, I had also gotten a really great stack of papers from Die Cuts with a View. The Old World stack. The papers and the coasters were destined to be married. And by the looks of them together, they sure do love each other. *wink*

The coasters I used were 4 x 4 coasters (which is a very common size) and covered them with the paper. I thought this little book would make a great gift album for a grandma....or for a teacher's gift. The pages are small, but they are perfect for wallet sized pictures and some journaling.

You all know my habit for hoarding. Tis a nasty, nasty habit. I have all these lovely little (and some not so little) things to use on my cards, altered projects, scrapbooks, etc.....but most of the time, I like looking at them in the packaging and can't bring myself to use them. And then I wonder, "If I use this embellishment on a project, what happens if later on, I wanted to use it on another project? What if I can't get any more of that embellishment? What happens if I can't even find something CLOSE to that to replace it with?" I create a "crafting panic attack" that probably isn't all that big of a deal in the larger scheme of things. It's amazing how many times I've bought a certain item to use on a project, put it away because I want to hoard it for that particular project and then when I actually sit down to make the project, I realize that I've hoarded the item away SO well that I can't even remember where I put it! I've gotten better about using the things I've saved for years, realizing that they're just gonna be there 20 years from now if I don't use them. It's a hard habit to break, but I'm getting there.

So, what was the point in all of that? This little pewter finish fern charm. That's been hanging out in my bins for about *cough*5 years*cough*. I figured it was high time to use it. So there it is. It's sitting on top of a couple pieces of chipboard shapes that were also covered with paper from the Old World Stack.

I switched up the papers inside the book as I loved so many of the papers and couldn't stick to just one. If I had used ALL the papers I wanted to, I would have ended up with a book about 20 pages high! And they're not thin pages, either, since I used the thicker coasters for this project. (They're the thickness that you find in most children's board books and hold up REALLY well to a lot of handling.)

The book holds closed with a really pretty ivory narrow organdy ribbon. I covered the spine with an inked up piece of twill tape.

I still don't have pictures in this little book yet, but I have plans for it. One of these days.....one of these days.

Just as a heads up.....

There's lots of new announcements coming up. I've got great news that I can't wait to share with you and hope that by the end of the week, things will be in place. Also, there are new releases over at GinaK Designs AND Kitchen Sink Stamps as of November 1st! Make sure to head over and check out what they're up to! FUN STUFF!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Update on Winter Bright Kits....and Tutorial CDs are still available!

For those of you that are still waiting on the Winter Bright Extravaganza Kits and Tutorial CDs, the last batch went out in today's mail. I put a round in the mail at the beginning of last week, another round on Saturday, yesterday and today, as well.

I've loved all the positive responses I've gotten back so far.....keep them coming! I love to get feedback, as I'm always striving to make the kits and CDs the best possible!

I have literally spent HOURS burning CDs, cutting cardstock and assembling kits....packaging and mailing....and for the next upcoming release (which will be out in about 4 weeks time.....I'm still working on putting the projects together and figuring out what to include in my newest kit and CD), I have a plan in action to have these kits go out even faster! I want to make sure you're all getting these CDs and kits as quickly as possible so that you can let your creativity loose and start making these awesome projects right away!

I'm thrilled to the gills that you've all been loving what you see so far!

For those of you that are new to my blog, or if you wanted to get in on the kits and CDs but haven't gotten around to it, yet......I have great news!

Even though To-Go kits were only for a limited time, the CDs are still available!

You can check out sneak peeks and find all the order information right here:

* The Winter Bright Project Extravaganza Tutorial CD

AND

* The Paper Bag Book Tutorial CD

They make great gifts for the papercrafters on your Wish List.....or even a gift for yourself! (and each of us always deserve a treat to ourselves!)

Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have about these great CDs.

Have an awesome week!

-Erika

Memorial books....no stamping required

For those of you that have been long-time blog readers here, you know that my grandmother passed away in January. She was very special to me and we were very close.

We had a small memorial service for her yesterday at a family dinner at her favorite restaurant. My grandfather ordered here favorite meal for her and he and my father ate it for her, as was the usual case whenever they went out to eat (well, they didn't eat the whole thing, they would just polish off anything she couldn't finish).

I wanted to do something special with pictures of my grandmother and decided on little accordion books that would serve as memorial books.

My sister emailed me some pictures and I had a couple prints that I liked that I had done in wallet size.

I made 8 of these little books and it seemed that everyone appreciated them. They weren't overdone.... they were very simple, but elegant.

 

I thought, at first, that this might be too personal to share, but then thought of all the wonderful support you all showed back in January when my grandmother went through her last days and when she passed away. I really appreciate all the kindness you showed during that time. My grandmother was very special to me and I wanted to share her with you.

While this is an accordion book, I also created and added folded pages inside the book to allow for 2 extra pictures, as well as 2 quotes.

I could have made the accordion longer, but then I would have had to splice cardstock together and thought this would give it a little more interest.

There's a big part of me that is a perfectionist. Even though I've tried hard to break out of that box, there's still a part of me that feels like everything has to be just so. Just perfect. Diving head first into the world of altered books and altered art really helped me to see that I could go outside the lines, break the rules and do absolutely whatever my heart desired. As I was working on these little books, I wanted them to be perfect. I had a vision in mind for them. I was given the pictures to work with, but when when it came down to actually doing the work of putting them together, I wanted to do it myself.

My daughter (she's 7) saw me working at my craft desk and asked me what I was doing. I told her that I was working on little memory books about Grandma and that I was going to bring them to the memorial service. My daughter told me she wanted to help. At first, I felt suffocated inside. This was MY project. MY vision. I was doing this. I didn't want anyone else to help with it. I wanted them to be perfect.

Then, I realized that I wasn't the only one that lost this person I loved so much. We all lost her. It's something we've all been learning to process. I knew, then, that I needed to let go of this being MINE and let my daughter have a part in it.

I took out the Perfect Plum cardstock and measured it in the paper cutter and let my daughter do the cutting. I don't let my daughter use the paper cutter, but I decided that this time, she would be allowed to use it, since she was sitting on my lap. We went through the process of cutting the paper together.

I took out the package of Enchante paper (from Stampin' Up....though it's no longer available) that I've been hoarding for a special project and pulled out a couple of pieces to see what looked best with the cardstock. I asked my daughter what she thought would look best on the front of the book. I was really hoping that she'd pick the paper I secretly wanted. She didn't. She picked out the little dainty purple flowers. Part of me wanted to try to talk her into choosing the paper I wanted. I let it go and told myself that this wasn't all about what I wanted. I let her choose the paper she wanted. I ended up using the paper I wanted inside of the book to mount the quotes on top of. It was a nice compromise.

After a while, my daughter went off to do something else and I took over and finished the books from there.

It was actually very therapeutic to work on these. My grandmother didn't want a funeral, calling hours, a wake or an obituary. We honored her wishes on that. While that was easy for most of us to process at the time that she passed away, it's been a little more challenging, in the long run, to fully find closure on all that's happened.

Wasn't she just beautiful? This picture always makes me think of a movie star. My grandfather was really touched by the little books. Just as I was really touched when he handed me a beautiful purple velvet box and told me to take one of the little urns that were inside. He gave my mom, sister and I each a beautiful little 3 inch tall carved pewter memorial urn to keep. It was a good opportunity to explain all of this to the kids, since this was their first experience with death. My little urn is sitting on the shelf in my living room. I know she's really not in there, but it's was so kind of my grandfather to share a part of her with all of us. I'm sure that wasn't easy for him to do, but it really meant a lot to all of us.

I'm now off to work on a project for my girls to do at my downline meeting tomorrow night.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Creating!

-Stampin' Mama

Guess where I'm headed tomorrow???

I'll give you a hint.........well, okay, it's more than a hint. This pretty much gives it away.

And being the organized person that I pretend to be, I even made myself a handmade scrapbook to take with me to capture my thoughts and feelings throughout the trip.

Now, before you go and think that I do this for every trip I go on, I'll set the record straight so that no one disillusions themselves. :) This is actually the first time I've done this. Sure, I've thought about it with each trip I've gone on......to bring an album that I can work on while I'm on my trip. But it never goes any further than my thought process.

This time, however, I was determined to actually make something and bring it with me. This is the result.

It was a lot of fun putting this together and I finally broke into that Basic Grey Motifica Collection that I got AGES ago when I was working at Creative Habitat and got my 25% employee discount (gosh, that was forever ago). It's been sitting on my shelf, waiting for the perfect project, for at least 2 years now, if not more. When I decided to do an album to bring with me, I realized that this was the perfect project that my paper had been waiting for.

This is actually a "paper bag book." Meaning: the pages on the inside are actually made out of paper bags. I got the idea from The Paper Bag Book, which is put out by Pine Cone Press.  I used the Accordian Bag book instructions at the back of the book and tweaked them a little.

I covered each of the bag-pages with some of the Basic Grey cardstock so that I could journal on them, as well as put pictures on them when I get them printed. The bags were left so that I could open them and put things inside of them....like boarding passes, train tickets, brochures, pamplets, receipts, etc.

Even though this looks like a lot of work to put together, it was actually quite fun and therapeutic. I'm so excited to get started on it.....I can't wait to show it around to friends and family when we come back. Talk about an easy way to get caught up on my scrapbooking for this trip.....do it on the go!

Now that I've done one, I'm going to have to make MORE! It was just TOO much fun.....and I have another pack of Basic Grey paper sitting on my paper wrack....the Sublime Collection.
Now I just have to come up with another place to visit so that I can get started on that album! ha! :)

My parents drove up late last night and will be staying with the kids while Davy and I go to Norway. My parents are the BEST! (Hoping my mom reads this so I can bank up my "brownie points.") They'll be staying at our house while the kids go to school each day. The kids (click here to see pics of the kids) are SO looking forward to it! They've been counting down the days till Opa and Nana got here.

Tomorrow, Monday the 9th, my sister is driving us north of Boston and we'll be taking the commuter rail and subway to the airport (since the tunnel collapsed and it's impossible to get to the airport that way). I haven't even started packing yet and we're leaving at noon time. I've been busy getting things in place business-wise for while we're gone, along with getting things in place to make things as easy as possible for my parents and the kids.

I've also been getting posts ready for all of you for while I'm gone. I took a bunch of pictures, did a lot of stamping and have scheduled posts to show up almost each day while I'm gone. :) So make sure you check back often. :) And if I get the chance while we're away, I'll make sure to post on our Norwegian adventures. :)

You'll definitely be seeing the completed scrapbook after we get back. What I'll do is share the instructions once I come home....along with the dimensions, in case you'd like to make a book similar to this. :)

Oh, and the new picture of me at the top of my blog was taken Friday night. :) My dreads are coming along SO nicely. I've added beads.....LOVE EM!

Have a fantastic week! I'll be home LATE at night on the 16th. :)

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.  ~Hilaire Belloc

Something I'm working on.....

This is a project I actually started about 2 years ago. It's been a while since I took it out and continued working on it.

I started this as an example for a class I was teaching on tag-books. Funny how an example became more about me than about something done simply to show around to the students for example's sake.
This tag book is called "Dreams and Destinations" because it's all about my "wanderlust." There are so many places I want to see and things I want to do when I get there. This little book is a quick snap-shot of some of the places I'd like to go.

Because it's been 2 years since I started this, I've since been to 2 of the places in this little book. 2 down, 3 more to go. Of course, there's MANY more places that I'd like to see,  but I could only fit a few in this small book.

(Click on the images to see a larger view)

I started with a sheet of brown 12x12 cardstock and used a tag to trace out a pattern. I created two strips of tags next to each other (5 tags for each strip) and adhered two of the end tags together from each strip.....which gave me a total of 9 tags across in an accordian style.

Then I took a brown chalk pad and applied the ink directly to the cardstock from the pad ("Direct-to-Paper" technique). I used a lot of stickers from the Stickopotamus Destinations Line and roughed them up a bit with some sandpaper. I'm not quite sure where some of the other stickers came from as it's been a while since I started the project. I also used some cardstock stickers (I think they were Karen Foster brand) and some collage art that I found.

I used strips of cardstock and stamped on them with small alphabet stamps (Hero Arts) with the names of places and things I want to see.

When this project is finished (which shouldn't be too long from now...I only have 3 more pages to go), it will have fiber tassels tied through each of the holes on top of each tag.

I'll post the pictures of the finished project when it's completed.