The only thing missing is bows!

Ever wondered how to use up the left-over stickers in your stash? I scraplifted this idea - from a scrapbook magazine I think - a couple of years ago for a photo of my daughter. I've used stickers, buttons, flowers, sequins and brads to frame her photo. I even stamped a flower onto acetate a couple of times and cut the images out to use as well. The only thing missing is bows!

I think it looks quite 'busy' in the photo but in real life it's a very pretty layout - and no journaling required for those of you who, like me, dislike your own handwriting.

It's a very simple idea but don't make the mistake of thinking it's a fast way to do a scrapbook page! It took me ages to arrange all the embellishments and stick them down!

Have you have heard of The Stamp Man? On their blog at the moment there's some lovely blog candy up for grabs!  Here's the link and a photo of what you could win -

http://thestampmanuk.blogspot.com/2009/08/stamp-mans-summer-blog-candy-giveaway.html

I could make some really nice bows with this!

Los Angeles Album

Los Angeles Album with acetate Front Cover 

Warning: This post has rather a lot of photos!
Karen was lucky enough to go to Los Angeles in February this year. Ostensibly for a Media Studies trip but they had a great time visiting the Hard Rock Cafe, Grauman's Chinese Theatre (where famous people's hand and foot prints are immortalised) and Rodeo Drive for shopping too. They had day passes to Warner Bros, Universal and Sony film studios - five days of hectic sightseeing and fun! A trip of a lifetime for my daughter as it was the first time she had been in an aeroplane!
She brought back 100+ photos and 6 hours of video footage she had taken! So the photos were crying out to be put into an album for her to keep. The problem was getting her to decide which photos to include, but eventually, with much nagging from me, I  finally made a start on the album in June!

First page without the acetate cover overlaid

Warner Bros Studios 

'Friends' Set at Warner Bros Studios

Santa Monica

I made the album completely from scratch, cutting coloured card and acetate pages to take a couple of photos per page, and used papers from K & Co's Blue Awning collection. I included pages of differing sizes rather than keeping them all the same width - I think this is more fun for the reader. Karen did all the journaling and there's a pocket to hold her plane tickets, mementos etc on the back cover. I used my crop-o-dile to punch holes through everything and used bright blue book rings (Oh for a Bind-It-All!) to hold it all together.

An open-ended slip cover to keep the album in was the final part of the project. I made this from cardboard (the heavy-duty kind found in transit envelopes which I always save) and covered the outside with matching papers.
Karen's very pleased with her keepsake  - and has edited her video footage at last! - into two videos which she has on  Facebook. The videos don't mean much unless you know the people in them, but as she will be studying TV Production at University, it's all good experience for her.
I can't even get my head around Paint Shop Pro, so I'm not going anywhere near her video-editing software!! Just leave me the easy job of papercrafting please.