What to do on a Cold Winter's Day?

Create, of course! This mini album was made from one sheet of 12x12" paper (except that I found out after I assembled it that the paper was a little shy of 12" - it still worked out and I'm not going to tell you where it went wrong and how I covered it). Here's the link to the site where I got pictures and instructions from: http://papervinenz.blogspot.com/2011/01/baby-mini-album-plus-tutorial-day-3.html

Scotties crafts is having a challenge where the theme is: use paper from your stash that is at least a year old - I've got plenty of that! I used a piece of paper from K&Co which is definitely more than a year old (but still good). I also used some K&Co tags and rub-ons, My Minds Eye papers and [old] expoxy stickers for the inside pages. My trusty photo corner punch got a workout as well - have you noticed how often I use it on my layouts? I decided to use the mini album I made and use pictures from our day at San Diego Zoo. I'm a fan of mini photos so off I trotted to Harvey Normans to save money on photo developing only to walk out with an external hardrive as well - hmmmm, how did that happen?

Here's the link to the Scotties challenge page: http://scottiecraftsnz.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-challenge-finally.html

A Card and A Freebie

Let's hope the recipient of this card isn't blog hopping, but then again, she is turning two so I think it's safe to share. My original idea was simply an excuse to use the [new-to-my-stash] mini rosette die from Tim Holtz with a large #2 in the middle. I remembered that the recipient is mad on ducks at the moment and is having a duck theme birthday - boy, I really hope she isn't reading this! I looked at all my punches and discovered that, although I have many of them, not one of them was a ducky. I knew none of my cricut cartridges had a duck on it because the Mum had already asked me (for the invites I think). I was pretty sure that amongst my entire stash I would find at least one thing ducky - and I did (while searching in my Girl/Boy/Childhood box for the base patterned paper - I knew I had that!). Unfortunately ducky was too big for the mini rosette so it had to be hand cut down to size (too thick for EK Success scallop circle punch it turns out!). I guess that means I have to buy the standard rosette size die now, right? Ducky also had the word "baby" on it which I didn't think Miss Two would like but luckily I could stick with my original intention of putting #2 on it strategically placed to cover most of the offending word.

Now, for the freebie. While I was blog hopping yesterday I came across a link for a scrapbook and card magazine website. The magazine is published for the Canadian and US market but international viewers can download the magazine in its entirety for free!

Here's the link: http://www.scrapbookandcards.com/

Enjoy!

New Sites Added

It seems that I check my favourite sites on my lunch break through my blog. I have now added more sites to the right simply to make it easier for me to indulge my addiction without having to sign in to my blog (and therefore avoiding feeling guilty for not posting). I did see a great mini album idea on the Artfull Crafts site which I menat to have a go at last night but I got distracted by 'researching' on Joann.com ;)