Spring My Sweet Friend Mini Album

I love designing handmade gifts that come together quickly and are fun to make! Today, I'm sharing a sweet mini album that I created for a friend. Wait until you see how many Doodlebug collections I used in this little book!

 

For the cover, I used the adorable gingham check paper called Under My Umbrella and the row of bugs paper along the bottom is called Sweet Sunshine, both from the Simply Spring Collection. The cute bird and branch die cut is from the Spring Things Odds & Ends. The "Friend" title and heart banner are from the Hello collection, and the sun die cut came from the I💗Travel Collection, Odds and Ends. (Product links below).

 

 

How sweet is that little pink butterfly? She's also part of the Spring Things Odds & Ends. I think that's 4 collections so far! That cute green critter paper in the background is from Simply Spring called Bloomin' Bugs. And in the photo above you can also see some petite prints dot and stripe in swimming pool and bubblegum. That's 5!

  

 

Ready for more? That precious yellow heart paper is from the So Punny Collection (but a good substitute would be Bella Blvd's Besties Hearts and Ombre in Bell Pepper). And what project would be complete without some floral Petite Prints!  We're up to 7 Doodlebug Collections!

 

 

The cute little Hello Lady card and the floral print square are also from the Simply Spring line. (Doodlebug has an almost exact match for that floral in their Hippity Hoppity Collection - link below).

 

 

See the floral paper on the pocket? That one's from Bunnyville and it's called Happy Easter. That's 8!

 

 

I love, love, love, that sunshine paper from Simply Spring called Sweet Sunshine. You can find it in the 12x12 paper pack linked below. 

 

And finally, the pretty Jellybean Plaid above is from Hoppy Easter. Whoa, that makes 9! I used 9 different collections in this little mini! That's one of my favorite things about Doodlebug ... my older collections will always match the new ones.  Well, that and the sprinkles, of course!

If you'd like to make this cute little album, I've added some product links and a few substitutions below. Thanks for letting me share it with you! I hope I've inspired you to use all of your Doodlebug collections together!

 

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Supplies: Affiliate links are used in this post at no additional cost to you. I receive a small amount of compensation when you click through and shop using the provided links. This helps me to continue building my small business. Thank you!

Coming Soon! This Is Me!

As scrapbookers and memory keepers we are usually our family's historian of sorts.  We document all the important moments and take pictures at every event and holiday.  We search for the perfect baseball or ballerina paper, fill albums with beautiful travel memories, and even turn our love of craft into thoughtful gifts.

But the one thing we don't do often enough, is tell our own story.  We are part of our family's story, yes ... and our friends' stories... but sometimes we leave out the details about the person behind the camera.  It feels strange to some of us to scrapbook about ourselves, especially when we barely have enough time to get everyone else's pages done. But the phrase I built my company around rings true ... 

someday, someone may want, or need, to know.

I lost my mom to breast cancer when I was 19 yrs old.  My mom was only 44. We had family photos, of course, and my mom even found time to put some of them into photo albums.  My sister and I have spent many occasions together, sorting through all of our family photos that were stored in those albums, or in boxes and envelopes.  Sometimes we look at a photo, and then at each other, and ask, "Do you know who this is?" "Do you know where we were in this picture?"  Or the ones that really get us, "I wonder what mom was thinking in this picture?...did she make that dress?...how did she feel when she was pregnant?...what was her favorite family recipe?...what things did she worry about ?"

There have been so many times in my life when I wish I knew how my mom felt about things.... things that as a teenager, I never thought to ask her because I thought she'd always be there to tell me.  

You will probably be around to tell your stories for many years to come.  I hope and pray we all will.  But if it's important to us to document the memories of our family and friends, might it also be important to someone else one day that our story be told too?

And who better to tell our story than us?  Our lives might be fun, complicated, happy, messy, painful, motivating or silly.  We might not like our handwriting, or how we look in photos ... but I can promise you this, my sister and I don't care what our mom's handwriting looks like, or whether her shoes matched her dress in a photo ... because all of those things are part of her story that we wish we knew. 

So, I would like to start a new project with a community of women who want to tell their stories.  The project will look something like this:

• Project length:  6 months, April or May - Sept. or Oct, 2020
• Limited number of participants.  Registration will open soon.
• Private facebook group for kit information, sharing and ideas
• Monthly project kits to complete one 6x8 album (the album will be part of the first kit that goes out)
• Each kit will include paper, embellishments, journaling prompts, and instructions, similar to all Artsy Albums kits. There may be questions to answer, suggestions of things to take pictures of, themes to document ... examples are things like:
• My earliest memories
• What made me happy/sad this week
• My favorite recipe this month
• My hairstyles through the years
• Things I'm grateful for
• Books I'm reading and why
• People who inspire me
• LOTs more ... 

Your monthly kit will include several journaling and photo ideas to choose from, but ultimately this project is yours and you can choose to follow the ideas for that month, or document a completely different chapter of your story.  

We are all different, so the goal is that you tell YOUR story ... whatever that story is.

So does this sound fun? Interesting? ... Scary?  ha ha ... I get it!  It sounds exciting and a little scary to me too.  I'm working out all the details this week and hope to have more information on how to register soon!  Until then, please stay tuned to my facebook and instagram pages for more details to come.

I'm looking forward to taking this creative journey with you!

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Beautiful Memories Scrapbook Album Kit

Hey guys! I'm home and just like everyone else trying to avoid a corona exposure. So, if you have some free time why not spend it being creative? Time to make pretty lemonade outta lemons!  
I have a new album and hopefully this will make everyone's home time a little more fun. It's titled Beautiful Memories and I used Carta Bella's Farmhouse Market Collection. It's waiting for your special photos that need a home!

I just added it to my shop Friday and this album is gorgeous! It really needs to be seen to appreciate the colors and the watercolor feel of the papers. It's so lovely and would be great for so many different occasions! 

I think this album would be a perfect gift to give mom for Mother's Day! It's Sunday, May 10th this year. You can buy her gift early (check that off your to-do list) and spend the next few weeks scrappin' at home!

Assemble it yourself and fill it with tons of photos she would love... pictures of your family, all her children, her grandchildren, her vintage childhood photos, her & her husband's love story, pictures of her girl squad or any photos that are special to her.

Or give it to her as a kit and let her create the magic herself.  Either way, she'll love it and it's a gift from the heart that will last forever.

This scrapbook would also make a perfect gift for someone's birthday ... for family photos, a graduation, Sunday brunch with the ladies, celebrations, vintage and heritage photos, gardening and beautiful spring flowers!

The album measures 6"x9"x3" and will hold at least 35 photos. It has 12 pages (6 double-sided) and has 2 pockets for collecting memorabilia and extra photos. And it's got several fold-out elements to make the album interactive and fun!

Check out this pretty new scrapbook and many others in my shop today. And let's spend this down-time together finding joy in our beautiful memories.  





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Squeeze the Day Photo Crate with Bella Blvd

Hi everyone! I'm SO excited to be sharing my first Bella Blvd creative team project with you!  Did you know that today is National Let's Laugh Day? How fun! So when I was thinking about my project I knew I had to include lots of pictures of my granddaughter. She's three years old and makes me laugh every day. Not only is she funny but she's also very sweet, so I used the Squeeze the Day Collection to create a photo crate full of her fun pictures.

 

I started with a 4x6 inch black crate by 7 Gypsies (link below) and embellished the front with fun chipboard and icon stickers and the "sweet" from the ephemera words. I love all the rainbow colors!

 

For the inside "pages" I used a Bella Blvd cutting file called Squeeze to cut out the fruit shapes (link below). I created offsets for each piece to create the white mats and then added the photos and fun embellishments.

 

I also made some 4x6 file folders out of white cardstock and fun papers from the 12x12 and 6x6 paper pack. I love how the cute bow clips hold the folders closed while they're stored in the crate.

 

 

When you open the folders, they reveal a few more silly photos.

 

Here's a look at the inside of another folder. The rainbow Bella Pop was perfect for this one. And oh my gosh ... seems like yesterday the guy in the photo above was just 3 years old! 

 

I hope you all find opportunities to laugh today. And hopefully, I've inspired you to think outside the box (or crate) to make fun new projects with Squeeze the Day! 

Supplies: Affiliate links are used in this post at no additional cost to you. (loriwhitlock.com is not an affiliate.) I receive a small amount of compensation when you click through and shop using the provided links. This helps me to continue building my small business. Thank you!

 

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