scrapbooking2angels: A mini step by step

With September being the start of Spring - this week is officially blossoms week for me. To start off, I have a couple of pages from my latest mini project – this time a girly one using the very pretty Little Miss from Bo Bunny. It was supposed to be for last month (since it has a Party theme), but a few medical issues at my place have seen all things scrappy put on the back-burner for a bit.

The recent arrival of boxes of blossoms at Tracy’s place was cause for much celebration at mine and I couldn’t resist using them with this mini project. I make my minis from scratch and Tracy has the perfect chipboard for this - it comes as two 30 x 30 Bare Chipboard sheets to a pack and is very easily cut down to your preferred size.

I mark mine up with a pencil to the size I want and then run it through my paper trimmer. Each sheet produced 2 separate chipboard pages for my album and a couple of spare bits that I am able to use for other elements in the album. From there, I sanded the edges down and then inked them in my preferred base colour - in this instance I've used Vintage Photo Distress Ink (or you could use the Stain as well). I've also punched the holes to bind it together - though I have not yet decided whether I will use rings or ribbon to bind it.

I use a normal stationary holepunch to put the holes in - if you do it now, before you add anything to the chipboard, you can fit it into the punch fairly easily. (You'll have to excuse the photos - I scrap mostly at night and the photos reflect this.)

For this pair of pages I am using Alice. I prefer to have similar elements on facing pages and this paper best suited my photos. I've trimmed my chosen section down to about 5mm less than the chipboard, so that some of the lovely inked edge will still show. I inked the edges to match and then carefully cut the edge of the 'cup' in the design so that I can slip the photo in under the edge. I've also popped a section of one of the Filigree Crosses into the top corner.

To create this lovely filigree page corner, I simply snipped one of the crosses into quarters. Many of the filigree shapes make gorgeous little 'bits' that can be popped here and there on your layout. I use some as leaves or to embellish flowers, but these fitted perfectly into my page corners.

After inking the edge of my photo, I tucked it under the cup from the paper pattern. Because the photo overlaps the hole punched for album binding, I traced the position of the hole onto the back of the photo and used that as a guide when punching the hole.

I love the 12 x 12 Chipboard Stickers for this range and this little tea cup matches the one on the patterned paper. It's up on pop dots, as I intend putting something else underneath one edge. One of the best things about Bo Bunny is their wonderful range of embellishments - no hunting through the stash trying to match things - just pick them up and pop them on.

I also love the Noteworthy Journalling Cards - you can use them whole or as I have - cut up with just a strip along one edge of the photo.

Those gorgeous new Pink 7mm Rosebuds make a lovely little bouquet, together with some Mulberry Paper Leaves - Thin Green with Brown Edges for foliage and Pink Organza Ribbon for a bow.

After cutting off the long stems on the rosebuds I curled them up around a skewer to make those lovely tendrils. The whole bunch is tucked inside a filigree (ssshhh - don't tell Tracy - I pulled apart one of her creations so I could make this one of my own) and then the whole thing is tucked under the edge of the tea cup.

To finish off the page I added another filigree corner to the bottom left corner (this was done because I had put 2 corners on the other page, so this one had to have another to match); Kindyglitzed the pink flowers on the tea cups; and added a couple of tiny pink rose buds to the ones on the paper in the top right corner of the page.

And just because they are so gorgeous - here is a close-up of those stunning rosebuds.

The second page starts off pretty much the same as the first - with another piece of the Alice paper - this time focussing on the lovely lace pattern.

Using one of the die cut pieces from the Cut Outs paper (OOS), I first trimmed it down from the original square shape to the outer flower shape and then I stitched along the inner flower shape with white embroidery thread. I also cut along the edge of the pot spout so I could tuck my photo under it.

Here is the photo and my corner filigree bits added to the page. For interest, I've pop-dotted the die cut shape onto my page.

And finally - the embellishments. Using these stunning Pink Lilies, I've created a little cluster of embellishments at the top of the page. I pulled them apart and cut off their stems and then popped them on some half Filigree Crosses (which act as their leaves). The white pearl ribbon is from my stash and it mirrors the pearl strand on the patterned paper. To finish off my cluster, I added one of Tracy's Tea Pot pins - though I did get her to custom it with this matching pearl. (you can get a similar one in Antique Bronze and Pink that has a pink glass bead rather than a pearl). I added another Pink Lily and some pearl ribbon to the bottom corner of the page.

And again - another close-up of those yummy flowers.

Making a mini can sometimes leave you with little space to journal. You can get around this in various ways - this time I have chosen to add in some smaller pages in-between the main pages and my journalling will go on there.

Using one of the left-over strips from making the mini album pages, I have made this much smaller insert. I've left it a little taller than the other page, as I want to showcase this die cut section from the Cut Outs paper. It's way cool on its own - so I have left it as is.

The other side though, has some of the tea cups from the 3 Dimensional Stickers with Glitter and Jewel Accents pack added to it. The rest of the page will have the journalling on it - but these were too pretty not to use here.