Working with Chipboard Albums

Recently I had many people browsing my blog after doing a search for chipboard albums. Some of the searches were for how to finish the albums, how to cover them, or just a plain search for the famous Bo Bunny Word albums. So I decided to do a little tutorial on these.

Below you will see photos of some of the albums I have made in the past. On the right side and on the bottom of my blog you will find links or slides to see all the photos of these albums. So I will just post a few to introduce you to what I will be talking about.





I have made these albums covering them with paper and painting them with acrylic paint.

When covering with paper I found that the best way was to lay your page down on the paper, lining the edges of the album with the edges of the paper. Once you have an idea where you will place the page, then quickly brush a layer of modge podge on the album page and then on the paper. To help you better cover the paper area, you can trace the letter when you lay the page down on the paper. Once page and paper are covered with the glue, you lay the chipboard page down and press firmly, making sure that the whole area is glued down.

Now you take a craft knife and carefully trim the excess of the paper. If you lined the straight edges of the chipboard and the paper you should have very little to cut off. With a little practice using the craft knife is a breeze. :) Make sure you have the side of the knife against the chipboard as you slowly pull the knife towards yourself and cut. Do it slowly. Make sure you have a self healing mat under the chipboard and paper so you don't damage the surface you are working on.

I find that this is easier than tracing each letter (chipboard page) out and then trying to glue it on the board. You can certainly use other adhesive instead of modge podge. To finish the album I will sand the edges (use a nail filer) and ink. You can also paint the edges if you like. Just dab a make up sponge on some acrylic paint and slowly and carefully smear the edges of all the chipboards.

The second way I have created these albums is painting them with acrylic paint. oh, this is so much fun. :) Both times I used black paint and used a light coat on each side of each chipboard. The paint dries quickly so by the time you finish the last one, all the other pages should be dry. When the paint is wet the chipboard will warp a bit, but don't panic. As the paint dries the chipboard becomes flat again.

I usually let them dry a whole night before I start adhering papers and embellishments down.





I hope that helped. Feel free to email me with questions and I would love to hear comments. :)

Have a blessed week. :)

tereza

Another Irresistible Blog Candy!!

Lynsey is also giving out some Blog Candy...I guess everyone is in the Christmas spirit or Thanksgiving spirit.

You need go take a look at this one too!!

:) Tereza

Passion for Crafts Blog Candy!!!

Passion for Crafts is giving out a yummy Blog Candy!! Irresistible!!

If you love stamps, coloring and can't wait for Christmas you got to hop over there to see what this is all about!!! :)

I will be back before Thanksgiving to share some of my newest Custom ORders!!!

Blessings,
Tereza

I gotta go scrap with my daughter.

This is a quick post just to let you all know that I have a special sale going on in my Etsy shop right now. Every purchase from now until November 30th gets an awesome gift with their order.

I am cleaning up my studio to make room for new creations and this is your chance to get some cool gift tags sets, free Christmas cards, all occasion cards, and even some collage kits. So stop by today.

In the meantime, I want to leave you with these....







Have a beautiful weekend!!
Tereza

My Creative Corner Blog Candy

ok, now look what I found....My Creative Corner is giving away an awesome Blog Candy and today is the last day to enter....so go see it HERE.

Have a blessed weekend,

Tereza

Altered Flip Flop Scrapbook Album

Just a quick note... I got a great Summer Vacation album on SALE on my Etsy shop. So if you are looking for a unique, one of a kind album for Grandma to see what you all did during your Summer or beach vacation, you will need this one.

Enjoy!!!
Tereza

Custom 12x12 layouts, Cards, Bridesmaids' Cards and Digital Scrapbooking!!

Ok...did you see that huge title?? I am super busy with all that!!

I got custom orders for 12x12 layouts, bridesmaids cards, wedding tags, save the date invitations, place cards, Custom orders for Cards and yesterday I made my first Digital layout. Oh, man, I am sooooo excited about that!!

I will post it tomorrow for you all to see. In the meantime, here are some of the projects that are finished...






Also I decided AGAIN that I will clean up my studio some more and will list lots on Ebay and items on Etsy. So be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you know when I list if you are interested.

Here is the last of Thanksgiving cards that are ready to ship and available at my Etsy shop:



The background for those photos is a collage my DD made using the leaves of our front yard tree. It was the perfect background colors for my cards. :)

Got to go now!!

Blessings,
Tereza

Early bird gets the worm!!

It's 6:37 am and I am up! Yep! And not just me, but the children too!! That's just not the usual!! We are usually up around 8:30am.

I admit. I love sleeping. If I could get paid for sleeping I would be the employee of the month EVERY month!! :) Yes, it's that bad!!! I don't like to wake up early.

I got to tell you though, once you have children your sleeping patterns change completely. I used to sleep really hard. There was one time I was in Ecuador and there was an earthquake and everyone woke up except me. Another time I was in Peru and the walls under our floor actually fell apart and I didn't wake up either. Praise God, nothing happen. But we could have been in one of those situations that people are buried alive under rubble.

Anyway, after I had children I wake up any time for no reason. Well, sometimes there is a reason: baby needs a diaper change, nursing, child is sick etc etc.

But I bet you didn't know that Scrapbooking can have the same, if not, worse effect on you!!! Yes! My husband complains that sometimes he sees me at 3 am scrapbooking in the dining room (that's my studio!!). Well, I can't help it.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to go use the bathroom or adjust the baby in our bed, and I listen to the quietness in the house, and it's like my papers and tools call out: "come play".

Ok, am I scaring you?? I am sorry, didn't mean to. My hubby would say I am addicted. But I think it's just so tempting not to go create something in the middle of the night. There are no interruptions. There is SILENCE. And even if just for a moment, it feels like I have ALL the time in the world to create. :)

Anyway... I didn't wake up in the middle of the night last night. I woke up early today...so it's CLEANING day!!!! yeah!! :P if I get it done, I get to scrap!!!

Have a beautiful day!! I will try to post a challenge later for us all!! :)

Tereza

Peace Be Still!!

This morning I was blog hopping and found a blog where the lady was telling how her older parents sound like 3 year olds bickering.

It immediately hit home since I have been struggling with that with 3 little ones at home. I checked out a book recently at my library from Joyce Meyer. the name of the book is Conflict Free Life.

One of the first things she talks about in the book is the choice we need to make each day to live in Peace with ourselves and each other. I realized a lot of the struggles, conflicts, arguments, bickering, ungratefulness going around in my house began with ME. Yes, ME with capital letters.

Go figure, my children are imitating my attitudes. Where do they get that they can raise their voices, be ungrateful, bicker and so much more. From MOI!!! (that's ME in French!)

So I made a decision to stop the conflict!! Oh, Lord!! is that hard!! So now I know how it feels when I tell my 5 y.o. to stop a bad behavior!! It's not that easy, Mama. :)

I am doing my best...I am talking to Jesus all day, asking Him to give me Grace. I am shutting the enemy's voice every time he has some ugly thing to say about me, life or my children. Some of you artists out there call this voice your inner critic. What kind of critic is that that everything you make is never good enough?? :(

Anyway, just wanted to share before the thought left my head and life took over and I never made to the computer. :)

no links today, but if you want to find out about the book, just google it. it's really worth while reading. Lots of Biblical references...one for example, did you know that God wants you to keep Peace?? He wants you to AVOID fighting at all costs. I didn't know that. But then again, I am one that is always trying to see the fault in someone's life and finding something to criticize. Oh, Jesus, forgive me!! :(

Have a blessed peaceful day!!

tereza

Honoring a Breast Cancer fighter!!

I have a return customer that requested I make her a card for a friend of hers who is battling Breast Cancer. She wanted a Thanksgiving Card and asked me to make Pink Pumpkins. :)

I had never made pink pumpkins but I was so touched by her request. So I came up with this card:



This card is available for you too if you want to honor a friend who is battling Breast Cancer. It is listed on Ebay and my Etsy shop. Just follow the links on the right column.

Or you could try to create your own to honor your girlfriend and let her know how thankful you are for her life!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Tereza

Children's original Art Work

I have a very precocious little girl. She is always in a hurry to grow up so she can do things like Mama does. She hates naps. I believe because she has so much on her mind, she does not want to waste time sleeping.

She is always painting, drawing, trying to sew, color, playing pretending, telling stories and other things. She is proud that she is only 5 years old but she can mop the kitchen floor. She helps Mama around the house and is a very good big sister. As any child she still has her melt downs. :(

Yesterday Bela drew some really cute little girls. Of course, I got them mixed up. I thought the one on the left was 10 years old and the one on the right was a 5 year old. But she told me it was the other way around.


I suggested we made cards out of them and sell them on Etsy. Every time I make a card, she wants to make one too and sell it. She was immediately sold on the idea. With her help, I digitally colorized her drawing and we mounted it on a pretty background.

Once we printed the cards' fronts we cut them out and added a gingham ribbon as an accent. We are selling the cards as a set of 2. Bela is very proud to be selling her first cards on her Mama's shop. Of course, she wants her own store. I told her that when her art takes off we will have to open a shop just for her. For now, you can find Bela's Art right here.




Enjoy. :)

tereza

Altered Chipboard Puzzle Album

I had been wanting to make a Puzzle album for a while. I wanted to use chipboard but didn't know how to begin. I thought of using actual puzzle pieces I had around the house as a template but they were too small.

When I saw Irene Tan's album I knew I had to make time to put my idea to reality. :) So I used the puzzle pieces I had around the house, scanned them in my computer, enlarged and re-sized them and printed out new templates. With those in hand, I cut out chipboard into the shapes. Painted my album, stamped, embellished it with rhinestones, satin ribbons and beautiful designer papers. All flowers were handmade by me.

The album is called Pieces of Us. It measures about 8"x9" and there are 10 pages. There are many different size of mats, some are as big as 4.5x6". I think it would be a gorgeous Wedding album, or to hold Honeymoon photos, even an album to tell a love story. Family portraits would be gorgeous in it, as well as children's photos since they are little pieces of their parents. :)

Please look at the slide show at the beginning of my blog. Would love to hear your comments.

Please contact me if you would like a Custom made one in your choice of colors or theme. Have a blessed week!

Tereza

How do you scrapbook?

How do you scrapbook? Do you use sketches? How do you begin?

For me to create a layout I have to begin from scratch. I usually have a paper, or an embellishment, a photo that I want to use and then I create the layout. I like to look at sketches and other layouts for ideas but I rarely follow a sketch. Actually I get pretty aggravated trying to copy a sketch. I think that is one of the reasons that I haven't participated in any Card challenges yet. :)

So anyway, this past week I put together 2 layouts. The first one is called "Babies are such a nice way to start people". The trigger for this layout was the stamped Sarah Kay image that I water colored. I just fell in love with that little girl. She was my starting point. From there, I decided I wanted to make a layout for babies, maybe sleepy babies, or a baby in pjs. So next I picked the quote and then the vintage K&C0. papers. I played with the mats for hours. Yes, I actually put all the main components of a page on top of it and move them around until I find the "perfect" look.

I cut the flower and the heart by hand. I doodled the border of both mats and added the rub ons. I love the look of stitching, so I added that, as well as the tearing and distressing.

I also hand cut the half scalloped circle under the mats from my own template. When I began assembling the flower I was looking for something different to use as the center. So I picked some of the little balls that made up the trimmings I used on the mats, and circled them with some of the raffia I was using. I realized it looked like a chickadee's nest. Now, how unexpected was that!!! Without premeditation I got a bird's nest on my layout. And I thought: how perfect!! :)





The second one is called Home Goodness. I think it would be perfect for cooking with the children or family dinners, even Thanksgiving!

this one began with leftover papers from the Family Album I made last month. The black paper with the flowers were cut out from a 12x12 page and I saved it to use on a layout. So again, this piece was the starting point for this page. I felt the whole layout needed to be balanced, so I added another black "piece" to the other side of the layout. I then added die cut stickers to balance the colors and create a title.

I incorporated the stitching to the mats this time, instead of the background of the layout. I used the papers left from the Family Album to create the mats and added journaling tags and other embellishments. I really like how this layout turned out.






I would love to hear your comments and how you scrapbook. :)

Don't forget to go vote. Tomorrow is a big day here in the USA!!!

Tereza

Happy Brides, Memorable Keepsakes!!!

There is nothing more rewarding to an artisan than to hear that one's handmade items were simply the best. This past month, I had the privilege of working with a few brides that requested Bridesmaids' cards or invitations.

Each one of them was extremely creative, and had their own vision of what they wanted. I worked hard and was able to accomplish their vision. Here are some of the feedback I received:

"The cards look wonderful! Thank you ! I love them! Can not wait to give them to my girls!" Angela from Harrison, OH

"Simply gorgeous!" Kaysey from Starkville, MS

"Tereza! Your work is absolutely beautiful.. the cards were PERFECT! I gave one to my sister (matron of honor) last night and she was so excited! I am handing the rest out each night this week. I can't wait for everyone's reaction :) A few women from work jotted down your info because they have a few events coming up throughout the year. They loved the cards and will probably contact you at some point. I hope you hear from them! Anyway, thank you sooooooo much for all your help and hard work! Everything was perfect and I could just cry right now because you brought my vision to life. Thank you for being you!" Taylor from Torrington, CT

"Wow they all look so beautiful!! I love them and I am sure I will be recomended you to many people!! You were very accommodating to all my needs. You were able to make exactly what I hoped for. Thanks again!" Lisa from Livonia, MI

So, if you are looking for Bridesmaid' invitations, Maid of Honor or Matron of Honor cards, feel free to contact me. I have designed cards inviting the ladies to take the honor of standing beside the Bride, as well as gift tags or Thank you for being my Bridesmaid cards. I would love to help you out make your wedding memorable to everyone who attends. Also I realized that those cards are not just an invitation they are a keepsake that the Brides' friends get to keep and remember this so special day.

I had one Bride ask me to make a card for her and title it "The Future Mrs. XXXX" . She was going to add it to her Wedding Scrapbook!!! Now, wasn't that creative?!

Have a beautiful week and don't forget to go vote tomorrow!!! :)

Tereza