Mini Accordian Albums

I made this album as part of Jeff's birthday gift so he could take it to work and display it on his desk. I used some more recent photos of us at the park with the dog, and others from this past winter outside, and made it a collection of photos of us and our pets, which for now in our lives, is our little family.

I made two of this album to send to my grandma and my aunt and her family as thank yous for our visit. Some great family photos that were ten years over due...since that was the last time I've seen this part of my family the time was very special. I got the idea for these adorable, affordable and easy accordian albums from Maura & Sheila's blog. These ladies are full of helpful tips and awesome ideas for paper crafting! I chose not to use the pockets in my album, but they are envelopes to store tags for journaling and extra photos!

Albums, Albums, Albums

I may have disappeared from blogging for a few weeks, but I've definitely still been creating. From wedding cards to a wedding album, to birthday cards and birthday mini-book, to two travel albums and a few family photo mini books--I've been back to my scrapbooking roots for awhile. Above are photos of some of the layouts in the 8x8 wedding book that I made for my cousin Gabe and his new wife Kate for their wedding gift from me. Their colors were blue and green, and the wedding was outdoors on an old farm in Virginia, so I kept the look clean, simple, casual and elegant with pale blue, olive green, white and silver accents. I scrambled to take good photos at the wedding, went from the wedding to a CVS to print photos and make them a photo cd, put the photos in my other-wise pre-assembled album together that night, and had it sent back to them with my dad for his visit the next day. Whew! It was a little crazy, but I think they really enjoyed it.

Celebrating 26 Layout

I wanted to do a scrapbook layout to commemorate the beautiful showing of friendship and artistic talent that I received for my 26th birthday from the ladies in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. When I found this Making Memories page kit on clearance at Target I knew it would be perfect. Now it's a permanent memory in my scrapbook, as if I could ever forget such a wonderful day!

Merry XMAS 2009 Layout

MERRY Toe Sock Tradition Layout

whole layout
left side

right side

I created this layout to commemorate my first Christmas EVER without seeing my parents. Maybe commemorate isn't quite the right word, but it marks a moment I shared with Aly as the only immediate family I had left in NY for the holidays now that Elise and my parents have moved south. Our grandma from VA sent us a small package to open, and as usual it included a pair of holiday toe socks. For some reason these goofy pair of socks that you have to squish your toes into individually always brings a smile to our faces and I thought this year would be the perfect time to photograph and scrapbook the unspoken tradition. I traced my giant foot on the left side of the layout as a journaling spot. I stamped the red snowflakes, matted the photos, and added the word fetti stickers and gems.

Godmothers Scrapbook Layout

I created this layout for Jeff to give his Aunt Sandy as a thank you gift for letting him stay with her this weekend in Miami for the Dolphin's game. The photos were taken of her, Jeff's mom, and his cousin Sadie at Sadie's Baptism over the summer. His mom and Aunt Sandy are Sadie's godparents, so I thought the Godparent quote was sweet. I love the strips of pearls...I even used them on Sadie's baptism card.

"A Walk in the Woods" Layout

Left side of layout

Layout Title

Layout Journaling

Left side detail shot

Right side of layout

Right side detail shot

I created this layout tonight in under an hour using a white cardstock base and patterned papers and embellishments I found at the Dollar Tree. It was economical and fun. The right side is a little cluttered and busy, but I had alot of photos I wanted to include from this day trip to a river up north. I think I captured the sunshine.

KISS Layout: Revised

The white space in the top left corner was getting to me...it needed something. I came back to this layout today and added "Shannon & Chris." I googled "ampersand" in image search to find some fancy oversized script and put it in a word doc as an image so I could change it to greyscale and put the "Shannon/Chris" text over it in brown. Then I inserted a box, changed the line type and color, and printed it on white cardstock. Then I sponged dye ink in a few different shades of blue to try to match the background paper and inked the edges brown. I'm pretty happy with how it finished up. NOW it's done!

Hawaiian Love Birds & KISS

Engagement gift for Shannon (framed "Kiss" layout)

Engagement gift for Toni (framed "Hawaiian Love Birds" layout)

I'm lucky to work with a great group of people at CVS. Within the past few months, both Toni and Shannon have gotten engaged. Toni, while she was in Hawaii on a spring vacation. I'm having them, along with a few other women we work with to a BBQ at my house on Saturday to celebrate. (Hopefully neither of them check this blog before then, but I don't think they do--so I should be safe!) I have some neat bachelorette/wedding shower games planned along with some yummy food. As long as the weather holds out it should be a great time!

Toni's layout took me the longest. I couldn't figure out how I wanted all the pattern to work together, but I knew I wanted it to be colorful and tropical and a nice reminder of her trip and the time he proposed. I played around with the title lettering alot before I settled on this and printed a hibiscus flower for an accent.

Shannon's layout came together much quicker. I wanted to try an "embellishment grouping" like I've been seeing in some of my scrapbook magazines and break out of the linear a little bit. The upper left corner is still bugging me, I can't often leave white space. I'm toying with the idea of adding "Shannon & Chris" in script or something, but I don't want to ruin it or clutter it too much. Any ideas? I have till Saturday to alter it...

Tickled Pink Brink

I was so excited to get my Close To My Heart order delivered today so I could scrapbook and play with this National Scrapbooking Month "Tickled Pink" kit. It came with 4 patterned papers (two with glitter), 5 sheets of cardstock, one die-cut sheet, an acrylic stamp set (that includes numbers, phrases, quotes, flowers, & leaves), a mini-medley accent collection (flower brads, ribbon slides, crocheted flowers, and tiny metal tags), and a sponge dauber distressing tool. All that for FREE with a $60+ stamp order. If you would like to get your kit to play with, hurry to my website, www.tabithalewis.myctmh.com to get yours by May 31st! I did this cute layout of my puppy Brinkley and I still have a ton of paper and accents left over to make cards, ATCs, or other layouts. I hope you'll give it a shot, the quality and value can't be beat!

Then, Now, Always

This is a scrapbook page I just made to frame and present to my mom tomorrow at her mother's day lunch. I wanted to add a personal touch to the manicure kit and Target gift card. She's getting harder and harder to buy for, so I hope this makes the day special!

Easter Bunny Puppy

I often find that I’m complaining because stuff in my life prevents me from the time I would like to create art…but every once in awhile I remember, that it is that “stuff” that inspires me to create art in the first place.

I spent six hours today writing an essay about John Smith and Daniel Boone for my early lit. class. Then I made lunch for Jeff and I. I tried to get creative with Hawaian Luau marinated grilled pork chops and then put colorful sauteed bell peppers and crushed pinapple on top. It came out pretty good! Then in between dishes and laundry, instead of doing more homework, I went to get some photos developed and created this scrapbook page of Brinkley's first Easter. Easter hasn't been a big deal for Jeff and I the last few years because we have had to work, but I saw this little pink bunny dog toy at the store, and I knew when I got home from work it would be a nice treat for Brink after him being in the crate all day. He's so fun to watch with a new toy! He wags his whole body and sticks his butt up in the air and runs around with it until he's breathless. And then finally, he will settle down to chew a hole through it. All of this in a matter of 30 minutes!

But it is moments like these that make me appreciate what I do have, and that is a healthy happy puppy, and a fun-loving companion.