Part Two of My 8 x 8 Album

My aunt phoned me today and showered me with much love and praise over this 8 x 8 scrapbook album I put together for her. (See Part One in the blog below.) She was so happy, and I was so embarrassed as she went on and on with gratitude. "You are very creative." "You are extremely talented." "It's obvious you put much time into this."

I'm guessing my dear Aunt Helen cried when she took this out of the box. We are an emotional Greek family. My aunt was just as generous with her remarks about my grand babies. "They are beautiful." "Well, I think so," I said.

The page below is simple. I used My Little Shoebox die-cut shapes. I love the combination of colors that this product line uses.

The photo is a super closeup that shows my granddaughter's amazing, thick eyelashes.



Here are some photos from our Halloween festivities. I had a little party for the kids. We dressed up and ate goodies a few days before the holiday itself. I found some adorable stickers at our local store Jazzy Crafts.

My grandson looks like a Village People dude in the first photo and a This is Spinal Tap dude in the second.


'
The layout below is simple. More of those cute holiday stickers and a girlie girl rub-on. This beautiful flower is made by K and Company.

My granddaughter feels pretty in her ballet skirt.



Nothing remarkable about my scrap methods, except for I love the scalloped paper I've used on some of these album pages.

There is one photo of my grandson and me that we took together; my grandson is only four, and he took both the other photos of me. Pretty good, huh?



Below, my granddaughter is dressed in a red boa. I absolutely love the background paper here. Unfortunately, I removed the information tabs from my various lines of paper. I cannot identify them. I will become more accurate at describing the products I use.

I love all these stamped butterflies and flowers that I colored with gel pens.



Here are some beautiful white rub-ons on the layout below. My grandson is fascinated by the Christmas train.



I'm mesmerized by the effects of UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). I painted this little frame that surrounds my grandson, and I heated some UTEE to make the surface shine.

My grandson says good-night on Christmas Eve. We had a beautiful celebration at the end of 2008.



~~~~~

My First 8 x 8 Album

I made an 8 x 8 scrapbook for my aunt who just turned 84. She lives in Utah; I haven't seen her since my father died in 2003. With little ones about (my grand babies), the family has changed, and she enjoys looking at photos.

Except for greeting cards of various sizes, I have only worked with 12 x 12 pages. In addition, this is the first album that I have put together strictly to give away; I was surprised to find difficulty in parting with it. Silly me.

Incidentally, the photos are mounted fairly straight onto the paper. When I crop a slightly crooked photo shot, the mounting may look crooked.

I decided to use page 1 as a title page or greeting card. Two of the corners have stamps embossed in gold that I touched up with red and blue gel pens. I added some turquoise mulberry paper:

The second page is nothing spectacular. I used rub-ons. However, I love the photos of my son lifting each of his children in the air--on different days. He was not posing. I grabbed my camera, as I often do, and captured normal loving stuff.

Here is my son reading to his son. (Most of this scrapbook is built with photos of the grand babies. The older members of my family are not cooperative.) Another straightforward page with a photo that I adore. I topped a punched-out flower with a sparkling brad.



Both kids love to model my glasses. My two-year-old granddaughter looks like an attorney here. :-)

I've been playing around with chipboard lately. I painted this chipboard lavender and I made it shine with Ranger Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel.



Here, my granddaughter plays hide 'n' seek under the dining room table. Maybe she prays that nobody will find her.

I love this butterfly that I stamped with pigment and embossed with fine gold powder. One of my recent specialties is coloring stamps with gel pens--and plain colored pencils. The finished product is always fun. This butterfly is amazingly beautiful in person.

I painted the flowers green in the following pair of photos. And I covered them with my favorite ultra thick embossing enamel.

My grandson has gradually made friends with Karl the cat, without scaring him away. I got one distant shot, and one closeup (with a glare on the photo that I couldn't seem to avoid).

I will upload more photos in a second blog.

~~~~~