GGS Trade Album (July)

Well, you may remember in June ... when I posted about Girls Gone Scrappy and the mini-album trading club. I thought it was a great idea because it forces you to actually get something done and you get to create something wonderful for someone who will appreciate it.

So, with one trade under my belt, I went into July with a million ideas and possibilities. My trade partner was Jackielou, who said she loved PINK and FLOWERS! Well, I can do pink and flowers :) I might have taken it to the extreme :)

I was excited about my new Bind-It-All and there are so many possibilities when you have one! I was just brimming with ideas. It was so hard to choose!

I had some chipboard pieces - 4 of them - and decided to use them and then add three of the now infamous envelope pockets (using a mailing envelope cut in half and altered) and I also made my own pocket :)

This is the front. It's a chipboard piece the same size as the tabbed ones, but with a window. I'm not exactly sure what to do with windows ...

The album is covered in paper from DCWV. I've used white acrylic paint on every page.

There are large Prima flowers with a gorgeous K&Co fabric and jeweled brad, CTMH paper and jewel flowers, Prima jewel flowers, CTMH rhinestones and bling, misc. flowers and lots of different ribbons.

You know, I wish I knew what to put on the front of these albums ... I mean, if it were for me or a gift for someone where I was using pictures, I would have put a photo or a title. Yes, definitely a title. But, when you don't know who is going to use it or what they're going to use it for, you don't want to limit their options ... so I almost never put a title on and sometimes I think I should. But still, it's hard to decide what words, phrases, stickers, journaling, etc to include ...

This is the inside - pages 2 & 3:

You can see the other side of the window. I really don't think I utilized it correctly. I tried to place the pocket where it would look good through the window, but I really shouldn't have put the pocket there at all. I should have created a page where the spot that showed through the window would have been blank for them to be able to put a photo or whatever they wanted to show through to the front ...

I stamped a journaling spot in pink, inked the edges and stuck it behind a hot pink flower.

You can see the next page behind the pocket, but for the pocket, I added ribbon that you could slide something under, a CTMH flower and large brad the tag is white with pink inking and pink ribbon. The edges are all painted with white paint.

This is page 4 & 5:

You can see the back side of the pocket. I painted a white photo mat, added ribbon, a Prima flower and bling.

On the fifth page, I put a large CTMH flower on the rounded tab and you can't see it very well, but there's a very thick acrylic MM pink flower brad in the center.

I painted a white background and then added squares of patterned paper connected with glitter glue stitches for what I call the 'glitter quilting' effect.

This is pages 6 & 7:

On page six, there's another CTMH paper and crystal flower on the rounded tab and a photo mat with painted edges. I added some white flower trim and didn't stick down the middle so that you could slide something underneath it.

Page seven is a pocket that I created by folding patterned paper in two and gluing the bottom together. I used a Martha Stewart trim punch at the top (which was really hard because the paper isn't that sturdy). I had cut the butterfly out using my friend's Cricut machine a few months before this project, but it went really well and I added some rhinestone bling.

Inside the pocket were three tags:

One of the tags was two strips of patterned paper glued together, punched, painted and ribbon. You can sort of see it peeking at the top of these photos.

The other two tags were a butterfly cut in two. I used a butterfly mask and pink glimmer mist on one side and then took the wet mask and laid it down on the other side of the paper to make the pink butterfly.

I outlined both butterfly shapes with glitter glue, so I guess it'll be hard to add journaling, but it's really pretty :)

Pages 8 & 9:

The other side of the large pocet has a small version of the butterfly on the other side.

Page nine is the backside of a envelope pocket. I added patterned paper and glitter glue quilting.

Pages 10 & 11:

The front side of the pocket has more patterned paper and glitter quilting with a CTMH flower and brad and two tags with ribbon. In case you haven't noticed, the ribbon is attached with blue staples. They were in the stapler and I guess I was too lazy to change them.

Page eleven is similar to page six, but not exactly mirrored. The trim is in a different location and there's a different flower :)

Pages 12 & 13:

Page twelve has a painted background, patterned paper and glitter quilting. Prima flower and rhinestone.

Page thirteen has a CTMH flower and MM pink rhinestone brad.

Pages 14 & 15:

The back of the pocket with some rhinestones and the last page I really did up with the flowers. There are a lot of different sizes, colors, textures, brads, rhinestones, velvet, flocking, paper, sheer, fabric, etc. I though it was really pretty.

The back cover (nothing special, really :) )

So ... that's it. I hope Jackielou liked it and I hope you do, too!

*~*~*