Memory Books for a Friend

Ok, it has been some time since my last post, but I have been busy on what turned out to be a mammoth project! I had a small MDF book with metal book rings. I had the idea that for my best friend's 30th birthday, I wanted to make something for her, other than a card. As we have known each other all our lives, I thought a memory book would be fun to put together in a few pages. Several hours and days of photo hunting later, I had found so many memories that I knew I was going to need more space. The few pages I had planned doubled. Then I needed more space again, and so one project became two books in the end!

If I had planned it properly beforehand, I would have certainly used a 12x12 book, but hey, we live and learn... Anyway, here are some of the pages that I made to celebrate 30 years of friendship, dodgy hairstyles, dubious fashion choices and memories of events past. I managed to organise them in some chronological order so that the books made sense, right up to the present day.

All the papers used were from a First Edition paper pad called 'Sweet Owl' along with some matching pain cardstock. The photos were cut using a range of Spellbinder basic shapes and D'Lites dies. All the other phrases, words, flowers and emblems have been using my Cricut Expression. My Cricut was a Godsend for this project, as it gave me pages of elements very quickly and I could manipulate text using the Design Studio. The main cartridges I used were Storybook, Type Candy Font, American Alphabet, Cindy Loo and Cricut Essentials.
I gave the books to my friend at her surprise 30th birthday party and she really liked it. I am sure however that there were a few cringe moments with some of the photos...!
Overall, it was a project that took far longer than I had envisaged, but I really enjoyed making it for a very special friend.

Baby Humphrey!

 Here are a couple of new baby cards that I have recently had to quickly assemble, fortunately I have had some die-cut Crafter's Companion Humphrey's Corner decoupage to save me! I have to say the one thing I hate about craft...cutting any sort of decoupage! Hey presto, the cheat's answer to this becomes available and here I am! I have combined with some papers from my stash and cut the word 'baby' for the card below with my Cricut American Alphabet cartridge.  Some lace and odd bits of bobs complete these very simple cards.

New Arrival

 

 This card was made as a request for someone. I have used a stamp I had for ages (bunny) and stamped it several time on some DCWV papers I have left from when my children were born. The bunny has then been paper pieced together to add dimension. The words and the swirls have been cut using my Cricut American Alphabet cartridge.