Kiwi Lane December Blog Hop

Welcome to the December Kiwi Lane Designs Blog Hop! If you landed here first, you should head back to the Kiwi Lane Blog so you can make your way through the whole hop! I am thrilled to be selected this month as a guest designer in my first ever blog hop, although I have been a huge fan of Kiwi Lane Designs ever since I stumbled upon their booth at CKC Louisville a few years ago. I hope to share some scrapbooking inspiration with you using their fabulous designer templates!

Here is my finished project. Stay tuned to find out how you can have a chance to win this mini album for yourself!  



For my project, I received the adorable and versatile Mini Scallops set. These Mini Scallops are the perfect complement to the larger Scallop Borders or can be used year-round for any page, card, or project. I find myself reaching for them over and over. These are a smaller scale than the Scallop borders and great to use vertically, horizontally, or on a diagonal for your pages.

 



 

I began by taking 3 standard-size gift bags, folded them in half, and hole punched all three. I used 2 loose binder rings to hold the bags together. Note: You will want to arrange the 3 bags so that handles actually hold the album closed like a purse. When they are not arranged correctly, one of the "pages" will hang down. 

The bottoms of the gift bags made a flap after each couple of pages. You could use this for more photos, but I decided to glue the flaps closed using Sticky Lines to help my album lay flat.

Using a piece of Black Magic Core-dinations Cardstock, I cut out an ornament using the Tiny Holiday 6T Accessory, ran it through my Texture Boutique embossing machine using the Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder, and sanded the ornament to reveal the green color underneath.

Because I used gift bags, each bag created a pocket page where I could slide photo mats and tags for journaling. The Simple Stories 4x6 Snap Cards made this super easy. They fit perfectly into each bag with just a slight bit hanging over, and are double-sided (so they look good from the front and the back of each page). I used my Mini Scallops templates to give each one more visual appeal along the top.

 



 

Once I glued the bottoms of the bags shut, there was a slight edge where one half of the bag's bottom extended past the other side of the bag's bottom. I cut two, 2A Mini Scallops and glued them back to back along the edge to cover the seam on each page.

 

I did the same along the edges of these pages, but traced two Tiny Bracket templates side by side to create a different edge on some of the pages.

 

I inked all of the edges with my sponge dauber and added buttons and brads.

Layering the same size scallop gives a nice effect too...
 

And finally, the back cover...

 

Gift handles allow you to tote your album easily. This got my wheels turning...I could do this with ANY gift bag for ANY theme mini album: wedding, birthday, etc.



 

Kiwi Lane Designer Templates used:

*Mini Scallops 1A, 2A, 3A
*Strips
*Tiny Tags 5T, 6T, 7T
*Tiny Holiday 6T
*Tiny Brackets 1T, 3T, 4T

Paper used:

  *Simple Stories Handmade Holiday Collection

  *Simple Stories Handmade Holiday 4x6 Sn@p Cards

  *Core-dinations Cardstock

Materials/Tools used:

   *Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder
   *Texture Boutique embossing machine

   *3 standard-size gift bags

   *2 binder rings

   *dark brown ink

   *Ribbon: American Crafts (reds and brown lace) & Stampin Up (green)

   *Buttons: Stampin Up

   *Red Pearls: Queen & Co.

   *Brads: Making Memories & Carta Bella

 

I hope I have inspired you to try something new with your Kiwi Lane designer templates or try using them for the first time. Thanks for hopping by. Here is the blog hop lineup. Be sure to head on over to Apryl Holland's blog next to view all the crafty ideas awaiting you there!

1. Kiwi Lane http://kiwilane.com/here/blog/
2. Mary Hartmann Bowden http://mequilter.blogspot.com/
3. Janie McKissick http://www.typicalscrapbboker.com/
4. Carrie Bryant  http://carrieshappyscrappin.blogspot.com/
5. Amy Berrett  http://ladybugsspotblog.blogspot.com/
6. Cassandra Henson http://fortheloveofscrap.com
7. Carrie McDaniel http://carriedawaywithcrafting.blogspot.com/   <------You are here
8. Apryl Holland http://onescrappysoul.blogspot.com/  <------ Go here next
9. Erin Colby http://oursliceofcheese.blogspot.com
10. Brenda Smith http://theimperfectscrapper.blogspot.com

The blog hop will run through 11:59 PM MST on Sunday December 8th. One lucky random winner from ONE of the participating blogs (including the Kiwi Lane blog), will be given a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop, for leaving a comment and will be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, December 12th.

ANOTHER CHANCE TO WIN...
And how would you like to WIN the adorable GIFT BAG MINI ALBUM featured in this post?!! Just leave me a comment and become one of my followers. The lucky winner will be announced here on Thursday, December 12th. Good luck!

Congratulations to Tina who said...

TINADecember 6, 2013 at 11:41 PM

Oooooo! I would LOVE to win your mini album!

 

Tina, You are the lucky random winner of the gift bag mini album!!!! Please email me your mailing address at carriescrafting@gmail.com and I will get it shipped out to you ASAP. Thanks for following me!