Filling in the blanks

I've finally done it! I've filled one of my folios with my photos :)

This folio is in the style of the old match books so opens long and tall.

I made this one on retreat and used papers that reminded me of our many camping trips so dug deep in my packets of photos under the bed and found the perfect ones of when we went to The Forest of Dean and Symonds Yat. 

When opened the folio has accordain style pockets at the bottom to hold the photo matts, shown in first photo, and slide out booklets at the top, fastened in place with magnets on the title plaque. 

The only thing I need to do now is some journalling, which is where I get stuck! This is something I need to work on and get better at. I could blab for hours about the photos and the memories I have but just find if hard to put pen to paper and record it but am taking tips from my good friend Emma!! You can be wowed by Emma's brilliance here at her blog. :)

Thanks for looking.

Getting carried away!

I went into my craft room yesterday with the idea of starting to make my friend's wedding folio but got carried away, changed my mind and made another folio for myself! 

Today I finished it off and added lots of gorgeous Teresa Collins papers. I used a mixture of 2 collections - Memorabillia and Something wonderful - and at first didn't have a clue what I was going to use it for but have now decided to save it for our trip to Italy in September for our 20th wedding anniversary.

The sentiments on the papers and embellishments scream a special occasion and with lots of pockets to fill I can keep all of our Memorabillia and photos of the trip in one place. 

The policy type pockets are held closed with magnets so things won't fall out. The only thing I haven't done is cut and inserted the photo matts into the pockets but that can be done once I have the photos to add to the folio.

I rounded the corners of the papers to add contrast between them and the background but I feel it also softens up the severity of the black card and makes the colours 'pop' a little bit more.

The title stickers on the front of the album are a sentiment that we should all aim to do: 

Love deeply, live with passion, laugh often :) 

I love storage boxes!

I use my Stampin Up envelope board for more than just envelopes and one of the challenges I enjoy is creating boxes for gifts and storage.

I saw a clip on YouTube for boxes to hold 6x4 photos or cards and made several of them.

I wanted to store them in some sort of caddy so designed a wrap around case to hold 3 boxes.

I've embellished this one as a photo store but they could be filled with greetings cards or notelets and given as a gift.

I've also been busy making the storage box that is part of the Foto folio collection.

The box can hold 3 folios so a nice size for lots of other projects too ;) 

I found the tutorial for this quite long winded with lots of, what I thought, unnessecary steps so will be having a play around to recreate it in a way that could be passed on through a class at crop or on here. Watch this space! 

*I am thinking of posting some tutorials on here in the near future so please comment if there is anything in particular that you would like from the previous posts. 

Thanks for looking :) 

An emotional day

It's been a bit of a funny day as I've said goodbye to one on my mindees (and her sibling), who I've looked after for 3+ years, and given away my first Folio made as a present. I knew when I saw the design for the 4th folio from Kathy Orta that I would be making it for my mindee so chose papers for that purpose from my stash.

I loved the amount of photos that would fit in this and a good job too as I had over 360 to choose from!! 

There are lots of pockets and flaps to add photos and journalling to. The cards in the pockets on the far left of the above photo go all the way down to the bottom of the page so the top one is long enough to fit 4 photos on (2 on each side) then they decrease in size.

Each of the centre pages has 2 pockets with 6x4 photo matts in and flips down the reveal the next one.

I spent an entire day of a weekend retreat making the folio and it's taken the last week, in my spare time, to fill it with photos and memories to give as her leaving pressie today. 

It was received with lots of oohs and aahs and a few moist eyes!! The mum's reaction made my labour of love so worthwhile and appreciated. She then left for work saying, "I'm going to show this to everyone at work to show them how fab you are!" 

I'm now thinking of making more personalised folios, the next one being for a friend's wedding!! 

Thanks for looking. 

Pop-ups

Ok, so if you look on Pinterest, in the art and craft files, you will see a lot of these 3D cards being made. 

I like making them because they're fun to give and can be done in whatever colour, theme or for any occasion. 

They fold flat so no problems posting them!! I have a Stampin Up envelope board and can make the envelopes to fit which is a bonus :) 

I am constantly thinking of ways to make them different to all of the others out there, those who know me well will tell you I don't like to conform to the norm, so will show and tell when I've finished and am happy with the end product! 

Note to self, I must get better at taking photos of my creations to show them off in a better way! 

Thanks for looking :) 

Foto Folios

I follow an inspirational woman on YouTube called Kathy Orta and got very excited when she previewed her new project of Foto Folios. I knew that I just had to make them for myself, so purchased the tutorials and got started as soon as they arrived in my in-box!!

This is the first folio of the collection and I love how there are so many hidden pages/ pockets inside.

Each pocket or flip down page has space for photos and card matts can be inserted into the pockets.

The papers used on this project were Kaiser Craft Happy Snap and Simple Stories DIY Boutique. 

I like that the colours and patterns complement each other and make the folio bright and inviting. I think I'm going to struggle to put photos in here and cover the yumminess!!

I feel the photos don't do this folio enough justice and to see it and hold it is another thing entirely! The reactions of people I've shown it to are priceless when they discover there's more , just as they thought they'd opened everything! 

Thanks for looking :)

Ok, this is scary!! I have been toying with the idea for a while of blogging my paper creations but have finally taken the plunge. Please bear with me whilst I get used to where everything is and how to make this interesting for you to read!