Auntie's Brag Book - using Say Cheese!!

Good morning! Today I wanted to share a mini book I made for my sister-in-law. Her birthday is fast approaching & she loves nothing more than pics of my kiddies (she lives in NYC - and is coming for a visit in 29 days!!!!). I wanted to make a little something that she could just throw into her purse and show off ;).

I have been wanting to try Lowri's awesome mini book tutorial for a while!! Her blog is PaperVine & she is an amazing crafter!! Go check it out!

I changed mine up a bit because I REALLY wanted to use the adorable Polaroid Pic stamp from Lawn Fawn's new Say Cheese stamp set and 4" wouldn't cut it (well, it would, but not really). So, instead of using a 12x12 piece of paper and cutting a 12x4 strip off, I used a full sheet of 12x12 paper and did the folding/cutting. The difference is, I had to add a strip of coordinating 6 by 6 & 1/2 paper (and just trimmed off the excess). I also added a strip of ribbon between the folded project and the cover so she could tie it closed. Here is a look at my finished project:

The first one is to show the size of the book & details, the second is the book laying open so you can see both the fron/back (or shall I say, back/front):
We {heart} our aunt dawn lots:

Wouldn't be perfection without some butterflies attached with the tiny attacher and bakers twine:

I stumbled on this little makeshift (and totally ca~ute) banner by punching the big scalloped border punch (EK Success)... these are the insides of the scallop (which I'd normally just trash):

I love how my son always has this huge (sometimes very mischievous) smile on his face. Both my babies have amazing smiles, makes me happy:


My finished project measures 6 by 3. I thought it would be flimsy (it is just paper), but it's not at all!!! The glue (I used Mod Podge) and extra layers of paper that I decorated it with made it pretty sturdy!! Every page in the book (and all patterned paper, for the most part) has been chalked using ColorBox Red, chalk ink. As you can see, I used the Polaroid Pic Stamp to matte all of my pictures, and added in a few other Lawn Fawn Stamps as well (look for little bits from Say Cheese; Say Cheese Too; Hello Friend; Silly Valentine; & Fly Free). The paper and stickers are all October Afternoon's "Cherry Hill", which I misted with Studio Calico's Mister Huey (Red). I think she'll like it. It goes perfectly with her card too :).

As a side note, if you want to try this (which you totally should!!) please practice at least once on a paper you don't really care that much about first. That way you don't experiment (say... if you're using a really pretty piece of paper that you don't want ruined... hee hee). By the time you start your project, you have your technique down ;).

What are you working on this week? Anything good? If so let me know, so I can stop by and peek. Hope you have a great day!!!