It's about that time of year. . .

when I start thinking about Christmas.  I have been playing around with my Accucut Christmas tree flip album die--not really happy with my efforts so far, but I've been practicing.  Here is what I have so far:

This is the outside of the tree album.  I wish I had put the red tinsel trim actually on the edge of the scallops.  What was I thinking?  And I sewed the jingle bells onto ribbon and then hot glued the ribbon at the edge of a scallop.  Not a good idea!  I need to wire these on and punch holes in the scallop edges so they will actually jingle.  Also needed:  lots more bling.  I used a lot of K and Company pre-made diecuts for embellishment.

My major gripe with this album is that it is really too small for pictures, and I think that is the whole point of an album!  So I have really thought hard about how to add pictures.  This page shows how I put a Tim Holtz Sizzix ornament die to good use as a photo frame.

And the inside of this largest page shows a mini album I inserted to hold more pictures.  The red mini album is about 3" x 3" and is just folded pages that will flip so I can add pictures.  Then the album is just glued onto the page.  The previous page shows a green pocket that holds red tags for more pictures and journaling.  I have a few other ideas up my sleeve for how to continue to add space for pictures while keeping the whole album highly embellished, like a Christmas tree!

Winter Wonderland snowflake

This is one of the pages in my newest chipboard album called "Winter Wonderland".  It is a pocket page that holds four large tags.  Each tag acts as a mat for a 4" x 6" photo.  I put little snowflake brads in the hole of each tag.  The focus point on the page is the large decorative snowflake on the pocket itself.  I cut the pocket and tags from the Cricut Mini books cartridge using Craft Room, where I was able to enlarge them to suit my book.  I also cut the decorative snowflake using Cricut, from the Anna Griffin Winter Wonderland cartridge.  I love this cartridge!  I bought the universal overlay to use with it, since it is a newer cartridge that does not come with an overlay.  Also, the instruction book is very much smaller, and I find it a lot easier to read than the older format, especially for layering images.  I layered blue and white cardstock to make the snowflake, which is Option 26 on the cartridge.  I did not use Craft Room for this project--I just set my size to 3" and all four layered images cut beautifully and layered perfectly to make the snowflake.  I did add a small glitter brad to the center of the snowflake before adhering it to the outside of the pocket.  I know it is nowhere near to snow here, but I do think snow may soon be coming to parts of the country.  I had fun making this page of the book.  The whole mini book is nearly complete--it is a flip album with 6 pages front and back.  I used the blue and brown Magenta paper throughout, supplemented with blue, white, and brown Bazzill cardstock.  Lots of deer and snowflakes!