This blog site focuses on cards and projects utilizing materials and tools from various scrapbooking and paper craft companies.
If you are interested in cards and projects made with rubber stamps from various companies, please check out my other blog site "Stampin' Inspirations".


Come and join the Christmas Group Site on Paper Craft Planet
Click on the banner below


Thursday, November 08, 2007

Altered Album and Card Fronts

On Sunday, I found these old unused photo albums for a $1 each at a garage sale. I bought them with the intention of altering them. As you can see, the design of the covers are not very pretty but I saw potential for these photo albums.

I altered one of the old photo albums and created a "Scrappy Card" Album that I'm using to store my card fronts.


The photo album is a tall one. . .14 inches tall. A few months ago, my local Michaels was getting rid of rolls of designer paper by EK Success that were the length of wrapping paper. I strolled by the "clearance" section and they were selling them for a $1.25 each. The rolls had 4 different designs and were double sided. At regular price, they were $8.99 each. The size of each paper are 24 x 36". I bought a whole bunch of them not knowing what I was going to do with them. Well. . .I must say I was a very savvy, smart shopper. The papers are FABULOUS and they are very good quality papers.

I was able to alter this album which typically a 12x12" designer paper could not cover completely, but with the large papers that I bought, I was able to cover the album completely.
The flower, titles, and swirl design were all created using my Craft Robo die cut machine. I even designed the flower myself using Adobe Illustrator. I love the Craft Robo for this reason. I can create my own die cuts. For those who are not familiar with the Craft Robo. . .basically, it's the Xyron "Wishblade". They're the same machine. . .Craft Robo is the European version and the Wishblade is US version.

Although there's a huge learning curve with this machine, I feel it's worth the money and better than the Cricut. The only drawback is that if you are not computer savvy, you may be limited with what you can do with the cutter.
I lined the inside of the photo album with the same designer paper. Rather than inserting pictures in the pockets, I'm using them to store my card fronts.

What are card fronts? For those who don't know what they are. . .card fronts are just the front design of the card which are not attached to a card base.


Basically, you'd design a 4 x 5.25" cardstock like you would a regular card. Many times, this is a good way to share a card idea or technique that you want to share with someone or to create a design of a card that you can store without the bulk of a full card and later attach to a card base when you are ready to send it out.


Here are card fronts I made with scraps of designer paper. I stored the card fronts into my "Scrappy Cards Album" above. When I make enough of them I'll create labels and organize them in categories such as Birthday, All Occasion, Get Well, etc. When I want to send a card to someone, I'll attach it to a card base.









Another card using strips of scrap designer paper. Mixing and matching your scraps and creating a card is a great way to reduce your scrap pile.















A whole bunch of scraps were used for this card. It was fun putting the different elements together. My goal this week is to reduce my small pieces of scrapbook paper and miscellaneous embellishments.








16 comments:

My Paper World said...

Well what can I say?!! Maria I think you are amazing!!! you have such fabulous ideas, thank you so much for sharing with us. You really inspire me, I LOVE your blog!

Heather said...

Great bargains and I love what you did with the albums!

Deb said...

Love your albums and cards, they are beautiful!

Tracy.H said...

Love the album and the cards! :0)

Stampindamour said...

FAB finds at the Yard Sales! What a GOLDMINE you found with that Metal Card Rack for $20 bucks!!! WOW!

Love your Blog! Great cards! :0)

-pamela
Stampin' D'Amour

Andrea, said...

Fab cards, you have some beautiful papers. Your album is great what a good idea

evirtualpie said...

Maria ur work is very crreative. Keep it up.

Beth Norman-Roberts said...

Wow, so creative. Aren't bargain buys the best? You really hit the jackpot! Your albums are lovely. I'm enjoying seeing what you come up with. You are the alter queen.

Rachel said...

EEEEEEKKKKKK... this is brilliant girl!!!!! Love this idea!!!!

Rachel

Risa said...

Your albums are so cool Maria and I love the card with the buttons!
malieta:)

Jan Hunnicutt said...

What a cool idea Maria! Thanks for explaining how you used the wrapping paper to cover the albums, they look fabulous! It's also a great way to take "samples" of what you do with you so people can see them.

Becky said...

Very nice idea! Where did you find the photo sleves that are card sized( 4.25 x 5 card)? I can only find the 4x6 which don't work for card fronts.

2 Worlds said...

Great project maria
One day I will try to cover mine :)

Little C's Creations said...

maria, these creations are gorgeous!!! i love how they all turned out.

hugs,
Jen

Tina said...

Fantastic albums and cards!

Rita said...

What a fabulous idea! A great way to utalize a photo album, you are so clever girl!!!