Just a minute of my time...

I have this thing about mini books

I don't know what it is... it seems whenever I look at a kit and coordinating supplies my thoughts instantly go to creating a mini!

Just the other day I went over Trish's to pick up my kit and walked right past to the board that showed all these adorable cards. I didn't know yet who I was making all the cards for, but I knew I needed that kit!

And so... driving home the thoughts began about a mini, and by the time I got home I was searching through my stash of pictures and coming up with sayings because all that was going through my mind was "let me count the ways" that I love my family...

and even after putting this book together, which I must say is one of my favorites of late....I still had all these supplies from the card kit!

You can see more pictures on the Work in Progress blog, and find the kit here

January Work in Progress Kit

Found some time to play with my kit, and I knew the moment I saw it that it was going to be a mini, just had to figure out what kind of mini.

And then with so many monthly goals, I decided this would be perfect.  But instead of using the full sheets of chipboard that came in the kit, I cut one in half. Then cut all my paper to 4 X 6 which gave me 6 on each sheet, and then added the pocket.

I was so happy with the results and can't wait to spend the year filling it up!

you can find the Work in Progress kit HERE and you can find the other design team creations HERE

December Work in Progress details

Ahh, some time to play...

I had an idea as soon as I looked at the January Work in Progress kit, and with my stash of mini books started to play.

I first painted the chipboard book with red paint, and then sprinkled with glitter, only to find I didn't like the look as much as I thought, so I painted another coat over that and fell in love.

and quotes are always my favorite to put a mini together quickly!

The biggest part of putting a mini book together is coming up with a theme, once I'm there, everything seems to flow easily, most of the time a specific sticker sheet or paper can give you the theme your looking for.

I still have to journal some pages, but the quotes themselves say a lot!

 

Book of lists

Another one of the creative classes at the Bertram was the Book of lists!

Trish taught this class and I just love it and the concept! The book is wrapped in felt and filled with pockets, envelopes, tags and more!

Its just as the name says... a book of lists

But you know how those lists change over time...

Lists like:

tv shows I miss

people you  miss the most

favorite reads

goals for month

people I love

and so much more!

I can't wait to fill this mini throughout the months...

as we come to the final months of 2011, reviewing our  year, goals and achievments, and begin planning for 2012...

 

Crop weekend

Counting down to the once a year crop with Work in Progress kits and planning my projects to get the most accomplished in my time away.

In the last few weeks I have pre planned some layouts, took vacation pictures and used divided protectors to plan out which pictures are going into layouts and which pictures are added to protectors, and most recently, I decided to take my year and put it into wallet sized photos, using several pictures to document each month, and put together a year in review album...

I had totally forgotten about this picture taken in early January of a lunch date with my mom and sister at Red Robin... too bad Deb's eyes are closed!

seems like we just got together for lunch, but here I am with my highschool girlfriends in January

I don't think I'll ever forget celebrating Shawn's birthday at Cheesecake factory

and waking the next morning for our flight to Florida and finding this

Just a few of the pictures I plan to reminice about, document and enjoy during my weekend away with friends!

Running, parties and vacations seemed to dominate 2011, as well as milestones like Chelsea turning 21, my mother in law 70, Zach's braces coming off and oh yeah, running my first marathon!

pedicures in Michigan and so much to be thankful for!

Getting back to scrapping

Lately it seems I've had a tough time just keeping up with my project life, though I am doing much better than I did last year. Somehow the entire month of May got by without me documenting a single thing! Luckily I use twitter to help me remember the dates and what was going on so I can get caught up.

This past weekend I dug out my June Work in Progress kit and decided to make a mini.... go figure, right?

I've had pictures from of Hilton Head Island vacation from 2009 that were begging to be included with these bright summer colors!

and I even got caught up with my Project life!

You can see more pictures of this mini on the Work in Progress blog

7 gypsies drawers

While its spring time, a time when I should be cleaning out drawers I am instead filling them!

Taking this 7 gypsies drawer and letting the fun begin!

When I first saw the drawer I loved it, but was turned off by the knob.  I know really... but it's true.  Then Trish put this kit together and showed it painted and I began to love it and the possibilities again!

When I look around my house I notice the majority of the furniture is either red or black, so painting this black was a no brainer for me!

and so I will fill this drawer with pictures, notes and memorabilia and I will continue to share along the way.

 

Work in Progress

This month I got the kit a little earlier than usual and had a long weekend to play when my husband and son went to Florida shark fishing for a few days.

Here are my projects using the May kit

Some of my favorite pictures of Zach!

Ryan... at the zoo with ice cream melted all over him

Chelsea and Ryan - i'm really into these 4 X 4 pictures right now!

Yep that's me! 

a few fun 3 X 3 cards

Getting back to what I love to do...

Finally got to spend some time scrapping with the girls!

Trish had a crop on Saturday and my sister and I spent the day there along with a few other friends! It was so nice to spend some uninterrupted craft time together and laugh and joke along the way! Trish and I even shared some Iphone tips with one another and got to try out face time with our phones, even though we were only 3 feet apart.

Most of the layouts were done using the December Work in Progress kit, now I'm off to play with my March kit!

The month of Love...

February is the month of love...  

And when I got the Work in Progress project kit I was tickled pink!  Since I love mini books I of course couldn't wait to play with all the fun stuff included in this kit.

I made two mini books with this kit.  The first one was all about the envelopes, I covered the flaps with patterned paper, cut journaling squares to size and then added my pictures and embellishments.

I added the completed album to my Work in Progress album here on my blog and I also did a post about the second one on the Work in Progress blog here

Be sure to check out Alissa's 28 days of love prompts which start on February 1st