My Little Shoebox BLOG HOP and RAK ALERT!

Welcome to the Land of Wooooo Hooooo!  My own private Idaho where I post about my family with Project 365, I share my design work and other random things that strike my fancy.  Today is all about MY LITTLE SHOEBOX and the BLOG HOP!  If you are hopping along, you just came from the talented Pamela Young's blog... I know, I know... she's a ROCK STAR!  If you just happened upon this post, you will want to get in on the action since there is a GREAT RAK (prize) opportunity at the end of the Hop!!!

Today I have a fun mini album to share with you called, "The Three Amigos."  Mini albums can come in so many different shapes and sizes and do not have to be a scary scrap project!  My first mini album took me 9 months to complete... yes, I said MINI album... and I was so scared to tackle each page that I hesitated, scrapped, hesitated some more... I didn't trust myself and it became a real labor of love (yes, pun intended!).  If you are new to scrapping or break out in hives when it comes to mini albums, here is one of my favorite design tips... Go simple and use ONE line of paper.  Don't worry about matching this embellishment to this tag to that paper... choose a line of product that was designed together... it will all match beautifully and make your job MUCH easier!

For this project, I chose to work with the "Sunday Market" line by My Little Shoebox.  As with all the recent releases from MLS, this line comes with 9 different papers, tags, stamps, stickers and alphas... plenty of yummy stuff to help you create one AWESOME project!

I have another design tip that will help you get your mini done in no time!  Design your first two page spread, then use that design throughout the book.  In this mini, I created each spread with the same design... one page has a photo and the adjacent page has a journaling block.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!!  So, I had my line of product... I had my photo/journaling block design... and very shortly I had a completed mini!!!

A few other notes, I used 3-D foam adhesive to make the photos "pop." I also distressed and inked almost everything... I know... it's an addiction...

Here, I wanted to put a photo on each page of the spread, but I needed a journaling block, so I hid one!  The photo of Anna walking with Robbie is on the top of the left side of this journaling block.  It is held together with a simple hole punch and ribbon.  Open the ribbon and you see the hidden journaling. 

So, there you go... a fun mini album about three of my favorite little kids... and their fun little relationship.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will pull up your comfy chair and stay awhile!  I would love to have you as one of my "followers"... the link is over there on the right if you would like to keep up with my designs and creative fun! 

AND... IF YOU BECOME ONE OF MY FOLLOWERS (or are already one), you will be entered into the random drawing FOR A RAK OF A SET OF THE STICKER SHEETS FROM THE NEW MLS LINES... 6 lines... 6 pages of stickers for a lucky follower!!!  Leave a comment on this post letting me know your follower status and your thoughts on mini albums... have you tried them... do you love them... let me know!!!

Next stop, the UBER TALENTED BECKIE DREYER!  For those of you that have been with me for awhile, you may notice that you are in the middle of a My Little Shoebox, RUSTY PICKLE reunion... this block of designers... Pamela Young, Beckie Dreyer and I were all previously Rusty Pickle Chefs!  ((...waving to my Pickle Sisters!!! Love you guys!!)) 

Thanks for coming by and make it a WOOOOO HOOOOO kinda weekend!! ;-)