Mother's Day mini and some fun news

Now that the holiday is officially past and gifts have been given, I wanted to share the cute little mini books I put together for both my mom and mother in law for mother's day this year.  The album measures a little more than 4" x 4", so it's the perfect size for these Grandma's to pop in their purses and always have on hand, to share photos of their darling grandchildren!  For the contents of the album I selected some favorite photos of my kiddos and paired it with text, that answers a couple of 'interview' questions that I asked them about their Grandma and Nana.  Here's the look at the cover:




And a side view of the album, shows how it is kept closed with a length of twill tape.  I love from this view, how you can see all of the bits and pieces of each page peeking out - and hint at what's to come inside!

As you will see, I laid out the album to include a picture of each child on the left page, and their response on the right.  In the middle of each page, I sewed a small envelope into the book binding, which when opened, reveals a sweet little drawing from them.  I started the book with a picture of my oldest.

Here is a look at the page once the pocket page is turned.

Again the next set of pages is set up with the same 'formula' - picture, pocket, then text.

A close up reveals how the envelope opens, and shows a peek at the paper, containing Justin's sweet little artwork, inside.

The backside of the envelope and his response to my questions are shown here.  I love the he said he loves his Nana because, "she teaches me tricks." Ha, ha - funny boy!

Next, is baby girl's page.  Obviously, she is not quite at the age to create artwork yet so, I chose to use a decorative envelope here.  I punched some 'confetti' from paper scraps (as is all the rage in scrapbooking right now!), tucked it inside a vellum envelope and sewed it shut.  I think it adds a fun little decorative element!

I gave baby girl a little help with her 'interview', as well! (wink!)

For the final pages, I mixed up the 'formula' a little bit.  I include some decorative elements on the left, sewed a vellum envelope into the binding and finished it off with a group photo of all three kids.

This picture reveals the contents of the vellum envelope -- sweet little mini instax photos of each child!  Love this!  I was thrilled when I figured out that the envelope was the perfect size to contain these!

Here's a look at the final page:

To finish off the back side of the album I stamped a sweet little phrase, from an older Hero Arts Stamp set and added a remaining sticker.  

As you can imagine, these little albums were quite a hit with the Grandma's! My only regret is not making a copy to tote along in my own purse!

Oh, and before I sign off -- just wanted to share my fun news.  I found out yesterday that a recent page, shown in this post, won the latest sketch challenge over at the Jillibean Soup blog.  Yay, me!  If that wasn't enough -- my prize was to select $50 worth of items of my own choosing from the online Jillibean store.  How fun is that????  I had so much fun shopping with my Jillibean dollars.  Maybe when I get my package in the mail, I'll snap a pic and share my goodies!

As always, thanks for stopping by!