Halloween Mini 2013

Hello Hello

I trust you all had a good weekend and got a couple of crafty things done too.  Did any of you take a minute to check out the photo wallet? Any thoughts to share, pretty simple huh? I thought that you might like that.

For today I want to share with you all some 

exciting news

My Etsy Shop is now officially open

This was a very big decision for me because there are a million factors that come into play when you start your own business, and that's just the ones I have thought of, there are probably a million more that I haven't even considered yet...But now is the time I believe.  I have wanted to take this leap of faith for awhile now and it never seemed like the timing was right, but is the timing ever right to follow your dreams? So here I am back to where I always end up...wanting to take the LEAP and so...

I DID-Can you believe it-I'm still pinching myself.

So without further babbling on my part I want to share with you the very first piece I have listed for sale.  This is a beautiful finished 6 x 6 Halloween mini album. I did a long envelope styled book (inspired by this) using 6 x 9 catalog envelopes and completed it within a couple of hours. The paper pack I used is Michael's store brand Recollections Midnight Magic - Haunted 6 x 6 pad. The reason I chose this is because of the black, white, and purple color scheme. The neutral background gives you a lot of room to play with all the colorful photos that we all end up with after Halloween is over. I think this coloring will help to high light those wonderful memorable photos rather than be distracting.

The mini book has 3 pages, 3 pockets, and lots of spots to journal on. In the two previous photos you can see where 2 of those pockets are hidden - yep that's right those two are hiding so if there's some extra special photos or ephemera that you want to tuck in so that they don't get all the wear & tear - then that's where you can hide them.  The final pocket is on the left page, the opening is right smack in the middle of the page. You'll notice also from the photos that I have included some die-cuts, they have all been stamped with a background image to give them some visual weight and they have also all been inked around the edges to give them some definition.

As for the spine and the cover, I just distressed and inked and distressed some more then inked some more...

well you get the idea

it's grungy totally

but

cool

The cover has a mixed media treatment that allowed me to capture my skeleton behind some cheese cloth, then I stamped a couple of spooky images - cut them out - distressed them - inked them - then adhered them in a layered pattern on the cover. On the spine I have added a felt spider web ribbon from a Martha Stewart collection that is now several years old, but man it makes a really cool spine. I try very hard to incorporate a lot of my older products with the newer stuff, but I try to do it in a way that someone who only kinda pays attention to the scrap book market wouldn't be able to pick it out like a sore thumb - I want it to blend in and well, that's hard to do sometimes, especially if you've been scrappin' as long as I have.

Alright well there we go...Below is a link to my video about this mini album, hope that you'll take a minute to check it out. I also just want to mention that if any of you have any questions or any advice - please just leave me a comment and let me know, I will do my best to get back with you in a timely manner and I would appreciate your time and your thoughts

Thanks
just B

((I have 3 of these available-please use my link in the Etsy tab @ the top to go directly to my NEW Shop - thanks))