A little vacation creation

So has your weekend been? It has been cold with a few flurries here in Michigan. Hard to believe I was just sitting out by the pool in the sun two weeks ago. These pictures are a nice reminder of warmer days. Hey isn't today supposed to be the first day of spring!

My good friend Carol had given me this Maya Road mini album for my birthday last November and I just got around to making it. I made it while I was at her place in Florida and I took the pictures outside next to the pool. Carol has a beautiful stamp room that faces the canal they live on and has sliding doors right out to the pool. I could even see the dolphins from her stamp desk. It is like stamping heaven with a view. She is one lucky woman. I don't have much to post today but several pictures of my mini book. I didn't turn this into a calendar which is what the album is meant for. Instead I themed the book around my favorite paper Mariposa which is from DCWV. The paper has embellishments of it's own so I just added a few do-dads here and there.

I made the bird nest embellishment on this next page. Carol had bought one for each of us and when I saw them I knew I could make one. I made some with three white round eggs and some with brown wire. They turned out pretty good for a first try.

I stamped the branch and bird nest on this next one. Notice the little blue eggs in the nest. The chip board pieces are from Prima's Raspberry Tea collection

This next one is my favorite page along with the cover. I like how the bird turned out with the crown. Since I like birds and crowns, this was a perfect combination. The egg charm was a finding at Michaels and the flowers are from the MS water lilies punches.

This next one I stamped the sentiment and then used my Sakura Star Dust pen to add some glam to it.

This is a side view of the book. Once you flip through the pages you can flip it over and look at the other side of the page. I was able to incorporate stamped images and glitter that makes it hard to tell if it was already on the paper or not. I am going to be teaching a class at our stamp club on how to collage a book. I know this is very intimidating for some people and I wanted to show them that the paper you choose can really be the start of the book and actually do some of the work for you.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did making it. I guess the atmosphere I was in didn't hurt either. I was able to complete it in one full evening while waiting for my son's plane to come in at midnight. That is what is so great about these small books. I was a bit tired the next day but being able to sit by the pool in the sun with nothing to do but drink a margarita and a read good book cured that. Now I have to tackle my stamp studio. When I got home I just set everything that I brought with me and all of the new things I had purchased right in the middle of the room. Today I have to put everything away. That is going to be a challenge.

Have fun and enjoy!