Patriotic Serving Tray

I know that the 4th is almost done, but if I post it by midnight, I think it counts, right?  I have been eyeing big and fancy serving trays everywhere I go.  We have a screened porch right off our kitchen and dining room, so I dream of having something lovely on which to carry food to the porch for our picnic dinners.  I'm stingy, though, and am not willing to pay $10 an arm and a leg.  Lucky for me, while wondering the aisles of Target (you know you do it too) the other day, I found a $20 extra-large serving tray that was clearanced down to $4.98!  It was a bit scratched up and one of the handles was loose, but it was nothing a little Gorilla Glue couldn't fix!  Perfect!  I headed to our local Dollar Tree to check out their Patriotic Decor, and fell in love with two gift bags.  I cut them to pieces, patchworked them onto the tray, then Mod Podged the heck out of them.  What do you think?

Before

After

We used the tray tonight for a big BBQ that we hosted and it was just right!  Hurray!

Guest Project: Karen's Explosion Album

I am so excited to be featuring my friend Karen's project today.  Karen is an extremely talented Stampin' Up demonstrator.  Karen hosts a monthly scrapbooking class, as well as a monthly technique class for card-making.  Today, though, Karen is going to be showing us how to make a Photo Explosion Album. This album is simple to make, but looks really nice and holds a good number of pictures.  I'm so excited, so let's get started!

Supplies

2 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" pieces of chipboard (or cardboard)

2 6" x 6" pieces of decorative scrapbook paper or card stock (for the front and back covers)

3 10" x 10" sheets of cardstock (this will make the actual album)

1 18" length of ribbon

Metal Buckle

Cardstock cut to the same size and shape as the buckle

2 Brads

2 Velcro Dots

Glue Gun

Double Sided Tape

Cardstock, stamps, and embellishments for the cover and interior

**Supplies in italics are for a buckle embellishment on the cover.  You can also close the album using only ribbon.

The Cover

Place double sided tape around the edges of a piece of chipboard.  

Center the chipboard, tape side UP, on the wrong side of your cover.

Fold in the corners first, and then use a bone folder to fold in the sides between the corners.

This is how it should look when you're done.

Repeat for the back cover.

The Inside Pages

Fold the 10" x 10" cardstock in half.  

Open, and fold in half again the other direction.  Open.  (It should look like the photo below.)

Fold along one diagonal.  Open.  

Turn your cardstock over, and push the center of the cardstock down.

You now have four squares on your cardstock.  Two squares have a diagonal fold and two do not.  Fold the diagonal squares down, one side at a time, until you have a square.

Repeat on each sheet of 10" x 10" cardstock (three total).

Assemble the Album

Place one sheet so that the diagonals point up, the next sheet with the diagonals pointing down, and the third sheet with diagonals pointing up.

Take the center sheet and overlap each non-diagonal square with a non-diagonal square on the other sheet.  Use double sided tape to adhere them together.

Lay your back cover face down.  Tape your ribbon to the back of the right (as in right and left) side of your cover so that it will wrap across the front like this:

Lay your back cover face down.  Tape the remaining non-diagonal square of the third page to the wrong side of the back cover.

Tape the non-diagonal square of the first page to the wrong side of the front cover, checking that your cover is facing the proper direction.

To create the buckle-look on the front cover: Place brads through the holes on the buckle.  Use a glue gun to seal the back of the brad, then trim the brad to fit.

Wrap the ribbon around the album, leaving some extra slack (album with be thicker once filled with photos), to determine where the buckle will be placed.

Place the buckle in its correct position on the ribbon.  With the ribbon in the middle, use a glue gun to glue the buckle to its matching cardstock.

This step should be done AFTER you have filled the album with photos.  (You have to know how big the album will be to determine where the velcro should be placed.)

Affix a velcro dot to the front of the album, in the location that the buckle will sit.  Affix another glue dot to the back of the buckle.  This is how you'll latch your album closed.

Fantastic--Your album is assembled!

This is the fun part.  Add pictures, embellishments, and journaling to both the front and back side of the album.
You can use the following technique to trim and fit your photos:
Cut a 5" x 5" square, then fold it along the diagonal.  Cut into two triangles.  Use the triangles as a guide for determining where to cut photos.

Here are some finished photos of Karen's album:

Karen, thank you so much for sharing this amazing project!  I truly appreciate all of the time that you put into making it so wonderful.

If you are interested in learning more about Stampin' Up or would like to purchase supplies to make this project, you can contact Karen here.

Home Grown

While not a craft, these do fall under the category of My Attempts At All Things Homemade.  I am very proud of my garden this year.  We started almost everything from seed in late March and are finally reaping the benefits of all our hard work.