Botanical Mini Album

I was going through a box of projects that I had previously used for classes when I came across this little beauty:

This Kaisercraft paper from their Sweet Nothings collection was a wonderful source of inspiration for this mini album.

The class was all about die-cutting. I used Bazzill paper, Kraft-core and metal foil with an assortment of Spellbinders dies, and finished the pieces by embossing, sanding, stenciling or inking. There aren't any photos in here yet (I don't put photos in class projects before the class) but this inspires me to dig through the ones taken during the many trips my Mom and I have made to the Muttart Conservatory during her visits. Here's a closer look at each of the inside pages and what makes them special.

 There is lots of nesting and layering of die-cuts in this mini album. There's a butterfly nested inside a deckled oval, and labels nested inside lables, and that's just on the first two pages!Check out how the lables were cut and nested to form the fab little photo frame.

I tried telling a story of encouragement with the chipboard sayings. Click on each page to enlarge the images if they're not as clear as you like. 

The edges of the inside pages were also trimmed with an Edgeabilities die to echo the soft, feminine papers and shapes. 

The circumstances around this project were memorable. I was cutting out the album pages and deciding which dies to use with which material for each page when we received the call that Hubby's grandma had just passed away.

As this project needed to be completed during the nest few days, I cut a bunch (translation: WAY more than I needed) of labels, birds, butterflies and birdcages, packed these with the dies, a distressing tool, some adhesive and inks, and away we went across the country.

I finished the project in snippets and bits on the aircraft, in Chapters (waiting for Grandpa's new suit to be altered), and in the B&B where we stayed. This page full of butterflies and the bird in its cage was my favourite because of how well all the elements came together. 

Of course, it HAD to end on a positive note... :)

Even though my Mom is now in her 70's, she's one of the most young-at-heart women I know. She's struggled through a great deal during her lifetime but has never given up. I think this will be a wonderful gift to tell her how much I admire her.