Making up for lost time & MARATHON MADNESS!

I am T-totally worn out!

My soon to be 12 year old goddaughter, Maren,

tried to kill me this week-end.

Literally!

Her cousin got married a year ago...

fast forward to Wednesday evening

and I got this call...

"Can you pleeeeeaaaasssseeee help me finish

Kendra's wedding album

'cause we will see her over Thanksgiving..."

Ok.  We can do that.

Friday was no school-I am off on Friday's anyway

so at 2 Mom dropped her off.

She had paper, she had embellishments, she had tools...

but no photos!

OOPS!

Deeeeeeeeeeep Breath.

Called Mom.

Back to her house we went

where we spent the next 2+ hours

editing and uploading photos for one-hour printing.

Grabbed some dinner,

got the photos

some Peppermint Hot Chocolate

and at 7:30 last night...

we started!

She had a few pages already done...

but we had 42 photos to go!

By 9:30 the child was drooping and we didn't know what to do

with the last of the shower photos, so we called it a night.

After a much-deserved rum drink and a neck rub

I literally fell into bed

(I was that tired-not that much rum-

or well, being THAT TIRED that little bit of rum

went a long way!).

The alarm cat

went off at just shy of 6 AM...

I had just gotten them fed

and pushed the "on" button on the coffee pot-

and here she comes-bright eyed and bushy tailed.

So---we started. Again.

And an hour ago (1 PM)...we finished.

I lost count of layouts.

We tossed maybe 2 photos.

We were one page off...grrr....

add base page, decorative paper and a post it--

insert bulletin or invitation here

problem solved.

But, I highly recommend that you

DO NOT try this at home!

An entire 12x12  album in less than 24 hours!

Thank God for Close to My Heart,

now discontinued Wings paper pack

and the new CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.

Oh-and Scotch tape gun.

And CTMH divided pages-

they saved my sanity in the end...!

Without further ado,

here are the photos-

they don't do the pages justice-

but you have an idea of just what a very creative

soon-to-be 12 year old can do...with a little help from her godmother...

Beginning with the cover-

a very pretty soft cream

The inside page...

The shower...

on the left we wrapped the photos like presents

since she was opening presents...

on the right---the underware---

with her new "mrs. name" in rhinestones!

Maren found a tiny embellishment

of a t and panties to match!

This was one of the favorite layouts for her!

LOL!

more presents-I love the fact that Maren got photos of  things

like the present at her feet--

great "non-traditional" shots-

even more awesome that a 12 year old thought of it!

Can we say the child is gifted--?!

More awesome shots-the card with wine bottles on it-

the gift bag with "I do!"...

Bridesmaids and groomsmen...

the pages she did in my class a few months back...

Coming down the aisle on dad's arm...

this is beautiful flocked paper she picked out!
The bird is holding two pieces of cream satin ribbon with

two little wire hearts dangling from them! Again-her idea!

The Vows...

with Art Philosophy butterflies! Aren't they pretty?!

She was all a-flutter over this these photos-

she said she wanted to BE SURE to get THE KISS

and she did!

We laughed, tho, at the minister's mouth in the middle of it!

The second page of the layout...back down the aisle-

she picked out this paper as well-a year ago-

She was bananas over it as it matched the setting perfectly!

On to the reception-they didn't have a cake-

they had a tower of cup cakes...

Art Philosophy to the rescue again!

We cut cream colored cupcakes, the green wrapper

and then cut the wrapper again out of brown and used the

sliversto make it appear as CHOCOLATE cupcakes!

For the icing we used Martha Stewart glitter glue swirled on

and then some snow glitter

FYI-if you are in a hurry

you can hit that concoction with a heat gun

and it will set right up!

(heat from both sides to even out any "curling" ; ) )

A small doily folded in half made the perfect "plate"!

We were getting very very burned out and tired-

so we pulled out the CTMH divided pages

and altered them to our liking-

we covered the top two vertical spaces with dp

and laid our photo in a flip flap over that!
She lamented that she didn't have a "First Dance" embellishment-

I said we have stamps, ink and a computer & printer-

we HAVE a First Dance AND Our family

(This is the brides stepson in the bottom photos)

embellishments!

Waving that magic wand, baby!

I did "First" and "family" on the computer

then stamped "Dance" and "Our" with the juniper ink

and the Bohemian alphabet stamps.

But wait-the rest of the reception photos wouldn't fit in the vertical spaces...

so we sacrificed that back side of that divided page

and attached another version of a divided page...

this one has two vertical and two horizontal spaces

(again, discontinued...)

but another dilemma still-there were two more photos to be used...

enter two more 4x6 Flip Flaps and an SU tab punch! Problem solved!

peekaboo!

And---we were off by one last page...

so AP and the Cricut to the rescue!

We cut the flouris (I'm too tired to try and spell Fleur de---whatever-)

you get the picture-literally!

She added the flower embellishment and crystals.

The end.

SO-there you have it!

A complete 12x12 album in less than 24 hours!

After a brief break

I need to go clean up

and then gather up my goodies

to go to a CROP tomorrow

(yes, I gotta be crazy!)

and work on the Preschool scrapbooks-

yes, PLURAL--

this years and last...

that need to be done

by Thursday AM!

Bring on the hot chocolate-

followed by the rum!

Until next time,

happy stamping and scrapping!

Blessings,