I have a super cool friend from high school that I hooked back up with via everyone’s favorite…Facebook! Gotta love social networking! Anyway, my friend Sharon is a really great person. She was always one of those super sweet people in high school. Not one of the fake, nasty, stab you in the back Mean Girls. I’ve always liked Sharon a lot. I remember one time in high school she actually taught me one of my life’s biggest lessons and she probably neither remembers nor realizes that something she said had such deep impact!!! You’re dying to know what it was aren’t you?? Sharon was starting to date a guy (who was also super sweet) and she came into gym class with that glowing look after just talking with him…remember those?? And I remember asking her to dish…and she basically told me that she didn’t want to…because it would spoil the specialness. I remember being stunned at that! And I thought about that…a lot. I came to realize that Sharon had it right!! Keeping those special moments…special…included not dishing about them! Thanks, Sharon!

Anyway…back to paper. Sharon asked me if I’d be interested in helping her by writing some instructions for a mini scrap book. There’s simply no way I could say no since she’d given me some really awesome life insight back in high school!!! So let’s look!

This is the Easy Mini Scrap Book for Sharon’s Busy Bash (cool concept!!!):

This truly is an easy and fast project to make. Great for quick gifts or stocking stuffers! This project is not my original idea. I only interpreted it from another project and made it my own. Unfortunately, I do not know who to credit. As always, I’ll happily credit if anyone knows to whom that credit should go.

This book had to be EASY … something busy moms could do in very little time without being an “expert”. So I’ve kept the project extremely simple.

There are 10 pages in my book. You can do 8 pages or 10 pages for this book and the instructions will still work. Anything more, and the cover score marks will not work.

I love the elegant look of black card stock. For this project, I chose Raven Bazzill because it has a nice texture. I like to use a textured card stock when I will be displaying a lot of plain paper.

I made a very simple decoration for the front cover. I used Onyx Black Versafine ink and embossed it with clear powder. I think the look is very elegant and isn’t over powering for this small book. I added in a very light blue (Soft Sky, retired from Stampin’ Up!) for just a hint of color to this project. I adore this color combo!!

Inside the book, I used primarily white pigment (or craft) ink. White pigment (or craft) ink can be difficult to work with. My most important tip for you, is to ink your stamps upside down. This will keep your images from getting too much ink pooled in places you don’t want it. I ink all my stamps this way and I find the images to be crisper and easier to work with.

In one word, this picture BITES!!! Sorry about that! I actually added tiny rhinestones to the “dot, dot, dot” in Once Upon A Time…

Make sure when you are using white craft pigment ink, that you allow for plenty of time to dry. It takes forever!! On this book, I let two pages dry over night before moving on. You can use a heat tool, but I prefer to air dry. I seem to warp things with my heat tool…

I basically made my own designer paper using this stamp. I think it turned out very nicely! On the opposite side, there are white page mats for your pictures and journaling. If you’re brave, you can add gel journaling on the black paper as well!

Because I just couldn’t stay completely away from some bling, I added a few Robin’s Nest Dew Drops on this page set.

Another page of the “designer paper”. I sponged my white pieces with Soft Sky ink just to add that light hint of color.

In case you are wondering, I use sponge daubers like these to add my color.

Another bad shot. This is the final page set. I didn’t have time to wait for this white ink to dry so I decided to add clear embossing powder and heat set it. THAT I can do.

I thought the embossing turned out nice. It’s a little hard to emboss on texture but I think it looks fine. I added the Martha Stewart bling because I just had to.

Download Easy Mini Scrap Book Instructions Here