A little graduation gift

Good morning on this lovely day.  I wish the weather would be like this all the time.  I love the mild humidity, cool temps in the am, and temps around 80 during the afternoon with a slight breeze.  I am so not looking forward to the normal Texas weather of high humidity and high heat!

Today I thought I would share with you a quick gift idea.  I have a son who is graduating high school this year.  Actually, this is my 3rd year to have a child graduate high school.  Whew!  Can you say "broke"?  The colleges love us right now!

I taught this class yesterday at Scrapp n' Savvy .  It is a fun little mini album for graduation.  First the pics:

 This really is a little one.  The album is only 5 x 6 and about 2 inches thick.  I chose black and white and then accented with the school colors (navy, white, and silver).  Making an album for a male proved to be quite a challenge.  No flowers or bling!  But I love the end result.

 I used 1" ring binders to hold the pages in.  I punched holes in the spine and placed the ring binders through from the outside to make a different look.  All of the pretty ribbons on the outside cover the hook of the ring binding.

 This picture gives you a little glimpse of the inside pages.  There are 7 and they are a variety of things.

Let me explain a bit.  About 2 years ago I saw a fun idea for a teacher gift on Pinterest.  The room mom  purchased a mini photo album and instead of pictures she collected cash donations from the students and placed the money inside each photo sleeve.  The teacher then had a nice gift!  I have altered that to fit my needs.  I decide how much I plan to gift the senior and place it in small bills throughout the mini album.  I add any pics I have but leave room for them to add their own.  It really makes a great gift!

I also made one that is not just graduation themed.  I love this Authentique paper line and I love how this mini looks!

Same basic book.  The pages are the same and the pockets are the same.  Amazes me how different they look.

I hope I inspired you today.  Be back soon with more.....

What's on your desk?

It's been a bit since my last post.  Just got crazy with all the new projects.  My apologies to all.  I thought I would do a quick post today and a longer one latter this week.

 People always ask me "what's on your desk?"   How do you answer that one?  There is always a pile on my desk.  Nice, neat, orderly piles.  I can pick anything you want out of the pile.  However, to the idle bystander it probably looks like a mess.  What do you think?

 I told you!  Looks like a complete mess doesn't it?  Trust me.  It is orderly chaos!    See,  there is a bin with mixed media supplies for a class.  There is the new washi tape holder I made.  Then there is the cute planner I finished.  And some new things I have not put away.

 A view to the back of the desk shows my seam binding that I am working with now.  The huge tea mug.....gotta have my juice!  That pile?  It too is for a mixed media class.  Guess I better put it in the bin too.

 This is the cover of the planner from the last photo.  I just absolutely love this!  It came together so quickly and just holds my imagination captive.  The inside is filled with quotes that I like and of course my calendar.

 Thought I would give you a better look at the washi stand I made.  There is not a lot of room for the We R Memory Keepers bowl washi holder so I made a tall one!  It hold 3 sizes of washi rolls and has built in tear strips.  I saved several foil boxes and tore the metal tear strips from them to re-use on this.  I love it.

The back is just a hinged piece that ties closed at the top.  Easy access to add more washi tape!  I need to see it to use it so this allows me to see what I have.

So.  That's what is on my desk today.  What's on yours?