Meet My Friend...Moriah from Fuzzy Slippers Designs!!!

Hi, I'm Moriah from Fuzzy Slippers Designs here to chat you up today.  My blog is full of paper crafting, gardening, tablescaping, and travel goodness.  By day, I am a Reading Specialist helping first graders navigate the tricky world of begining reading.  By night I slip on a pair of fuzzy slippers and shuffle off to my craft studio to create little pieces of mail art. :)  I come from a long line of artistic/crafty/creative people and have been blessed to be married to my best friend (who is pretty creative himself!).  So far I have managed to be able to live in NY (the upstate, not the city), SD (love the folks on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Rez!), and SC (go Clemson Tigers!), and find myself landed in beautiful MA (in the heart of New England apple orchard country) But enough about me, let's get to the tut!!!

With the beautiful summer weather we've had on the New England Coast, lots of us have been hitting the beach to cool off.   :)  The summer flies by so fast that this little gem is fast, easy, and a great memento of warm weather days.  Don't let the supply list scare you off though.  It looks like a lot when listed, but the photo below pretty much includes everything I used (and a few items I did not).

Supplies needed:

2- 4"x4" coasters 

(I bought mine, but I've also gotten them from TGIF's/Chili's/The 99)

4- pre-cut 4"x4"squares of pattern paper for the coaster covers inside and out

3- pre-cut 4"x4"squares of kraft card stock

2- pre-cut 4"x4"squares of aqua card stock

5- pre-cut 3 1/4"x3 1/4"squares of assorted pattern papers

1 yard ribbon for tie closure cut in half

1 large parcel tag

additional scraps of pattern paper and card stock for page & cover embellishment

additional coordinating ribbons/twine in various lengths for page embellishment

assorted small beach/summer themed stamps

assorted stickers & rub-ons

coordinating dye ink pads/ chalk ink pads

1" circle punch

scallop border punch or die

acid free adhesives

scissors & paper cutter

corner rounder

Zutter or other binding machine

I'm so much like my 6 year-old students!  I was so excited to start this book that I made my first step (after deciding on which luscious papers to use), adhering the 3 1/4" papers to the 4"X4" card stock squares.  After assembling these I realized I had forgotten to assemble the covers!!!  Be patient, I'll get back to the covers. LOL!

This page lacked a little personality, so before I even adhered the water paper, a little lobster was stamped around the edges of the kraft paper.  Since the covers have wave pattern paper that is slightly different, the additional stamping gives this page a little more stand alone umph. ;)

My next step was to assemble the covers and the back of the pages I had just assembled.  My coasters have rounded corners, so I used my corner rounder to have the pages and cover papers echo the shape.  *Round the corners before adhering the cover papers.  If you don't have a corner rounder, then adhere on side of the cover and trim with your scissors before adhering the other side and repeating.  That way your corners will have a crisper rounded edge.

So back to the covers!  I like my scrapbooks to have a tie closure, so I attach a ribbon with double-stick tape to the inside cover and then adhere the pattern paper over the ribbon.  Then it's all about having fun with inking the edges, adding tabs/ribbon/rub-ons/stamps.

There isn't always much room for journaling in such small scrapbooks, so for this page I added labeled pocket with tag.  Easy to assemble, just edge the sides and bottom with liquid glue or extremely narrow double-stick tape.  The tag could be swapped out for a map or ticket stubs from a water park, but having the pocket labeled with the information rub-on is a great way to remind yourself to include those when/where details for future reminiscing. :)

This page has that fun stamped mini lobster page on the right.  It looks a little naked as layouts go right now, but keep in mind that on a 4"x4" page a picture can take up a great deal of space.  I had to remind myself not to get "too nuts" with embellishments because they may end up covered by pictures later.

In addition to my many addictions (Netflix, Kindle books, fuzzy slippers and tablescapes) I adore dies 'n die cutting tools.  The scalloped edge on the left side is one of my newest go-to dies (just wait to see how cute it looks on a page further down).

Scraps leftover from page one circle punched and some foam tape give these pages a little drama with only a little effort. :)  A rub-on at the bottom anchors the page while giving 

Here's that fun scalloped border again.  Isn't it cute as a faux awning for this final page?!?  A little foam tape to adhere this one and the picture can slide under the awning a wee bit to make an awesome ending to this pocket sized memento.

Hope you enjoyed this little tut.  I had fun visiting with all of you today!  Feel free to email me with any questions or hop over to Fuzzy Slippers Designs.  I'd love to hear from you and see your creations. :)

Hugs,
Moriah

I was SO excited when Moriah offered to share this tutorial-what a great way to capture your summer memories! Mini albums are my favorite because they are quick to put together and don't take a ton  of supplies or storage space. And my girls LOVE that they can each have their own.

Thanks so much Moriah for sharing this, can't wait to get home to make a few!

Happy Crafting.