This mini is approximately 6×4 inches and comes with 13 pages.

Included with this mini is:

• red ribbon
• 2 sheets of love-themed quote stickers in black with clear background
• 2 blue friend-themed quote stickers with clear background
• 4 felt flower stickers
• “destination” / travel-themed stickers (21 total)
• 6 clear black journaling stickers

{apologies for the poor quality of the photos–I had to take them indoor, at night, with all the lights on!! Sorry!}

Some ideas for what you can create with this mini: create this mini for a sweetheart; document a winter or spring travel adventure; use it as a ’seasonal’ mini (like winter!); record the fun details of a special event–a wedding, a party, a birthday, a weekend away.

Also, if you’re concerned about what size picture would possibly fit:

1) You can develop several Wal-Mart photo collages size 4×6 ($0.09) or 5×7 ($0.58), then cut out each picture and journal around; OR

2) You can develop any number of smaller-sized photos (3×3, 4×4, 3.5×5) from scrapbookpictures.com that would fit onto most of the pages of this mini; OR

3) You can develop full 6×4 pictures, and back them with another photo or with paper you already have and use the pages for journaling or embellishments.

To enter to win  Red + Blue Mini: Just leave a comment! Any ol’ comment! Winner will be drawn using an online random number generator on Tuesday evening, November 17, with the winner announced the next day! You may enter all three giveaways, but you need to leave a comment on each post.

I hope you enter!!

This little fall mini measures approximately 4 inches by 4 inches. There are 20 pages in this little one!

Included with this mini is:

• 2 pieces of yellow ribbon
• 1 brown ribbon
• 1 fake fall leaf
• complete set of gold ABC stickers (120 pieces)
• 8 metallic gold vellum leaf stickers
• 2 sheets of love-themed quote stickers in black with clear background
• 2 colored friend-themed quotes stickers with clear background
• 3 clear brown journaling stickers

{not all pages are shown}

Some ideas for what you can create with this mini: a fall seasonal mini; record a fall roadtrip or any trip; your favorite things about the fall season; your ultimate Thanksgiving meal (with recipes); a mini about what you are grateful for.

Also, if you’re concerned about what size picture would possibly fit:

1) You can develop several Wal-Mart photo collages size 4×6 ($0.09) or 5×7 ($0.58), then cut out each picture and journal around; OR

2) You can develop full 4×4 pictures (from scrapbookpictures.com) for only $0.16 each, glue them back-to-back and use the paper just for journal, embellishments, decorations, etc.

To enter to win Little Fall Mini: Just leave a comment! Any ol’ comment! Winner will be drawn using an online random number generator on Tuesday evening, November 17, with the winner announced the next day! You may enter all three giveaways, but you need to leave a comment on each post.

I hope you enter!!

We’ll start with my favorite!

This little brown mini measures approximately 5  inched wide x 4.5 inches high. There are 11 pages included in the mini. Pages have been cut to various shapes & sizes.

You will also receive:

• green ribbon
• brown ribbon
• 2 scroll expoxy stickers
• 2 sheets of love-themed quote stickers in black with clear background
• 1 friend-theme quote in green with clear background
• a complete set of gold ABC stickers (120 pieces)
• 4 clear brown journaling stickers

Some ideas for what you can create with this mini: a Fall-themed mini; a “Day in the Life of ____” mini; a fall roadtrip mini; maybe a mini for a little boy or girl — their current favorites or their current words, etc, etc.

Also, if you’re concerned about what size picture would possibly fit:

1) You can develop several Wal-Mart photo collages size 4×6 ($0.09) or 5×7 ($0.58), then cut out each picture and journal around; OR

2) You can develop full 4×4 pictures (from scrapbookpictures.com) for only $0.16 each, glue them back-to-back and use the paper just for journal, embellishments, decorations, etc.

To enter to win Little Brown Mini: Just leave a comment! Any ol’ comment! Winner will be drawn using an online random number generator on Tuesday evening, November 17, with the winner announced the next day! You may enter all three giveaways, but you need to leave a comment on each post.

I hope you enter!!

Here are some reasons you should consider mini-booking, even if you wouldn’t classify yourself as a “scrapbooker.” (I don’t count myself as one!)

1. Paper goes farther. When I find a 12×12 sheet I love, I get so excited–I can buy less that goes more! I can get three 4×6 sheets or four?? 6×6 sheets or even more if I go smaller out of one 12×12!

2. The possibilities for minibooks are endless. Check out this book for ideas: Sharing Your Story

3. There are so many ways you can go minibooks, with so much variety! There are really no rules that there is so much FREEDOM! You don’t have to have tons of expensive supplies (unless you love that!) to have a great mini. It is what you want to make.

4. Mini’s are easy & (for the most part) painless to create.

5. You can finish in 1-2 days or 1-2 hours depending on how ambitious you are, and it gives you that wonderful sense of completion.

6. OR You can build the bones of one and easily fill it out over a period of time.

7. You can cover a wide variety of topics in greater detail that you might not be able to do with a larger scrapbook project.

8.You can make it as simple or as complicated as you like. I do simple. : )

9. It is so easy to coordinate papers into a theme. You can buy a pack of paper to cut down to size, or pick out individual sheets, OR even buy minibook kits on etsy.

10. They are fun & chunky & beckons you do page through them!!

At a lost for how to exactly use a mini-scrapbook? Think the pages are too small to fiddle with? Wondering what can you do with one? Here is a list of ten ideas for minibooks:

1. Focus on a season, such as fall, winter, spring, and document happenin’s in your life at that time. Check out my summer mini 2009 for ideas.

2. Use a mini to cover a shorter span of time: a week in your life right now, a day in your life right now, or even one afternoon!

3. Make a mini out of your current top 10: top 10 favorite things in your season of life; or your top 10 favorite foods; favorite traditions; favorite ways to pass time.

4. Make a mini out of a special event, such as a birthday, a party, a dinner you hosted, an engagement, etc. Include all the little details that might get overlooked if you devoted only a 12×12 page to the event.

5. Make a gift for someone — grandparents, in-laws, a best friend far away, a child or grandchild; or make a mini about someone–sharing your heart, your memories, what that person means to you, etc.

6. Make a travel mini! Document a roadtrip, a weekend getaway, a trek across Europe or that time you went camping. Keep all the ticket stubs, receipts, restaurant menus to tuck among the pictures. (or if you went camping… a leaf? a twig? a brochure about where you went?)

7. Use a mini as a goal-keeper, a list-keeper, for your upcoming year, season, or month. Elise Blaha does a very popular to-do list each year. Check out her one for her 24th year.

8. Keep track of your current favorite homecooked meals; find creative ways to write out the recipes, where you found it, why you like it, how often you cook it, on what occasion you cook it, etc. It would be fun to look back 20 years from now and see how your tastes have changed!

9. Use a minibook as a mini-journal, scribbling down random thoughts of your life that might give you a deeper picture of the things you were going through at that time. Check out my folded mini to see what I mean.

10. If you have a spouse or a child, consider documenting what your relationship is like right now. What are you favorite things to do together, right now? What holds your relationship together? Why do you love them? What things do you love about them? What are you favorite pictures of them? Then give it to them for Christmas, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, etc.

11. BONUS: Thanksgiving is coming up! Why not make a mini documenting the things you are most grateful for? Have fun the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving gathering pictures or things that remind you of your blessings, and on Thanksgiving Day, take time to look through it and really meditate on all that you have!

Tomorrow, the GIVEAWAYS begin!!

ARE YOU READY???

I hope so!!

I am, and I am so excited!! I hope you join in the fun!!

It all started a month or so ago when I was sorting through all my scrapbook supplies. I have a tendency to keep even the smallest scrap of paper I like “just in case” — so you can imagine, over the course of time, I can build up quite a scrap stock. From that, five minibooks were born! It was such a fun challenge to take random bits of paper and cut them and arrange them into a new creation, a little blank mini ready to be filled! Of those five, I set aside two because I instantly had ideas for them both. : ) But I knew I couldn’t possibly fill up the rest, and it would be greedy to just keep them (because, seriously, I also have a super long list of project ideas!).

Once I got it into my brain that I would love to give them away to people who are interested themselves about minibooks, I couldn’t get it out of my head! So I continued to go through my stash of “scrapbook items” and paired with each minibook little accessories or embellishments that could, if someone wanted to, be used in their mini.

So now that I have everything gathered, the only thing left is to give them away!!

Here are some things you might want to know:

I will post three separate posts on Friday, one for each minibook, each with detailed pictures of the inside pages, the size of each mini, a list of what “comes” with each mini, and some suggestions of how I might use that particular mini, if I were keeping it (but hopefully I will be giving them away!!!).

To enter to win (from a random drawing using an online random number selector), all you have to do is leave a comment for that post! It can be simple, anything such as ”I want that!” to a detailed paragraph about how awesome minibooks are or what you would do with one. : )

You can enter all three! You don’t have to pick one. If you want all three, go ahead and leave a comment on all three! And if you are the only person to leave a comment for that particular mini, guess what — you will win that mini! : ) If you only like one mini, then feel free to only enter that one!

You should enter to win a mini IF: 1) you feel sorry for me because no one else is entering; 2) you want to save me from embarrassment at having my first giveaway be poopie; 3) you aren’t really into scrapbooking, but you think minibooks look really cool (and it is SO easy to try!! there is NO wrong way!); 4) you have never attempted to do a minibook, but it looks interesting & you’re willing to try (so you should try!); 5) you know a “scrapbooking” friend who might like to do something like this, and this is way to give a great gift that will cost you nothing.

WHO can enter to win a minibook: ANYONE!! If you comment all the time, you can enter to win. If you have never commented before, and just “stalk” me as someone so recently put it, I would LOVE to meet you and would be THRILLED if you put your name in the hat! If you know me in real life, if you are my very best friend, or if we have never met–don’t be shy, be bold! be brave! leave a comment! And… yes, if you are family you are so so welcome to enter, too! This is all for fun, open to ANYONE… I am just lookin’ to give these mini’s a good home! : )

The winners will be announced, oh, let’s say Wednesday, November 18, in the 7:00 AM post just to give everyone who only vists once a week time to enter. : ) I will draw winners for each mini that Tuesday night.

And, lastly, you may be wondering how I will get them to you! Well, I will be in contact with you to get your address so I can mail it to you! : ) (And no, I won’t stalk you IRL and I’m not a killer. It will be okay.)

Whew. I hope the overuse of exclamations has done their job of showing my excitment about this! : )

I hope that explains everything. If you have any questions I didn’t answer– feel free to leave a comment asking, or you can email me, too!!

Tomorrow: thoughts on minibooks!! This will be helpful you are sitting on the fence about a whether you could do a minibook!

Hey all!

Did you know there is a popular method (philosophy?) of mothering called babywearing? Did you know that there is even an international babywearing week? Did you know that there are countless, countless options for carrying your baby along with you throughout the day–so many it could make your head spin? Well, this is about as much babywearing as I do.

Ha! We were having fun with a dufflebag. Though Anna doesn’t look very impressed with this, she cried when I took her out of it. : )  I had a very short-lived stint of trying to “babywear” Anna when she was a couple weeks old, and, maybe because I didn’t try 100 different slings or carriers to find the best one that worked for us, I gave it up. (Though I think it’s kind of cool!)

Rust had a guys’ weekend away last weekend, and Anna is finally at an age where she really, really misses him and notices when she hasn’t seen him for a while. We had to go to my parents before Rust left, and when Anna realized Rust wasn’t getting in the car with us, she cried and cried. While he was gone those 48 hours (ha, yes, I counted–I missed him too!), she would often point to his picture all the time and call him ‘mama’ (he has usurped me… I am no longer ‘mama’ but Rust is!! And ‘dada’ too–I think we have a Daddy’s Girl on our hands!), and would look around the house for him… it broke my heart because I know she hasn’t quite developed a concept of time, so when I would tell her, “Daddy will be back tomorrow,” it meant absolutely nothing to her! And when Rust came back, she was his little shadow! She only wanted Rust to hold her (she would fuss if I had to hold her for a minute), and she would cry if he put her down even for just a second. She loves her Daddy, and I love watching them develop such a close and special bond! It melts my heart.

Anna has been adding to her vocabulary every week; she often surprises us with new phrases, gestures, or sounds she has learned! I love our little quirky girl, and it fits so perfectly that the first animal sound she made wasn’t a dog, or cow, or cat–but a gorilla! ”Ah-ah-ah,” she huffs proudly whenever we ask her what sound he makes. It is so funny! Since then, she has also learned to sssss like a snake and mmmmm like a cow. We are working on a dog, but right now I can’t tell the difference between that and a cow.

I also have several fun new videos of her showing us her new tricks: saying “Nana” for my mom, saying “shoe,” and exclaiming “uh-ah” whenever something is dropped or falls. I love this age, and I love seeing all the fun things she is learning daily!! I am soaking it up!

And… this has become one of Anna’s favorite toys. A naked kewpie doll. Yes, I had to look it up because isn’t she just strange? In fact, after I looked through several pages about kewpies, I even had a dream about them that night. Yikes. But Anna loves her. She cuddles her, carries her, and chews on her head. You can even pick out those bite marks right under her hair.

And, LASTLY, what I am most nervous and excited about writing…

On Friday, I am going to be having a little first giveaway! Actually, THREE–and it all has to do with minibooks!! Y’all, I am so excited because I LOVE giving things to people but I am so nervous because I have spent literally weeks preparing these and working up the nerve, and I’m so insecure no one will want what I have to offer!! I am just being so honest here! : ) (That is why I am bribing my sister to enter all the giveaways so even if no one else does, I can still say I gave something away!!)

Anyway, tomorrow I will post a sneak-peek of what’s in store and then Thursday I’ll share ideas about what you can do if you become a recipient, and Friday it will all begin!! I’ll explain more tomorrow.

Oh dear, I hope y’all won’t be shy!!

More more more!

{Yes, of course, she still does this.}

{My favorite!}

Did Megan do a fabulous job? I love them, and I am so excited to have them printed, hang them all over our house, maybe even make a mini! Thank you so much Megan!!

I am so excited to share with you some recent family pictures we had taken! Our good friend Megan, recent owner of a sparkly new dSLR, agreed to take some pictures of our family while the leaves were still so pretty! We went to our local university, where both Rust and I graduated, to have them done. It was high time we had new pictures–we hadn’t had anyone take pictures of us since our engagement, nearly four years ago!

More to come later today–as always, I had such a hard time narrowing down!