…at a Janet Hopkins (from House of 3) class last weekend. We were in Dallas the night before dropping off our daughter at camp and I used the time to sneak out to a class with a group of really fun ladies. Janet taught some Ranger techniques, which I had done before with her, but this time, she used them on diecut manila folders so they were larger than tags, and became a mini book. We also worked on a second mini book but this post is not about that one. Its about the first one! So I brought it home and was staring at it, thinking “okay, now what?” and I realized I had put a crown on it and a big U and that can only mean one thing in my world… Bella! She is my princess and I love reminding her how wonderful she is. AND she is away at camp, so this gave me a way to think about her without getting too lonely and crybaby. So here is what I ended up with. I really like it and I’m sure she will too. I added a chipboard hinged back so it can stand on her bookshelf.
bella U are...
The pages were cut with Accucut dies that were awesome, oh to have that machine for myself! Cuts 12×12, I was in love. All of the inking techniques were done with Ranger Distress Inks, except one page in the back (not shown) done with alcohol inks. The stamping was done with StazOn and I’m sorry, I don’t know who made the crown stamp shown here. The big U is from CloseToMyHeart. The ghost alphas are from Heidi Swapp and I doodled them with an American Crafts PhotoMarker and then used a Sharpie white poster paint pen to make the white dots.
bella U are... loving
This shows you an example of an inside page. The back of every page is a full size photo, turned B/W with a hint of sepia. Each one has a word added in Photoshop to complete the sentence “bella, U are… loving, fun, smart, strong, etc”. Then each facing page, the ones with the techniques from class, has a photo added and a bit of bling. The printed diecut on this page is from Heidi Swapp and the bling is from my stash. This tree stamp, which I adore, is from Penny Black, purchased at Hobby Lobby.
I use this method a lot… come up with a sequence, use oversized photos, which aren’t really oversized since this is a mini after all, and very little embellishments. You could go to town and add tons of embellishments, but I have this idea that I am going to try and write on each page while she is away at camp, further describing the word for that page. When she gets back, it will be waiting for her on her bed and she will know I was thinking of her. Okay, now I’m being a crybaby. Gotta go before I drown the keyboard 
