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Has spring sprung in your end of the world? Well, here in Sweden part of the country still has snow, but spring has begun to show itself in the tinest ways already. I wanted to talk a bit about how you can catch some spring like photos. 

Nature

The go to thing to take photos of the evidence that spring leaves is ofcourse nature. Personally, I think that nature is lovely when it awakens from the long winter. 

I always take pictures of the very first little spring flowers I see. I just shared a Instagram photo of the snowdrops outside my house! When shooting flowers it can be fun to catch a different perspective than you would go for usually. For one photo I placed my camera on the ground so that it would catch my shoes with the flowers. 

Photo shared by Deb Duty.

 

Branches always get me. I love to get up close and try to get the tip of the branch in focus to create a depth of field effect. 

 

Activity

I bike year round, but most people take out their bikes when the ground is snow and ice free :) Take some photos of the bikes getting some new air in the tires!

For us the first day our kid can use the trampoline is a sure sign of spring! Go out and make them show you their best tricks and snap some shots!

And chalk on concrete is so much fun! I often join the kids while they make the pavement into colorful art. 

 

Here are a few more ideas:

A dinner outside

Birds making nests/ birds nests

Newly washed car

Snow melting from the roof

The sun peeking through

Something in your neibourhood that is typical in the springtime

Colors

Kids making easter crafts

 

I hope that spring reaches you soon! Have fun capturing it!

 

 

Ps. If you would ever need a spring photo, I have a few in my Free stock photo set on Flickr. Help yourself! 

 

give.away.day. featuring LITTLE BLACK DRESS KIT CLUB

Not only is March filled with four leaf clovers (and minialbums) but there are also four exciting pots of give.away.day. gold (to help you make your own minialbums!). And today is our first rainbow day! Please put your hands together for our first MiniMadness

Not only has Little Black Dress kits provided each of our four designers with a kit so that they could create their minialbums, but they are also sponsoring today's giveaway. One lucky reader will be fortunate enough to take home the March kit, A Chance for Luck.

If you would like a chance to take home this kit, please leave us a comment telling us of a time where luck was on your side. If you would like a second chance to enter, please stop on over to the Little Black Dress Kit Club facebook page, like them, and leave them a little thank you for their generosity, then come back and tell us you have done so.

Comments for the giveaway will remain open through Sunday evening. One lucky number will be selected at random and posted Monday morning. Please remember to check back as it is your responsibility to claim your lucky number via email by midnight Tuesday. We can't wait to read your comments. Don't forget to make a page about your lucky self and situation!

Little Black Dress Mini Album Day #4

Hello, it's Jennifer Larson, sharing the mini I made with the Little Black Dress kit!

When I saw that I would be scrapping with this kit, filled with vintage ephemera and charmingly eclectic patterns, I immediately printed out some of my childhood photos. I am a child of the 70s, a decade that epitomizes funky, charming, and eclectic, all at once. If you doubt me, check out my pants in some of the photos.

I thought about printing a school photo from each year and journaling about the year, but I discovered I didn't really recognize the year in each photo. Instead, I printed random photos that have memories tied to them from throughout my life.

I used as a base October Afternoon's Woodland Park mini album, which has the word "My Life" cut into the cover, a perfect title for this project. I cut the patterned paper away from only one side, leaving the grid paper underneath to show. Here's the cover:

I was excited to see buttons in the kit. If you've ever scrapped with me, you know that I believe any page can be made better if you put a button on it. And so this mini. I used almost every button that came with the kit, and the beauty of buttons? When you run out, they match the buttons in your stash.

I used the buttons as centers of flowers I die cut with my Big Shot. Just for texture, I curled up the edges of the flowers too. The buttons made the mini rather chunky, but I'm OK with that. It makes the album feel substantial, and all people should have that feeling about their lives!

Continuing my love affair with circles, I cut the photo mats for each photo in circles.

I added little My Mind's Eye word stickers and Crate Paper tape stickers to the photos to mix up the colors a bit. Again, these were the seventies and early eighties. The patterns of my times...

Here's the rest of the pages:

Thank you for sharing this mini I made! And thank you, Little Black Dress for giving me the inspiration to make it!

 

Little Black Dress Mini Album Day #3

One of the things I struggle with when I'm putting away scrapbooking supplies is double-sided patterned paper. I mean—I love it. (This is coming from me, who started scrapbooking in the mid 90's when the patterned paper choices were gingham, polka dots, and stripes!) I love the flexibility. But it's hard to decide which drawer to put it in. Do I love the green pattern best, or the yellow one?

Sometimes I have the same problem using double-sided patterned paper, especially when I love and adore and really, really like both sides. And yes: I can always buy two. Or four. Who am I kidding—I usually do buy in multiples. But I still dislike hiding away that other gorgeous side.

So for awhile now, I've been thinking about the possibilities of double-sided patterned paper. I wanted to make something that exists mostly to show off both gorgeous sides—a project that was as much about the paper as it was about scrapbooking.

Luckily, the kit that Little Black Dress sent to me included some of my most favorite recent papers. I decided to make a mini book for documenting the next forty books I read.

 

A spot to jot down some notes while I'm in the middle of the book, to record the dates I started and finished it, and to keep track of whether I'd blogged about it yet.

 

But it's not just that! It's also a gathering of patterned papers. Between each page of book notations is a sheet of patterned paper. I guess I could think of it as a divider, but really it's there for no other reason than it's gorgeous.

 

Well, some of the patterned paper dividers also hold some of my favorite quotes, embellished with the gold alpha stickers that also came in the kit. But some of them are just the papers, separating the notes.

I made the album by cutting every piece of paper included in the kit into a 4.5" x 6.5" rectangle. My very favorite papers I used twice. I supplemented with some scraps of other recent favorites until I had a total of twenty dividers. And then I had my copy store bind it for me.

And now I have a little book that combines two of my favorite things!

The fun thing about making this with a kit is that the patterned papers all had the same "feel," even though they're really fairly different in scope. This made it sooo easy to pull everything together. (It made it harder not to swoon over the gorgeousness. But still.) Thanks, Little Black Dress, for a great kit to work with!

Little Black Dress Mini Album Day #2

Valerie here today to share another mini album made with a fabulous Little Black Dress Kit. I decided on an accordion style album, and it really is pretty mini. It's 4 inches square.

The great thing about using kits to create albums and layouts is you open the box the mail man/lady delivered right to your door and everything is right there for you. You don't have to spend an hour digging through your stash to find and coordinate paper and embellishments. 

To create this album, I pulled out my most favorite items from the kit. There's always a fun variety of ribbon and trim in each and every Little Black Dress kit. I used the black and white chevron looking trim to "tie" my album closed. The front was embellished with polka dotted tulle and buttons. Don't you just love all that texture?!

I made this album for my son and included the most recent pictures I have of us. I took the black and white striped paper by Crate Paper and splattered some mist. The diagonal stripe creates such a fun guideline for my journaling, and I think the My Mind's Eye phrase stickers are a perfect fit.

I hope you're inspired to make your own.

Thank you Little Black Dress!!

Little Black Dress Mini Album

Hello, everyone! I am excited to share some mini madness with you. First, a big thank you to Little Black Dress kit club for sponsoring this week's mini albums.

I have to say that I am fairly new to making mini albums. I have had many mini album intentions over the years, but not a lot of completed projects. I often found the process of filling a whole book (mini, though it may be) intimidating. This month, I have discovered that, 1) mini albums are a great way to tell a longer story, and 2)using a kit makes the process infinitely easier. Because the products are preselected to coordinate with each other, I did not need to overthink what to use for my album. I was able to dig right in with cutting and pasting, and even some painting and misting.

This kit was filled with lots of black and white patterned papers with just the right amount of grunge, that made them perfect for telling a story in which the main characters are all boys. And, since the narrator (me) is female, I also went to town with the buttons, flowers, sequins, enamel dots, stickers, and even vintage epehemera. Seriously, this kit was chock full of goodies.

This album tells one little story from our two week road trip last summer. It is one of those moments that we recount again and again. It is now part of our family lore. While we find it hilarious, it is possible that no one else will. If that is the case, I say to you: "I guess you had to be there."

I used a 5x7 Maya Road chipboard binder album as my base. Oh, and the sunburst mask on the cover? That was in the kit, too! 

There it is. Thank you again, Little Black Dress.

So, if you are at all like me, and feel overwhelmed by the the prospect of making of a mini album, try using a kit to help you though the process. Perhaps you can use your album to tell one of those "you had to be there" stories.

Little Black Dress Week

This week will feature mini-albums made with a kit provided by Little Black Dress kit club.

Sunday Photo + Words