Christmas Giving: Special Album for Mom

Celebrate Mom this Christmas, and the memories you share, with a fun thank you in the shape of a purse! Filled with a variety of “purse pockets” containing love in the form of memory slips, this project relives moments through the years. Sibling input makes it extra special. Let the pockets and items mom carries in her purse be your inspiration!



Everyone has some sparkle glue sitting around, right? Grab your Stickles, or your kids glitter glue, and add some bling to your flowers. It's easy, and it is something you can do just before you have to leave your project to go take care of something else around the house, or go to bed.;-)


To get started in making this project - trace the shape of the album onto your patterned paper and cut out. Plan your pockets, cutting out and using paper clips to hold shapes in place while sewing or adhering to your page. Note: all sewing for this project was done prior to adhering the pages to the chipboard album itself.

Big Idea: Photograph items that would typically be found in a purse. Retain the shadows when cutting out so that the images appear dimensional in your project.
The cell phone is kept in the pocket with velcro. On the backside of the phone I journaled about phone etiquette that we learned from mom. For example, never call your mother during the middle of a Packer game. (LOL)

By the way - anyone besides me remember those black combs? Small and an easy carry in a purse - mom would sometimes whip that baby out before the boys set foot inside of church.

A page in "honor of the plastic" - we'd be no where without our credit cards, and every purse seems to have credit cards.


If creating credit card pockets and faux credit cards – use an OCR font to mimic real numbers on the “cards”.


To add in the zipper I fell back on my years of former sewing experience. I started with two strips of paper approximately 2" x5", and folded 1/2" under along a long edge. With paper strips upside down, folded edges side by side and in the center, I positioned the zipper and held it in place with paper clips before sewing. The zipper used was too long, and I snipped it off to the desired length, backstitching across the bottom to create a "stop" for the zipper pull.


This fun little pocket shares quite a few memories of times in the kitchen with mom, and reminiscing about favorite, and not so favorite, recipes. For example, my sisters and I were always sneaking the liver out to the cats in the barn when mom wasn't looking. We dreaded dinner time when mom pulled liver out of the freezer! My mother never used a recipe, and although I will use one, I have picked up on her tendencies to add a little bit of this and that.

Because my siblings and I all have memories of mom’s infamous “onion lines” – I took a photo of onions. Tip: Use matching paper from your project as a backdrop in the photo shoot.

Finish with a pocket full of memories – random memories that do not fit into any other category.


The flap shape was cut from the grid paper, and stitched around the outside edges.

To make sure there was give in the pockets bits of tissue paper was crumpled and stuffed inside, holding paper in place with paper clips while stitching into place. This makes it easier to pull out the memory slips tucked inside pockets.

Supplies used:
BoBunny Flutter Butter Papers: Breeze, Burst, Honey, Willow, Flutter Butter, Stripe, Combo Stickers; Thankful Cardstock Stickers
BoBunny Butterfly Dreams iCandy jewels, Flutter Butter Buttons and bling, Flutter Butter Flowers, Double Dot Clover Brads, Double Dot Mint Green Ribbon 5/8”, Double Dot Mellow Yellow 3/8”, Double Dot Cardstock in Sweet Pear, Clover, Decaf, Frost; Chunky Chips alpha in Clover (painted)
Acrylic Stamps: BoBunny Stamp and Store Write On!
Other:
Magistical Memories Purse shape mini album (no longer available from MM, but BoBunny offers a cute 6x9 Purse shaped board book – adding a flap of your own gives room to be creative! In fact, use a BoBunny shape from the Clearly Creative Serendipity album would add real pizzaz!!)
Chipboard scallop plate by Maya Road
Pearl Stickers: Kaiser Crafts and Bazzill
Glitter Medium: Ranger Stickles
Zipper – Talon
Ribbon: Offray (solid yellow), green puff ball (May Arts)
Flowers: Prima Ltd.
Paint: Folk Art, Liquitex
Inks: Staz On by Tsukineko, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Inks
Thread: Coats and Clark
O-Rings: Quill
Pen: Zig Memory Writer, Sharpie
Adhesive: ATG, 3D foam by EK Success
Fonts: OCR, Amaze (downloaded from the internet)

Include a pocket on the back side of the “purse” to offer a gift card.


I hope you have enjoyed this idea - if you decide to create a mini purse album of your own someday, pop back over here and please share your image link. I would love to see them. In the meantime, happy creating!