Baby album using Simple Stories

I'm attending a baby shower on the weekend and have been busily creating a mini album to act as my gift. Since the baby hasn't been born yet and the sex is a secret, I chose to use Simple Stories "Baby Steps" papers and embellishments as my starting point. These papers are a wonderful mix of pink, blue, green, yellow and orange, all on a base of kraft - perfect for a gender-neutral project.

Rather than share my entire project in one long post, I decided that I would share a couple of pages at a time. So here are the first 2 pages of this super sweet (if I do say so myself - lol) baby album.

To start, I cut all of my album pages from chipboard using my Grand Calibur and the Creative Book Pages 1 die. I used kraft cardstock as my base. For the page on the left, I used a sketch from Sketchy Colors Challenge (see the sketch at the bottom of this post). All of the papers are Simple Stories and have been distressed lightly around the edges.

Next, I wanted to have a spot in the album for multiple pictures so I decided to include some photo sleeves. To make this, I bought a cheap album at the dollar store and cut out 5 of the photo sleeves. I added a strip of pretty paper along the top and then stitched across using some baker's twine to hold it all together. This is the first time I've used the twine and although you can't see it well in the photo, I really like how the stitching finished off the little flip book. I cut out 2 of the Simple Stories 4x6" blocks for decoration. On the first one I added a sticker and chipboard piece. On the last page I added an adorable little chickadee that I created using a brand-new die from Dee's Distinctively Dies. I'm thrilled to be using this die since the creator is one of the owners of a nearby scrapbook store.

Supplies:
Simple Stories "Baby Steps" papers and stickers
Prima chipboards
Dee's Distinctively Dies "Chickadee" die cut
Spellbinders "Creative Book Pages 1" die cut



Challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - ribbon/twine
Crafting When We Can - things with wings
Creative Mondays - anything but a card
Critter Sketch - critters
Gingerloft - anything but a card
One Stop Craft - pastel & die cut
Paper Sundaes - use at least 2: kraft, lace, die cuts, charms
Pile it on - all about "S" (Simple Stories, sweet)
Sketchy Colors - sketch