Welcome to the blog today, Maja Design Fans!

It’s Maja here with another GD post

I know I promised you last Saturday to limit myself this time, but well…I’m sorry, I didn’t. So you might want to make yourself a nice cup of coffee, as it’s going to take some time…again!

For today’s inspiration I’m going back to the “Life by the sea” collection that was my first-sight favourite and first papers to cut for the challenge sample. The papers are just a-dream-come-true for all marine themes! Beautiful designs and faded colours are taken straight from a sailor’s life

So as my first project I created an album for my cousins who accompanied us on our first true sail trip last summer. This is going to be a thank-you gift to keep photos and memories of the time we spent together.

For albums or notebooks, I like to tie some tags and metal charms on the wire for decoration:

For the covers I usually use beermat panels and to protect them from folding and dirt, I wrap the edges with tissue tape. I also secure the corners with metal protectors. I didn’t do much to decorate the front cover, as the beautiful “A Day at sea” sheet did the job. I only added a few stamps and the title made of stickers.

On the first inside cover I put the “data” page. I mention the route, dates, yacht type and the whole crew. I wanted this page look old and torn out from the captain’s log book – so I printed the text on parchment paper, tore and inked the edges and inked some crease lines.

The inner pages of the album are made of kraft envelopes and cards. I sealed the envelopes, cut the sides to make them open again, punched oval edges to make pulling off inside tags easie. Then I decorated the fronts of the envelopes with papers and stamps. Finally I bound the envelopes together

On each envelope’s front I glued the printed day route and some journaling tag. The photos and details are supposed to go on the inner tags that I made by cutting the kraft cards into halves (which means I used twice as many envelopes than cards), punching tag holes and adding some thick cotton strings:

Then the other sides of the envelopes are left free for my cousins to choose whether tehy want to put more journaling or photos and so they are almost bare, decorated only with signature strips (I told you I love them, didn’t I?)

There are seven envelopes, one for each day of the sail, each decorated in a different way, but the idea is the same. I’m not going to bore you with all the pages, I just want to show you my tricks for saving beautiful designs. I’m just crazy about it, I don’t like to “waste” patterns by covering them with another layer. Therefore, wherever possible, I just cut the paper or strip into two parts and tuck  the ends only under another layer. Here I employed this trick for the border strip under the tag:

…and here with the images from the paper sheet:

There are only about half a centimetre of those paper elements under the tags! This allows for a better exposition of the design I want, and always saves a couple of centimetres of paper to use elsewhere.

I decorated just one page – the inside of the back cover – with the photo of our crew together:

I hope my cousins would like this little keepsake of the great time we had!

Supplies:

Papers: bits and pieces of each “Life by the sea” paper (apart from Regatta and Sailing), both sides, and signature strips  Other: Envelopes and cards: Dovecraft, Stamps: 7 Gypsies, Prima, Tim Holtz, Inkadinkado, Metal elements, tissue tape and string: from my stash.

I also created a marine-themed card. I used a stamped image, coloured it with Distress inks and added a stamped quotation in Polish. I also added some gauze with tiny seashells to imitate a fishing net, and a little steering wheel charm. I think it would make a nice birthday card for any sea-lover:

Supplies:

Papers: Nautic, Seaside cottage, Landmark-bs, The East coast. Other: Stamps: Crafty Individuals and Lemonade, Inks: Distress inks, Embellishments: metal charm, gauze and seashells from my stash.

What I love about Maja Design papers most is the fact that though they are themed papers, you can always use them for something completely different! How about some little cowboy cards?

For the boy card I used some funny nail brads and coloured the image with Distress inks. I also employed my “paper-saving” trick for adapting the sentiment panel to the star insert:

Supplies:

Papers: Life jacket, Life jacket-bs, Optimist dinghy-bs, The East coast, The West coast. Stamps: Nellie Snellen and Studio G, Brads: Rayher, Punch: EK Success, Dies: Spellbinders, Inks: Distress inks.

For the girl card I added some paper roses and bling so that the card looks more girly:

Supplies:

Papers: Drop the anchor, Gone fishing-bs. the West coast, the West coast-bs, Bottle message-bs. Stamps: Nellie Snellen and Studio G, Inks: Distress inks, Bling: Prima, Punch: Fiskars, Die: Spellbinders. Other: roses, linen string and button from my stash.

And finally, also non-marine, is the LO I created with one of my boys’ latest photo:

For the background I used the gorgeous Regatta-bs paper and many strips and pieces of papers to create layers. I inked and distressed each piece and stamped on some of them:

For the left corner I used a chipboard clock face and some Prima flowers and embellishments:

The title, “Brotherly Love”, is composed of stickers and Prima bulb:

Supplies:

Papers: Regatta-bs, The West coast-bs, Bottle message-bs, Gone fishing-bs, the East coast-bs, Nautic. Stamps: Tim Holtz, Flowers and embellishments: Prima. Stickers: 7 Dots Studio. Chipboard clock, brads, linen string – from my stash.

Well, are you still here? Don’t worry, it’s…

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you found some inspiration! And I won’t promise anything for the next Saturday, as it seems I’m not good at keeping my promises {lol}

Do visit the Maja Design blog during the week, some gorgeous creations by the talented ladies from the CT appear daily!

See you,