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 This project was a 5x7 mini album I made for my mother in law for Mother's Day. I absolutley love the digital papers from Rhonna Farrer's French Ooh La La 8x10 paper kit, and couldn't wait to use them in this album! They are just so fun and colorful! It all happened quite by accident. :) I was searching my existing stash for papers to use. Now, anyone who knows me and has seen my stash of paper is probably cracking up right now, as I probably have enough paper to open my own store! But nothing was calling out to me. So I thought I would check out my stash of digi paper, and sure enough, Rhonna's papers just screamed at me. (Many thanks go out to Jessica Sprague for teaching me the way to digital organization using ACDsee Photo Manager!!! Of course Rhonna is one of my tags so I can go directly to all of her digi goodness! Love that program!!!)
Now, I have never actually used a whole digi line of paper to create a "traditional" style scrapbook, but I was so excited to print out Rhonna's designs - every piece of cardstock that came off of my printer was like a little Christmas present! I just wanted to touch and see those gorgeous designs! And hey - it's all about learning and new experiences for me when I scrap! How much fun - the papers really are all so delicious - of course they are from Rhonna so I expect nothing less. :) And the great part was that I only had to print out as much paper as I needed. The other cool thing was that if I needed a different or additional color of paper, all I had to do was make a quick edit in Photoshop and I had an exact match.
 Some of my favorite accents came from Rhonna's Mother's Heart Word Art kit, which I printed on ink jet transparency paper, and then used throughout the album. So perfect for Mother's Day! Seeing the awesome House of 3 project ideas reminded me of all of the cool things I could do with their kits. If you've never been to the House of 3, I highly reccommend it!! It is a collaboration of 3 amazing artists, Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp, and Janet Hopkins. I truly love all of their stuf!!! (I just ordered the Jeweled Chandelier Wall art - sooooooo cute! I just couldn't resist - it was a present to myself in honor of NSD....)
In the album, I used lots of colorful flowers from my stash, and plenty of bling - Heidi Swapp flower centers, rhinestones, and I found these pretty pearl cluster Mark Richards Crystal Stickers that I used on the cover. I also used some cool metal embellishments throughout the pages - a few frame corners, a crown, and an angel wing that I purchased from lynstock at Cherry Street, a great ebay store. Highly recommended for those gorgeous and unique metal embellishments that are so hard to find. She always has a great selection (some of my most favorite frame corners have come from her), and I have always had great service from her store.  Here is an excerpt from the intro page - written by my hubby:
Mom,
It's hard to describe in words what you mean to us. We are truly blessed to have you in our lives. From bringing Jerry up from an infant to a man so successfully, to accepting Anne into your life as your own daughter, we are thankful. Your unconditional love has supported and guided us through times of joy and times of pain. We often say to ourselves in times when we are searching for an answer, "What would Lee do?" For all this we love you unconditionally!
This page below is one of my favorites - I converted all of my photos for my album to sepia in PSE. But for this pic I decided to recolor the lemon for effect. (Hey, check out the size of that lemon!!! The photo was taken on our trip to Sicily - the lemons there are AMAZING - I wish I could ship all the lemons in Sicily back to the States!) The journalling is just so true about my mother in law: "When life gives Lee Ganguzza lemons, she makes lemonade!" :) All in all, a real fun album to make, and one I know my mother in law will cherish forever. Especially once she realizes that her son wrote a lot of the journalling! (Really, I just know my hubby is a closet scrapper - he just won't admit it! :) To see the album in its entirety, please be sure to check out my Design Gallery. Thanks for looking! 
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