one very fine may day mini album

When I began thinking about the May Day challenge for My Mind's Eye, I decided to create a quick and easy mini album to share with Isabella and Victoria while we ate breakfast. Something for them to look forward to all day, adding a little anticipation to their day. Each page of the mini album outlines what we will be doing after school pick-up today.

They kind of need this pick-me-up as Isabella just finished TCAP testing and Victoria has begun her DEA testing. Some fun distraction is certainly in order!

What made this mini album move along so quickly for me was that I allowed the Chipboard pieces from the My Girl collection to dictate what our day's agenda would be. Here, take a look to see what I mean. Oh, and you may notice that my "binding" for this mini album is simply an assortment of Decorative Tapes to adhere the pages to one another.

before the adventure

Really, you could just leave this mini album as is and it would stand on it's own with just the embellished pages. I planned to add photos of our our adventures and left room to add in smallish snapshots of our days' adventures;

Ride Our Bikes.

Take a Pic!

Blow Bubbles Together.

Eat Ice Cream.

after the fun-filled afternoon

Continuing with the Decorative Tape theme, I backed two photos of the girls on their bikes and added tape to make a "page" that appears before page with the chipboard bicycle. I have a super crush on the new Alpha Stickers from the new release collection Find Your Wings and Fly | Sky's the Limit from MME and I think you will, too.

I used the same blue flower layered sticker one the front and back, which you might  see didn't quite line up, but I let my hang up about that go. On the front {with Victoria's bike photo} I used it to cover up the wheelbarrow full of weeds on the path to the barn. On this photo with Isabella {above}, my horizontal strips of Decorative Tape hold the photo to the right side page.

I snapped a few photos of me {with my iPhone} while I was riding my bike. Definitely not easy to do and this shot was the best of the four I took. It was an I didn't wash my hair, messy bun kind of day, can you tell? At least I'm in a photo and part of the story of our very fine May day.

Empty ice cream bowls are not an uncommon sight in our house these days. With warmer days, ice cream and popsicles are our favorite after-school treat.  And some thoughts on our afternoon. Lately, I'm having a tough time with my kids growing up. Dang hormones.

And a view of our home from 1/4 of the way down our driveway. We don't live in a subdivision, but our driveway is very long so it's really just very perfect for bike riding. My goal is to make it to the top of our steep driveway on my bike. One day I'll take a photo to show you just how tough it is to make it to the top. On a bike. At least for me.

favorite features

• created a pinwheel and used a Decorative Brad for the center attachment
• added Decorative Buttons and Enamel Dots to my chipboard elements
• border punched and stitched on the cover allowing my bicycle Chipboard elements and Twine to peek from underneath
• at the last minute, I added in a shipping tag and adhered it on both sides with more Decorative Tape and was able to pop on a larger Chipboard Element
• love to decorate the inside cover as well...this time with layered Chipboard Elements