Friends with (bandwagon and stash-busting) Flair Friday!

Hey there -- happy Friday!

Since it's Friday, it must be Friends with Flair Friday over at Unity -- be sure to stop over and see today's great deal and all the other bloggers participating.

First, the card. Yes, I've finally joined the hexagon bandwagon. Have you noticed how they're popping up all over in the paper world? I can appreciate geometry and all, but I didn't have any hexagon punches or dies, and I wasn't really sure I wanted to invest dough in yet another bulky tool...and then I saw this tutorial over on the Cosmo Cricket blog using a quilter's template -- and about $5 later, I'm in business. Here I used the smallest size, but I can make hexagons up to 5.5" -- think of the scrapping possibilities! Anyway, take a peek:

I think this is the earliest I've ever gotten my Unity KoM! In celebration, I immediately got that cute cardinals-and-holly image inked up (with some markers), along with the pretty snowflake bg. To go along with it, I used a sentiment from the September kit. Close-up time!

The snowflakes are much clearer here, and you can see that I blasted the thing with some shimmer. Pretty! The "bow" is just some ribbon that I stuck in a brad before popping it through the card front. Easy!

Second, the stash-buster {Warning: there's no Unity in the rest of the post, so if you need to hop along, you won't hurt my feelings ;)}. All the hexagon papers up there are leftovers from my Big Fun Christmas Project this year -- a mini-album made entirely from my favorite holiday goodies, the papers and embellishments and other bits that I've saved hoarded over the years. I also have a vague memory of seeing someone make an album out of a Little Golden book, and I just couldn't resist it! {That idea is pre-Pinterest, so I no longer remember where I saw it. Does anyone else remember seeing such a thing in blogland? If so, let me know so I can give credit, eh? Thanks!}

Alrighty, then, here's the stash I've used:

Ooh, pretty! The top photo are the fronts, the bottom are the flip sides. I cut a couple dozen sheets down to about 6.5x7.5" to fit inside a Little Golden book I picked up at a used bookstore -- it's definitely one I remember owning, though, so that makes it funner :). I broke out my long-neglected Crop-a-Dile Big Bite to punch holes through the whole stack at once. Man, that made an exciting noise ;).

Here's how I turned the book into an album cover:

A little fancy box-cutter work, a pair of pliers (and then wirecutters) for staple removal, some Crop-a-dile work, and I was in business! Luckily, Little Golden books are very cheaply assembled, so it wasn't exactly hard work disassembling one. Here's the whole thing put together:

...and there's my messy grid pad underneath it ;). Since I did my initial assembly, I've added some extras -- envelopes, tags, etc. My favorite thing? With the exception of just a couple papers (namely the reindeer Hambly transparency and the Amy Tangerine fabric paper you can see up above [from Scrappy Chic, of course!]), everything else is at least a year old, and several papers go way, way back. I've kept them because I love them, but now I'm using what I love, and that's even better. I'll keep you posted as I add to the album (especially once I start adding photos!). I wish I could say it'll be a December Daily, but I'm not exactly that disciplined...so it'll probably just cover the whole season in bits and pieces, more Smash Book style, perhaps. I can't wait!

Anyway, thanks for hanging in there through a shockingly long post! Anyone else out there have a Big Fun Christmas Project planned? Let me know about it below.

Hop along, and enjoy your weekend!