Mixed Media Monthly - Wrap it Up

Hello friends and welcome (again)!?
Today is a super busy day here on my blog as it is the first of the month and I am part of 3 challenge blog teams all starting a new challenge today, so apologies, as this is my third post of the day...

So this post is for Mixed Media Monthly,  where the theme this month is Wrap it Up....

Though I absolutely loved putting this project together, it was also a sad occasion as this is the very last month our challenge is running, part of the reason for the theme of our challenge.

The other reason is that the wonderful Eileen Hull is both our sponsor and guest designer and each of the team received a wrapped journal diecut to work with. But before I tell you more, here first of all is our graphic for this final month:

Update: I don't know what is going on with blogger at the moment, but this is the third time I am trying to publish this post. My sincere apologies to anyone who has come by to check this post out!

I made 4 inserts for the album, using Tim Holtz papers and used the simplest of bindings, namely elastic string threaded through the precut holes in the die cut. Each insert has 5 pages, but you can easily add more by just slipping them under the elastics.

I will start by describing how I created the cover of this album. The great thing about Eileen's Wrapped die is, that it works perfectly together with the passport die, which you could win if you decide to play in our challenge!

I started by adding some texture to the cover using a stencil, some stencil paste and while the paste was still wet sprinkled on some of Seth Apter's Baked Textures EP in the colour Patina Oxide.

More texture was added with some lace and cheese cloth, making sure I put it where the flap would not cover it. I also added some crackle paste in a few areas.

the flap is the panel on the left in this photo.

Colour was added with Decoart Media Acrylic Paints in Titanium Buff, Burnt- and Raw Umber and when those had dried the textures were highlighted by dry brushing with Gesso.

The inside was lined with Tim Holtz papers

And the inserts were made using  the same papers.

I added some home made charms to the spine and the closure was made with two Ideaology Hitch fasteners and another bit of elastic. This works really easily and well.

Below a few photos of the inserts still and how I altered the papers I used for them.

And finally, here you can see the 4 inserts inside the album:

Well, that's it for now. Do hop over to see what my team mates have made with the wonderful die and of course as this is our very last challenge, we all hope you will join us!

Thanks for taking the time to visit

xxxxx

Techniques Journal for the Mini Album Makers challenge blog (a project in progress)

Hello lovely visitors and happy February!! Today sees the start of a new challenge over on the Mini Album Makers challenge blog, and here is my book. The blogosphere no doubt will soon be filled with Valentines themed projects, and in fact I will be posting one later today, - but here is something very different, a techniques journal.

This is obviously the cover and in a moment I will show you more about how I put it together. But the main part of my project are the inside pages, consisting of accordion pages with special inserts to keep notes.  I saw something similar on pinterest, thought it a great idea and so created my own version. The original I saw was made from one large sheet of watercolour paper, which I don't have, so I made mine from individual double pages which I made into an accordion by taping them together with washi tape.

So far so good, now for the inserts, - I cut separate double pages from squared paper plus drawing paper (to protect the notes from the other pages, which might otherwise rub off on them.

I then used the simlest of bookbinding techniques, the 3 hole one, to insert them into the accordion.
And below you can see how they were sewn into the main accordion, I put one little insert in every  valley, but oly on one side, the other side was left as a normal accordion.

With the main structure of the album in place, it was time to start working on the cover. I cut 3 pieces of thick mat board, slightly larger than the inside pages, for the front, back and a separate piece for the spine, covered them in some of my favourite scrapbook papers and then glued them together as you can see below

I did this by scoring the spine about a quarter inch from each side, glued the one side to the front and the other to the back and that was it, so simple. Here is the inside:

I put washi tape around the edges and then covered the spine and back page with black paper. The front inside does not need to be covered as the first side of the accordion is glued to that, thus attacching the inside to the cover. In order that the accordion can fold out, do not adhere it to the pack page, otherwise your accordion would not fold out anymore!!
To decorate the front, I first added some stenciling with transparent texture paste, highlighted the raised bits with some gilding paste when dry and then added some further embellishments:

First  I added some strips of bookpaper, a Tim Holtz metal plate with the word imagine inserted and a pen nib. Then I melted some Ancient Silver embossing powder round about and finally  added some flowers.

On the bottom half I just added some shadows to make the ink bottle that was on the paper (Blue Fern Collection) pop a little more.

Now finally to the inside pages. I have done 5 pages so far. They are all similar but subtly different and I will show you  photos of my notes in the inserts, so you can see te steps I used at the end.

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

And here is a picture of the notes describing how I put them together:

I am sorry, they are not easy to read, but if by any chance you want to know more, just contact me.

There are many more pages to be done, but below I show you a few pictures still of how I finished some of the pages so far:

I used a mix of collage elements, fussy cut stamps and die cuts.

Here is the next double page next to the first insert.

Creating an accordion with inserts like this, gives you tons of space, so far I have only done about a quarter of all the pages.

I attached a lable to the back of the spine still (the die is from the Eileen Hull Book Box die) and that was pretty much it.

Here you can see the accordion inside the cover, ready to fill with furher techniques.

Now, before I sign off, I just want to mention a super giveaway we have going on to celebrate the launch of our new Facebook and Instagram pages:

To read all the details of the giveaway, just click here

Well thanks for saying with me for this very long post and Happy February!

Please hop over to the Mini Album Makers Challenge blog to see the amazing albums my teamies have created and do join us by showing us your own books and albums!

Thanks for your visit like always,

xxxxx

Vintage Christmas mini album

Hello friends and welcome! This is my second post on this busy first of December. So many new challenges starting on this day, and this particular one is for the Mini Album Makers December challenge.

Eileen Hull is our wonderful sponsor this month and so I created a Christmas themed album using one of her fantastic dies, the Mini Album one.

Below a quick tutorial of how I put this together:

I cut the cover for the album from matboard and then cut the angel with the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapes Cherub die. I embossed the bottom half with a little embossing folder, first the front and then the back cover  and finally coloured and stamped the outside with Distress inks in Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire.

Next I added some pearl glimmer mist for a bit of sparkle (sorry, hard to see on the photo)

My next step was to make a little panel to glue behind the Cherub cut out. I took a bit of scrapbook paper in dark blue and brown tones, added Decorart Crackle glaze, let it dry naturally and when the cracks appeared and the piece was dry rubbed white Decoart Antiquing cream into the cracks and then adhered it behind the angel.

Here is a close up, where you can see the cracks a little better.

Next I started work on the inside pages. I used scraps of two different collections for my inside pages, 7 Dots Studio North Country collection and the newest Maja Design Christmas Collection, Joyous Wintertimes, as it has similar blue tones and I thought they would work together. I used the die to cut the inside pages.  Eileen shows exactly how to do this in a video HERE

I used elastic cord to slip in my pages, below a couple of photos:

What I love about this method is that you can add more and more pages as you need them. I have created 5 pages so far. For those of you who would like to see them, I have added a video slideshow at the end of this post.

I added some charms to the spine and the album closes with a simple sheer ribbon.

There are many pockets and tuckspot on my pages and I created little tags to fit inside, but of course you can also add photos or whatever you like. Below a quick flip though video:

Well, that's it for now, thank you so much for staying with me. I do hope you will check out the wonderful albums my teamies have created, all you need to do is click HERE, and of course we would love it if you play along with us and create an album yourself to share with us there.

Happy creating!

xxxxx

Mini Album Makers November challenge (plus some freebies)

Hello friends, can you believe it is actually November already? Where has the year gone....?
Well, it's the first of the month and that means there is a new challenge starting over at the Mini Album Makers challengge blog.
So here is my contribution for this month's challenge:

Whether we like it or not,  Christmas is only a few weeks away. We all know what a busy time of year lies ahead, and so I thought I would make myself a littlle Christmas planner. I am including some freebie pages in this post, so if you want to, you can download those to make your own. But first let me tell you how I made mine.

I'll start with the cover: I used the Eileen Hull Mini Album Die and cut the cover from white mount board to which I had added some scrapbook paper. Next I coloured both sides using a mix of Archival and Distress inks, did some spritzing and flicking and finally added a little gold foiling, using a gluestick and some Ranger foil.

On the back I added a little angel left over from another project. It was cut with a Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers die. The nodges you see on the top and bottom were cut by me. Eileen's Passport die has nodges like that, which I like because it makes adding inserts easier, so if I want I can print more of the inside pages and add them later.

I added some Tim Holtz charms to the spine and my inside pages are attached using an elasticated ribbon glued and twisted around some black elastic. I'll show you more in a minute, but first the embellishments:

I made the poinsettia using the Tim Holtz Poinsettia die cut from some Wendy Vecchi Clearly for Art and coloured it with alcohol ink. I glued a brad in the centre and added some little berries around (making a bit of a mess). Next I added some cheesecloth with gel medium, having coloured it with Distress sprays to match the rest of my cover first. I then arranged some metal branches, berries and leaves round about my poinsettia and glued everything to the cover with hot glue. A light coat of gesso was added to it all to give it a bit of a frosty look.

Finally I added the title with little stickers, but as I had no numbers left I had no choice but to add the year with a black and white pen, not too happy with that, but too late to do anything about it.

The album closes using the tab that comes with the die and a little magnet.
Alright onto the inside: I designed some papers in Photoshop Elements, printed them and then cut them with the die. HERE is a link to a video where Eileen shows exactly how to do that.

And here a few more of the pages:

I darkened the edges with some Vintage Photo DI, and put a little key in the centre attached to the end bit of the ribbon, so it can act like a little bookmark.

Well, that is pretty much it. Below you will find the freebies for the inside pages, for those of you who want to have a go yourself.

If you don't have the die, you can of course still use the papers, just print, cut with a trimmer, round the corners if you want and fold in half. In any case make sure to print them two sided, otherwise you land up with every other page being white once you have folded them, you may want that of course, and add your own notes or whatever you want.

Well, that's it for now, - sorry for this very long post, but please make sure to check out our challenge and see the wonderful books and albums my talented teamies have created. And if you decide to play along again, you could win a $25 voucher from Lindy's Stampgang!!!

    Have a good month of November, - happy crafting and creating and thank you so much for your visit here today!

xxxxx