Mini Album Makers - October Challenge

Hello Friends

The first of October means that we are starting a new challenge at Mini Album Makers and as always Our Rules are very straightforward : Any Handmade Book goes.  Enter any form of handmade mini album, scrapbook, journal or book art.  Our focus is on completed works, so no layouts or journal spreads that are not part of a complete handmade book project. 

Since we are sponsored this month by Seth Apter, I have created a mini album using Seth's fabulous Baked Textures along with his dies and stamps and Paper Artsy paints.

I also used my favourite Eileen Hull journal die - Passport (Sizzix 660331).

Using heavyweight black card I brayered several colours randomly onto the card and then over-stamped with a 'crackle' stamp (make unknown) to add some texture.  I did several sheets of card.  I just love the way the colours look against the black card.

I die cut my pieces for the cover and two extras for the inside covers, in plain black.  I also cut three signature covers from the same brayered cardstock. The beauty of the Passport die is that it also cuts perfect signatures to fit inside the Passport journal.

After die cutting the spine in plain cardstock I used Seth's Baked Textures Embossing Powder  - Rocky Road to create a lovely contrast.  I also die cut several pieces from Seth's Steering Wheel die (S4-741) and his Broken Maze die (S4-743) for a couple of the signature fronts too.  These were also embossed with Rocky Road Baked Textures.  The EPs give a wonderful tactile feel to the die cuts.

I created a pocket for the inside of the journal and applied the 'steering wheel' due cuts to the signature covers.  The steering wheel on the front cover of the journal was layered up three times and I added a mini corked jar, filled with some Baked Texture powder (Vintage Beeswax).

I added the signatures to the journal and stamped the word Experiment from Seth's ESA08 stamp set, this was also embossed with Rocky Road.

To finish off I always like to add some handmade charms and I also added a black crinkle ribbon closure.

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Our generous Sponsor this month is Seth Apter who is offering one lucky winner a full set of his Baked Textures Embossing Powders by Emerald Creek - what a fabulous prize!!

Website - http://www.sethapter.com/

Blog - https://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sethapter/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thealteredpage

Twitter - https://twitter.com/sethapter

I hope you will visit us at Mini Album Makers to see what my talented teamies have made and also to join in - you might just win the wonderful prize from Seth Apter!

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne xxx

Fall-O-Ween for Eileen Hull

Hello Friends

This month Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are celebrating Autumn by creating Fall-O-Ween projects, either creating an Autumnal project or a Halloween project!  Of course, I went for Halloween!

Do please check out Eileen's blog HERE all this month for inspiring projects.  Eileen also has a Fan Club of Facebook HERE where over 3,000 members share ideas and projects.

For my project I used Eileen's new Wrapped Journal (Sizzix 662816), Tim Holtz latest Halloween fabric gifted to me by Jenny Marples and Halloween buddy Juli Riedel (of Voodoo doll fame).  Thanks again ladies!

The journal was created during a super fun crafty day with some dear and fabulous friends - Rita McGranthin, Annie Gilmour and Tracy Evans, three exceptionally talented ladies!

I covered the journal, inside and out with Tim Holtz latest release of Halloween fabric, it gives the journal some added strength.  I don't have any process shots (sorry) but we were having fun playing and I forgot, so I am showing you how I finished the journal off instead.  Having said that, all of Eileen's journals are just a dream and very easy to put together.

Here, on the inside cover you can see how the fabric (on the cover) goes with Tim's latest Halloween paper (on the signatures).  The gravestones, cat and hat are all from older dies from Tim Holtz.  The gravestones were covered in two of  Seth Apter/Emerald Creek's Baked Textures in Rocky Road and Patina Oxide.  The words are from a Tim Holtz stamp set.

You can see here that I used Tim's Design Tape to give strength to the signature.  The fabulous witch is a die from one of Tim's previous Halloween releases.  She is missing her broomstick and cat here!

The signature cover this time was stamped with Tim's Gothic background stamp and white embossing powder was added.

Again, another of Tim's Halloween dies and word for the ghosts, the bats are from a very old Memory Box die.

The spider's web was stamped with Tim's cobweb stamp and embossed with white, the spiders are from one of Tim's very old die sets.  They were embossed with Rocky Road Baked Textures - they look quite creepy in real life!

From Tim's latest Halloween release, Mr Bones just had to make an appearance - I bought him for my Guest month with Simon Says which you can see HERE if you missed it.

On the cover I used an old Tim flourish die as a branch for the Raven to sit on.  The Raven is actually one of Tim's older stamp releases, he was stamped, fussy cut and then covered with embossing ink and coated with Seth Apter's Rocky Road Baked Texture.  The closure is one of Tim's Idea-ology Custom Knobs.

The tag was created using Tim's new Alcohol Lift Ink on Yupo - my first experiment with this new technique, it was so easy and such fun to do!  Thank you to my lovely friend Kath who bought me the set for my birthday whilst we were at a craft event!

To finish off I added some charms from my stash and some sparkly orange yarn.

Another Halloween project done and dusted!  Thanks so much for your visit,
I hope to see you again soon, I have a couple more Halloween journals to
share next week using Eileen's journal dies and papers from DCWV.

Hugs,  Anne  xxx

Junk Journal for Mini Album Makers

Hello Friends

Although I have made many journals in the last year or so, I have never made a Junk Journal, so I thought I would take the plunge and make one for the Mini Album Makers Challenge for April.

I visited lots of blogs and watched many, many videos on how to create a junk journal and was inspired by lots of people, including Candy Colwell, Nik the Booksmith and Jenny Marples, all of whom have made beautiful Junk Journals.  In the end I was a bit overwhelmed and just did my journal with things I like using, including tea stained papers, a few digi pages (from Nik the Booksmith) and lots of fabric, modern and vintage lace, ephemera and charms from my stash.

 This is a picture heavy post, but it is a big journal measuring 8" x 6" x 2" deep.  I don't want to overburden with photos so I have collaged some.

This is a Nature Journal and it contains many images of dragonflies, bees and butterflies.

1)  Choose your covering, I used some of Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fabric - Wallflower.

2) Cut medium weight board onto two 8" x 6" pieces and one 8" x 2" 

3) Cut a piece of fabric 17" x 11" in one continuous piece

4) Apply your glue of choice (I used my Xyron) to one side of each piece of board

5)  Apply the fabric to the glued side of the board leaving 1/8" gap between the pieces.

6) Optional extra - glue a piece of Tyvek to the joints to provide extra security

6) Use Matt Medium to glue the fabric to the inside of the binding as shown, ensuring you mitre the corners carefully to avoid extra bulk on the inside.

7) Cut design paper to fit the inside covers and glue these with Matt Medium

8) Make a pocket for the inside back cover if desired

9) Gather together your elements for the cover 

10)  Add these elements to your cover (I did not use the felted flower).  I decided to 'vintage up' the cover by applying a coat of Distress Collage Medium - Vintage to the cover - this also helps to protect the cover.

I created three signatures for the inside of the Journal and below is a small selection of the pages I created for the signatures.

I added lots of lace, pockets, tuck spots, tags, stamped insects and for the front and inside I created a couple of 'insects preserved in faux amber'....

To create the faux amber on the cover and in the

signatures I used the new Baked Textures Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek/Seth Apter.  I used my Melt Pot and added some Baked Texture - Amber along with small amount of clear UTEE.  The beauty of this technique is that you can re-stamp into the EP once it is cold, if you need to 'darken' your chosen stamp.

  I poured the melted compound onto my non stick craft sheet and immediately pressed Tim Holtz Entomology stamp (s) which had been inked with Black Archival Ink, into the molten EP.  I was really pleased with the outcome of both.  I mounted this one into one of Tim Holtz's cabinet cards.

Our generous sponsor this month is Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts who will provide a prize pack to one lucky winner!  You can see an example of how I used their wonderful products here.

                                                        Website - http://www.gslcuts.com/Store/

Blog - http://gslcuts.blogspot.co.uk/

                                       Instructionals and Kits - http://gslcuts.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

I hope will have time to visit Mini Album Makers to see what my talented teamies have made, and hopefully join in this month!  As always, our challenge is Any Handmade Book Goes.  Enter any form of handmade mini albums, scrapbooks, journals and book arts.  Our focus is on completed works, so no layouts or journal spreads that are not part of a complete handmade book project.  You do not have to provide a tutorial, but we wish you would.  Feel free to use one of the DT tutorials to make your project and give proper credit where due.

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon...

Hugs, Anne xxx