Mini-album, part 10…

This is the last spread in the mini-album from Roni. The challenges were to use the color yellow (the reason will become evident when you read the verse!) and to use a stamp you have not previously used in the book. Well, the challenge part was easy—I painted cardstock for the background with Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio Paint in Yellow Pastel, and then streaked it with Touch of Yellow. These colors are BRIGHT!!! You can see them here at Simon Says Stamp. The challenge came in trying to take a picture! It took awhile, but the yellow finally came out kind of close. The challenge to use a stamp that I hadn’t used before was easy, too. I used one of the first stamps I ever bought—who knew it would be so versatile?? The verse for this final part is, “Friendship is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it but only you can feel the true warmth.” Don’t you love it? Now, here’s my take on the final spread:

I hope you’ve had as much fun with this little book as I have! I need to figure out what to do to the covers, and I also want to go back and distress/ink the edges a bit (you can still see the chipboard edges) and maybe embellish some of the pages a little more. The hardest thing I need to do is decide who to give it to!!

I also want to say again—this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. I really didn’t think I could do it, but it ended up being very easy when it was broken down into manageable chunks. If you’ve been hesitant to try something like this book or any project outside your comfort zone, I say, throw caution to the wind! What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll have a “learning experience?” Go for it, and be sure to share it with all of us!

Mini album, part 9…

As promised yesterday, I’ve finished part 9 of Roni’s mini-album challenge. Whoo-hoo! I’m all caught up again!! The challenge for this part was to “Make it Metal” by using metallic paints, inks, embossing powder, or real metal on the layout. I chose to use metallic paints. I randomly dabbed Adirondack metallic gold, silver, and copper acrylic paints to the card stock, then I took Distress Crackle Paint in Tarnished Brass and Antiqued Bronze and dabbed it pretty thickly in vein-like patterns in several places. I allowed this to dry completely, then used an ink blending tool and Black Soot DI all over the whole thing to tone it down and make the cracks in the crackle paint stand out. I’ve embellished with some metal flowers I got somewhere. The verse for this layout is, “This is my oath…I pledge it to the end. Why? you may ask. Because you are my friend!”

Let me know what you think!

Mini album, part 8…

Bet you thought I’d forgotten about Roni’s mini-album challenge, didn’t you? Well, I’ve been mulling over the part 8 challenge for a couple of weeks, because I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. The challenge was to use at least three different stamps and at least three different ink colors, not including black. The ink colors weren’t the issue—I couldn’t decide which stamps to use. I finally settled on something the other day when I decided to use the faux bandanna technique for the background. The background image uses three different Stampin’ Up! images stamped with jet black Archival Ink. The background was then colored with Distress Inks in Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, and Forest Moss. Some of the colors weren’t blending as well as I wanted, so I sprayed the whole thing with a generous coating of Wheatfield Glimmer Mist. You may also notice something different about this spread. If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve embellished every page with the same trim. Well, I’m out of it. I went to JoAnn’s last night to see if I could find another spool, and of course they didn’t have any. I search that darned store from end to end hoping I could find some tucked away somewhere—big mistake. I went for a $2 spool of trim that I couldn’t find, but came out $88 broker! How does that happen, anyway???? So, I’ve used some different fibers for embellishment and plan to go back through the other pages and replace some of the other trim with this combination of eyelash yarn and beads strung on hemp. Let me know what you think, and I hope to be back tomorrow with another spread complete, then I’ll be caught up again! Oh—the verse says, “When you fall, I’ll pick you up and dust you off—after I laugh my rear off!”

 

Mini-album, part 7, and GC50…

Let me just start by saying that I don’t like to combine challenges—it feels like cheating to me. So the fact that I’ve combined two here is kind of unusual, but the stars all aligned and it seemed to work. So. The saga of the mini-album challenge posted by Roni over on Ink Stains continues. This week’s verse is, “When you are sick, stay away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.” The challenge was to stamp the background with something other than a stamp. We’ve all experimented with using non-stamps to stamp with but maybe don’t do it on a regular basis, so this was fun. I looked around for some candidates, and this is what I came up with:

There was still some string laying on the table from the string background technique I did a couple of weeks ago, so I wrapped that around an acrylic block. I also found a piece of corrugated cardboard that I tore a layer off, and a wrapper from a fast food spoon.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a pic of the background before finishing the layout, but it turned out pretty well. The string around the block didn’t work very well, so I ended up wadding the string in a glob, pouncing it on the inkpad, and then pouncing on the background. Did the same with the wrapper.

After I had the background done, I started looking through the cowgirl collage images, and none of them really looked sick, although one did look like she had a rough night and could be slightly hung over. That got me to thinking about some bottle caps I had collected several years ago with the intent of making some bracelets, so I went looking for them, which leads beautifully into challenge number 2, GC50—Found Objects! It did take awhile for me to find them, too! So—the bottle caps are the found objects for that challenge. Now—here’s the layout:

I know people usually use the inside of the bottle cap, but these seemed so appropriate, for both the cowgirl theme and the one who looks hung over (she would be on the right). The gal on the left has a bit of a flushed appearance, so I thought she might have a fever—I know, it’s a stretch!! Next time I’ll think these details through a little better!! Anyway, hope you like my stamped-without-a-stamp background and my beer bottle cap flowers—looks like I might need to replenish the bottle cap stash this weekend! LOL

Now I’m going to try again to go to sleep—if this is a menopause symptom, I hope it goes away quick!!!!

Mini-album, part 6…

Well, my lovely, pampering weekend is drawing to a close. I guess I’ll be glad to get back to work tomorrow. To wind up the weekend, I braved the rain we’re having here and went to an outdoor antique fair. The way this particular show is set up, vendors can set up stalls completely outside, or they can rent stalls that are under cover. Unfortunately, the rain kept all but the most hearty away from the outside stalls, but there was plenty to look at in the covered areas. I spent about two and a half hours, but my feet were getting soggy and I was getting a chill since my jeans were soaked halfway to my knees!! So, I came home and started working on part 6 of Roni’s mini-album challenge. The verse this week is, “When you are confused I will use little words.” and the challenge is to use words or alphabet stamps somewhere on the spread. Roni kept her layout to a minimum, and I decided to do the same. I did have some fun with the background, though. If you’re like me, you love poking around in the art supply area at the craft store. I picked up some iridescent medium last week, and decided to play with it on this layout. I made a tissue paper background using the iridescent medium and mini misters with reinkers/water in them (how did I live before I got those things? Love ‘em!) So—here’s the layout. You can really see the iridescence. and that golden glow? Wild Honey Distress ink! This is the first time I’ve used that one, and it is very nice!!

Finally, I want to share a pic of my antiquing goodies with you. Everything I picked up was with crafting in mind, so don’t be surprised to see some of these things show up in future posts.

Nothing was more than $5, so I can’t complain. And before you start scratching your head over the bright, spiky earrings on the left—the first thing I thought of when I saw them was some of the more recent Cosmo Cricket paper lines—the colors will go really well!!!

So, I  hope you had a chance to pamper yourself and recharge your batteries this weekend! 

Mini-album, part 5…

Whoo-hoo!!! I’m caught up! I finally caught up with Roni’s mini album challenge over on Ink Stains. The next part airs tomorrow, so stay tuned!!

The challenge this week was to use recycled items. The only cardstock allowed was on the collage images, and you could use brads and other embellishments that weren’t recycled. Roni’s background for part 5 used torn pieces of an old book. I decided to deviate a little, and use a technique that was a result of a successful experiment a couple of years ago. Plus, it’s green!

This is what I started with:

This is a brown paper bag from Skyline Chili. If you’ve heard of Cincinnati chili, this is what they’re talking about, but that’s for another post!

I actually had two of these—you can’t tell from the picture, but they are the size of a standard lunch sack. I tore off the printing and threw it away, then took the rest of the bag and tore it into irregular pieces. I then wadded each piece up pretty tight to get some texture, and then pulled out a bunch of ink pads. I unscrunched each piece of paper, and roughly rubbed an ink pad over the high spots. Once I had a bunch of these little pieces of paper, I adhered them to the album’s chipboard base with Mod Podge. After it was dry and the edges were trimmed, this is what I ended up with:

I love the look of this. I used this on a composition book a couple of years ago, and it still looks great!

Here’s the completely decorated spread:

And here are the individual pages:

The flowers are also recycled. I used the new Tim Holtz flower die to cut the flowers out of pages from a phone book. I sprayed them with various ink colors (yes, I finally got some mini-misters!), glued together, then dried with the heat gun. Once they were pretty dry, I sprayed them generously with Wheatfield Glimmer Mist, then dried them again. This time, the paper started to get a little “crisp” but the petals started to curl beautifully. I have to say—so far, this is my very favorite spread!!!

I hope you like it and that you like my distressed paper bag background.

Looking forward to the next installment in Roni’s challenge!!

Mini album…

OK—I’m back again today with the first spread of the mini-album I talked about yesterday. Since I was in a pinky frame of mind yesterday (and the pink stuff was already out!) I decided to go with pink for the first spread. Since I’ve never done one of these things before, those who know me well know I’ve been thinking it to death!!! I’ve decided to go with cowgirl images throughout and I picked up some trim at the fabric store a couple of weeks ago that I’m going to use on every spread to tie the whole thing together. Before I show you my spread, I want to talk a little bit about the trim I’m using. I’m sure most of you know this little trick, but for those of you who don’t—I tea dyed the trim to tone down the colors and make it work better with the shabby nature of the album. Here’s a pic:

The trim on the left is straight off the spool, and the trim on the right has spent about 15 minutes in some hot tea. This is my favorite technique for “distressing” fabric-y items.I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since this trim is nylon, but it worked great!!

Now, on to the first spread of the album. Roni used what looked like cheesecloth to add texture to her album. I couldn’t find any at the fabric store, so I picked up some burlap instead. It was a bit of a challenge to work with!!! And once it was adhered with the gesso, it seemed like nothing else would stick to it. I got it eventually, though, and here is the result:

 

Here are the individual pages, if you’re interested.

I may need to embellish some more—let me know what you think! Now I need to get moving on the next verse so I can get caught up! Keep an eye out—maybe I can get that done and uploaded tomorrow night.

Anyway—this is my first foray into the world of collage images—let me know if it looks like I’m doing something wrong. I think I’m going to need all the help I can get with this project!!!!