Mini Album using Kaisercraft Papers

Hello sweet friends and welcome to my blog.

My oldest grandson celebrated his 18th Birthday not long ago and, instead of a Birthday Card, I decided to make a Mini Album so he would have somewhere to keep the photos taken at his Birthday party.

Here is the front cover.  

Some of you may recognise the centre piece.  I did a post on my first attempt at Mixed Media and this is the actual piece from that project.  

Yes, I chopped it up and re-used the main piece here.  I wanted cogs in the middle of this cover and could not get any in the size I wanted.  Then I realized the centrepiece from my Mixed Media Collage would fit beautifully.  I didn't even cry when I cut it apart.  Hey!! It's for my Grandson, right?  Anyway, I really like it here.  The little hinges are wooden embellishments also from Kaisercraft.

Page 1 &2

The papers I used for this album is a mixture from Kaisercraft.  I used some from their 75 cent Collection and some also from their Timeless Classics paper pad, plus an odd piece or two from other collections as well.

The pocket on the inside front cover holds the tag  I made for his Birthday Greeting.  The embellies on this tag follow the theme from the album cover.  The idea for this tag came from a You Tube Video by Rach0113.  You can find it HERE.  I used a piece of kraft cardstock and cut out the tag shape and then used black cardstock for the corner pieces.  I embossed the black with the Tim Holz Cogs Folder and then lightly rubbed over the raised sections with Versa Color Stamp Pads in Bronze, Silver and Gold.  The cogs were colored the same way.  The little clock  was fussy cut from another set of papers, glued onto one of the cogs and then covered with glossy accents.  His Birthday message is actually on the back of the tag.

 The right hand page opens up to reveal ...

... there are quite a few pockets and tags in this album.  I wanted to give him plenty of spaces for his photos.

Pages 3 & 4

 The right hand page here opens one way to reveal ...

 ... and then opens the other way as well.  ( A sheet of Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings paper found its way in here too. )

Pages 5 & 6

 

 Again, the right hand page opens to reveal ...

... I've only used two styles of pages in this book.  One opens once like this page, and the other style opens twice.

Pages 7 & 8

All of the left hand pages are void of pockets to give him space for large photos if he wants.

 This is the style that opens twice.  One way it opens out from the book ...

 ... and the other way it opens into the book.

Pages 9 & 10

The inside back cover has a single pocket just like the inside front cover.

I love making mini albums.  It's a lot of fun deciding how to construct it and what style pages to use and then to decide which papers are the most suitable.  I don't use a lot of embellishments in my albums, mainly because it does inhibit the placement of photos, etc. but I do love a lot of tags for journalling.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.  I hope you've enjoyed it and will decide to come again.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

 

 

 

Washi Tape and a little bit of Texture.

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I've probably said this before but, usually, when I make a card I know pretty much what design and embellishments I wish to use, but with this card it kind of happened bit by bit.

 

 I've had a die cut of a tattered clock in my stash for quite a while but never really found the right place to use it.  I usually found something else which was more appropriate.  Then I saw a tutorial by Gabrielle Pollaco where she used one of her flourishes as a mask and decided I wanted to give that a go.  So I placed the clock on a piece of white cardstock and inked over it with a Versa Color stamp pad in Cinnamon and really liked the result.
( Unfortunately I can't find the tutorial but HERE is the link to Gabrielle's Blog if you wish to have a look. )

Then I went to look for a piece of lace and found my Washi Tape.  I really liked the colours and the text on it so decided to use that instead.

 I did a little bit of doodling ( inspiration by Heather Jacob, although you can't see it too well here ) and also some stamping around the edge of the cardstock ( inspiration by Sandie Edwards ).  I then distressed the edges and mounted it on a deep grey card base.  Then I had to decide what embellishments to use and, of course, chose flowers.  ( Loooove my flowers.  LOL )  These flowers are mostly Kaisercraft but there are a couple of small Prima ones in there as well. 

I felt the centre was a bit bare so I added the chipboard tag.  I also added the small pearls and some tiny dragonflies to the cluster to fill it in a bit and used some liquid pearls to decorate the tag.
I used some texture paste and a template to add a little extra interest to the sides of the card and peeled back the cardstock to add  a dragonfly in the corner.

As I said before, this card came together bit by bit.  Each time I added an element something else came to  mind.  I'm quite happy with the result.

That's all for now lovely people.
Thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Photos of New Zealand

Hello everyone.  Welcome to my little blog.

I've finally sorted through a few of the photos we took on our trip to New Zealand so I wanted to give you guys a little taste.  Let me just say, if you ever get the opportunity to go there, don't hesitate.  It is a beautiful country and we loved every minute of our trip.  Unfortunately our photos don't do it justice, but hopefully you'll get a small idea of what it's like.

 This is Tauranga a lovely town.  For those of you who are Lord of the Rings fans, we did a tour to Hobbiton from here and I might do a separate post about that.  It was a great experience. 

 

Next was Napier. 

Can you imagine the spectacular view the owners of this house has?  Scary though.

 This is a small park just on the edge of the shopping precinct.  It was really lovely.

Napier was rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1930's.  The buildings are all Art Deco and they are very vintage oriented here.  We had a tour of the town in this vintage car.  It was fabulous.

 This photo was taken as we left that evening.  Can't see much of the town but the sunset was spectacular.

 Here is Wellington taken from the cable car ....

 .... and from the Harbour.

 Now to Akaroa.  This is a gorgeous little french style fishing village.  We could have gone on the bus to Christchurch from here, but I'm glad we didn't because those who did go said it was very sad as most buldings haven't yet been restored from the terrible earthquakes they had here a couple of years ago.

 This is the bank with the church behind it...

... this gorgeous little building is a library...

... and here is the waterfront.

Our last landfall was Dunedin.  This park is gorgeous...

 ... and so is this church.  There are some really beautiful buldings here.

 We did the excursion to Taieiri Gorge on the train and here are a couple of shots we took on the way.

 

 Such spectacular scenery.  It was a great experience.

 Last, but certainly not least, is the cruise through the Fjordlands.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Isn't it awesome?  It is very humbling going through these fjords.  You really can see and feel God's hand in this place.  It kind of  hits home how small and insignificant we really are. 

Well, that was the end of our trip.  Sorry it's such a huge post but this is only a tiny sampling of the photos we took.  We actually have over 500 of them.  Yaaach!!  I've now got to sort out the ones I want to put in the album I made.  Gives me a headache just thinking about it.  LOL.

Thank you so much for visiting today.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

My First Mixed Media Collage.

Hello everyone.  Welcome to my blog.

I thought I would share with you my first attempt at a Mixed Media Collage.

 It didn't quite turn out how I envisaged it.  I originally made this for my Grandson's 18th Birthday Card.  His favourite colours are green and black.  I actually wanted the black to start in the lower left hand corner and then to  blend in with the green and gold across the page.  As you can see, that's not how it ended.  You would be amazed, I think, if you knew how many times I gessoed this and then started again.  I think it must have at least 5 or 6 coats of paint on it.  LOL.  I started off with tissue paper and once that was glued down and dried, I added some gauze for extra texture. I then coated it all with gesso for the first time.

I then added some bits of string before attaching the cogs and small screws.

I also glued on some beads and spacers.

Here is a close-up view of the main cluster of cogs.

Again, I added a few beads and spacers and some more screws.

After painting and gessoing and painting and gessoing a few times (I didn't actually count how many) I decided it needed more texture so I hit it randomly with some texture paste.  Gessoed it AGAIN and painted it AGAIN.  (Sigh) ... (Deeper Sigh) LOL

You can see more of the texture in this corner here.

I've allowed some of the metal to show through the paint as well, as you can see above.

The black paint I used is my Acrylic Paint Dabber which I actually brushed on.  The final green coat is Viva Precious Metal in Olive and the Gold is also Viva Precious Metal in Orange Yellow.  I also put a little of the green in a sprayer mixed with a little water and dribbled it onto the page.

In reality, the piece is not quite as dark as it appears in these photos. 

Not sure what I'm going to do with this now as I have actually decided to make a mini album for my Grandson's Birthday so he'll have somewhere to keep all the photos he'll get from his party. 

I have to say though, even if it didn't turn out quite how I wanted it, and even though I've whinged about how often I had to re-do it, I actually had a great deal of fun making this.  I just hope I haven't put anyone else off from giving it a go.  I'll probably hang on to this just as a show and tell piece, and I'm definitely going to try it again, but this time with pretty colours and lots of flowers. YES!!!!

Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

God Bless.

oxox Marg