Altered Box for Meg's Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So nice of you to stop by.

Hope your day is going well and that the weather is being kind to you.

We are getting the most wonderful rain in Adelaide at the moment.  It has been coming down steadily since yesterday morning and, apparently, there is a whole lot more on the way.  I absolutely love it.  It's coming down nice and steady and everything smells and looks so fresh and new. We really needed it too.  It is wonderful!!

I have a new project up on the blog at Meg's Garden.  It is a small altered box and here is a little sneaky peek for you.

For more piccies and all the details please visit Meg's Garden Blog HERE and perhaps, leave a little comment there as well.  That would be lovely and much appreciated..

Thank you so much for visiting.

Take care and God Bless!!

oxox Marg

Baby Steps Mini Album

Hello everybody.  I hope you are all having a fabulous day.

I'd like to show you the Baby Album I spoke of a few posts ago.  A close friend's daughter is having a baby and I made this for her.  I must warn you this is quite a large post with a lot of photos.
This album was made using Kathy Orta's All  Occasions Mini Album Tutorial.  If you wish to have a look at the album she made  you can find it HERE.

The papers I used are from the Baby Steps Collection by Simple Stories.  These are gorgeous papers with lots of bits and pieces to fussy cut and lots of really cute little phrases as you can see above.  Instead of using cardstock I covered the spine with some cotton twill which I purchased at Spotlight.

This is the inside cover and the first page.  The cute little teddy bear is an applique which I found  at Big W and the little jumpsuits and the pram are images fussy cut from the paper line. 
The inside cover opens out to reveal some photo mats....

....and a spot to record the baby's birth details.

Pages 3 and 4.

On the left hand page you can see two photo mats held in the book by a heart shaped paper clip.  The mats are tucked into a pocket formed by the little sleeve which holds the journalling tag.

On the right hand page there are two more photo mats tucked into the pockets.

See what I mean about the gorgeous papers?  Lots of details and cute little phrases.

Pages 5 and 6.

In between these two pages you can see one of the little half page pockets that are in this book.
I love this feature, it's one of the reasons I decided to buy this tutorial.

There is a photo mat inside the pocket but I'm thinking about making some small envelopes instead so that she can perhaps place things in it like the first haircut or other memorabilia.   I don't have much time to decide though because the baby was due yesterday.  LOL

Here is the photo mat from the pocket on the other page .....

Pages 7 and 8.
This set of pages holds the other half page pocket.  This one is set a bit lower in the book...

...and also holds a photo mat.

These are the mats from the larger pockets.

Pages 9 and 10.

Each even numbered page has pockets which hold photo mats.  On some, both pockets are the full height of the page, but on a couple the pocket is smaller.

 Most of the photo mats I made are folded over so there is room inside them for more photos.
Last page and inside back cover.

Not a lot here, just a pocket on the inside cover for a mat.
When I first started this album I had great plans for lots of embellishments.  I was going to use bits of lace and nappy pins and little bibs and lots and lots of flowers.  But, as they say, the best laid plans of mouse and men, etc.  I wasn't able to do much of anything because when I finished the book I found it only just fit into the box I had made previously.  So I was really lucky that the papers do stand up all on their own and it didn't really need too much extra stuff.
In case you haven't seen it, here is the box I altered to place the album in.

If you'd like to take a look at the post for this box you can find it HERE.

That's all from me for now.  Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
ox Marg

 

Altered Tissue Box Cover

Hello everyone.  So glad you're here for a visit.

I'd like to show you a tissue box cover that I altered a little while ago.  I had a Kaisercraft Tissue Box in my stash and decided to pretty it up.  It's not elaborate so it  didn't take a lot of time to do but I'm quite pleased with the result.

 For this project I used paper from Kaisercraft's Sweet Nothings Collection ( love that bird cage ).    I cut a piece from Kaisercraft's gate flourish and glued that to the side. I didn't bother colouring it because I felt it looked fine as is.

 I've had the little roses for quite some time so I'm not sure where they are from, I think  they might be Prima, but again I'm not sure. 

 The spiral stems were originally straight, I just twisted them around an old paint brush to get the spiral and the leaves were cut with a punch from EK Success.

This side I just left plain.  All I did was edge the paper with Versa Color Umber.  All the papers are done  the same.

The next side was covered with a different design from the same paper collection.

 The butterfly is another wooden piece from Kaisercraft and, again, I left it bare and just placed the flat back pearls on the wings.  I did edge it slightly with Versa Color Umber.

This flower is from Prima ( I'm pretty sure it is ), the spirals are the same as on the other side and the greenery was punched out with Martha Stewart's Branch Punch.

 This side was also left plain.

The hole at the top of the cover was edged with some dusky pink braid.

And there you have it.  My altered tissue box cover. 

 The reason I made it with two slightly different colour-ways is because, it sits on a shelf in the corner so you only get to see two sides at a time and, when I get tired of looking at one side I simply turn it around and get a new perspective.  I must admit though, I do prefer the bird cage side.

Thank you once again for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of the day.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

Altered Book Box

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.   

It's been a little while since I did a post so I'd like to show you a book box I've altered.

A very close friend's daughter is having a baby and I'm making a mini album for her which I am placing into this box.  The mini is still a work in progress but the box is done.

The paper collection I'm using is Baby Steps from Simple Stories.

Here is the original box.

 

 I purchased it from one of our cheapie outlets ( I think it was Ned's ) and all I had to do was re-cover it with my selected papers. 

 

In this paper collection there are a lot of different tags and on one of them was this little banner so I cut out the letters, glittered the edges and then attached them to a piece of twine. But it didn't stand out enough from the cover so I decided they needed to be matted.  I cut some white cardstock to size and glued them onto that.  I then attached them to the front with pop dots to give them a bit more dimension.

 

The bird cage and bird are from Scrapmatts.  I painted both with Paint Daubers in white and glittered the birdcage completely.  For the little bird, I inked the edges with Versa Color Cinnamon and then glittered the wings and the tail  and also a little around the edge.  I colored his/her eye with a blue Texta.

The flowers are a mix of Prima and Kaisercraft and the little white berries and the white flower with the pearl stamens are from Magnolia Ink.  I trimmed the hooks off some heart charms I had in my stash and glued them on with 

Helmar glue.

  The leaves  are pieces I cut from a larger velvet leaf that I also had in my stash.

The lace came from my stash.  I cannot remember where it's from which is a shame because I love it and would like to get some more.

 

I also trimmed the hook from this little bear charm before attaching it to the bow.

I really like this paper collection.  It has some pink and blue but it's really not gender specific, and it's pretty without being too over the top.  There are some really cute tags and sayings with it as well which will make it easier to decorate the album.

So, there you have it, the box is ready to go, now I just have to finish the album.  The baby is not due until February so I still have plenty of time.

Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care and God Bless and
 wishing everyone all the best for 2013.
oxox Marg

Trinket Boxes

Hello everyone!  Thought I'd show you some little trinket boxes I altered for the girls in our family.  I made three altogether and they are pretty much the same, just different colours.  The papers are out of my stash, I've had them for quite a while and don't remember where most of them came from.

For the top of each box I die cut some swirls and leaves, then added a mix of  flowers. Some are Kaisercraft, some are Prima and others are from my stash.

This first one was for my granddaughter so it had to be pink of course. I added a few gems to the swirls and also added a little heart charm.

 I glued some lace around the bottom and added more flowers and a Doohickey butterfly.

I also lined the inside of the boxes which finished them off quite nicely.

  This one was for my Daughter-in-law. Decorated pretty much the same except I added a gem sprig which is a bit hard to see on this photo.

I used Craft Smart craft glue to glue all the papers down. It's not the strongest glue around but works very well for this purpose.

  

  Last but not least is the one for my second Daughter-in-law. She loves steam punk so I used some Graphic 45 paper for the top and, although the box is certainly not steam punk, the paper lends itself quite nicely to the more girly look. I added some gem sprigs to this one as well.

As I said, they are all decorated very much the same just with different colours.  Luckily they were all well received.

Just a quick thank you to Diana's Creations for the images I have used as dividers and footer and also to Sweetly Scrapped for the welcome sign at the top.

That's all for now.  Thank you so much for visiting. Take care and God Bless.

xx Marg