Box to Hold a Mini Album and Smash Book

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'd like to show you the box I constructed to hold a travel mini and a smash book I'm putting together to hold photos and mementos from our New Zealand Cruise.

I got the idea for the box from Astrid MacLean at Astrid's Artistic Efforts.   You can find her blog HERE.  She has lots of wonderful creations to inspire you.

 

I constructed the box from 2ml thick card which I purchased from my Newsagent.  It's much like chipboard but it's covered with white paper and it's quite cheap.  You can get a huge sheet of it for just a couple of dollars.  After putting the box together I covered it with G45 paper from their Communique collection and edged it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I love this paper, the colours are so gorgeous and it has so much detail on it that I didn't have to do any stamping.

The vintage map and the Tikis are free images from the net.  The Tikis I printed to the size I needed, fussy cut them and mounted them on the same card that the box is made of to give them extra dimension.  The map is just mounted on a tag tied with a piece of the gorgeous ribbon I received from Sandie Edwards.  You can find her blog and more wonderful inspiration  HERE.  The  Title was cut from black cardstock using my Silhouette Portrait.

The larger flowers I used are from Kaisercraft, which were lightly edged with gesso, and the smaller roses are from Prima.  I placed them on a piece of gauze which was randomly coloured with Vintage Paper Distress Ink.  The leaves I've had in my stash for some time and the small gold spirals were made from some long stamen pieces that I found at one of our cheap outlets.

The 'Tattoo' was another free image from the net.  With the image I was able to make a cutting file for my Silhouette Portrait so it was really easy to cut out the shapes.  (I love this machine, it is so versatile.)  Once the Tattoo was glued to the box I went around it with a soft black pen to blur the edges a little.

More images from the net.  Printed to size, fussy cut, mounted on some card and edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I really enjoyed putting this box together and it was so simple.  I've also made another smaller one to hold some tags and I've taken photos along the way so I'll do a post on that shortly.

Here is the box with the Mini Album and the Smash Book inside it.
Now I really need to get serious about sorting out the photos and mementos to finish off these books.   I have started, but it's a slooow process. 

Thank you so much for visiting and have a great 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