Create an album with me pt6 - Babushki

 Welcome to my 6th page of Heidi's album! As before, I am using the This & That collection and you can follow all the links to my2angels for all the products I used.

Believe it or not, I started with the sketch from the my2angels blog:

Okay, so it's a little hard to recognise on my layout, but that's the beauty of a sketch, you can change things to suit you. Give it a go, you can win an awesome prize! You have till the end of July.

Yes, you can make an entire album from the collection, plus a bit of cardstock. I used mostly white cardstock for all the background and it's nice to snazz them up a little. Spraying over a template with glimmer mist is a good way and you get all the negative bits coloured. BUT what if you want it the other way around? Here is how:

Spray the template with yellow daisy glimmer mist in an old pizza box (I covered parts of the mask with some spare paper cause I didn't want the whole size), then turn the template over and place it on the cardstock. 

 Careful, you don't get a second go! Press down a little and you get this:

 It gives an interesting, uneven look.

Next, cut out some flowers from one of the patterned papers and glue them along the left side. (For now, don't glue the bottom ones on)

 

 Glue 2 photos together and attach them with tape, but leave the top open. They'll become pockets for the journalling.

To reinforce them a bit, sew along those edges:

Make a thin border and 2 flags from some of the border strips of the patterned paper and glue them under the photos. Bit more sewing? Sure.

 

 I added a sweet little gift charm and a love charm (I cut off the loop with pliers)

Remember on page 2 I had 3 petals of the giant mulberry flower left over? It was already sprayed with yellow glimmer mist and sewn with baker's twine from my previous project. Yup, I can't throw anything away... Well, here it is, tugged under some more flowers.

And here are a few more embellies:

a cute little mushroom charm and some Liquid Pearls (a super saving alternative to stick on pearls) on a swirl from the sticker sheet:

...a mulberry butterfly, again sprayed with with 2 colours of glimmer mist, and a felt heart. You can sew it on or (if you already packed up the sewing machine, like me) staple it down and hide the staple with a pearl. Too easy. 

 Punch a hole in each of the large flowers and put a few stamens in each one. Oh look, another glimmer misted mulberry butterfly, this time green! And a star flower...

 Another thing I love is the baker's twine: just tie a bow and pop it on, perfect for a bit of dimension in small bites.

 Lastly, here are the journalling cards (I haven't written anything yet), they go in the pockets under the photos.

I'll be back next week with the next page. If you have missed the other pages, here are the links: 

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

Cheers, bloggerinos!

Airwalk - a waterfall album

The Tahune Airwalk in Tasmania was one of the highlights of our Tassie trip. My camera didn't do it justice, so what should I do with all these photos that are... well, so-so at best?

A waterfall album is always great for that kind of photos and we'll make this in class next week:

 It works like this. Pull here... 

 ...and the photos start popping up.

 You get the idea. It does look a little like a waterfall, great fun to play with.

 I used 6 half-sized photos, but you could squeeze 11 on. Surely you could round up that many?

By the way, we'll make this green leaf design too (in any colour you want)

My sister's daughter

I thought I knew all about embossing powders, but then I discovered this! Shabby embossing powders by Stampendous... they are devine and you can find them here at my2angels. 

It's all Renee's fault for letting me play with hers cause suddenly I needed some too. 

photo by Ulrike Schmitt-Hartmann

Basically you can achieve in one step what usually takes about 4. The photos don't do it justice!

The colour I used on the swirl is shabby green. As you can see, it's very soft and pastel with some green glitter. 

Normally I would have:

1. Inked the chipboard and embossed 1 coat, heated that

2. Added another coat, heated that

3. Then sprinkled some glitter over it, heated that 

4. And then throw in some larger chunks of gold Utee and heated that again.

Add some frustrated sounds as the glitter goes viral and covers all the wrong areas, including my hair and all my clothes...

Instead all I did was:

1. Ink the chipboard and emboss a thick coat that is sprinkled with glitter and some metallic flecks. Heat and done. Too easy!

On the title I used shabby pink. 

Again, it's very soft and pretty, just perfect for the dreamy photo of my niece. She has featured in a few layouts lately, mainly because she's gorgeous. I used Prima Songbird Zephyr and chipboard pieces. 

Create an album with me - pt 5 Clowns

Welcome to page 5 of my album for Heidi, still using the This & That collection. The links to the other 4 pages are on the bottom of this post.

There was  a time when I wasn't afraid to walk down the street looking like a clown. Yup, that's me in the middle and we were getting ready for a kindy puppet show.

You can find nearly all materials I used at my2angels, just follow the links. 

Pssst: I scraplifted my long walk layout for this page, with a few changes (why re-invent the wheel?)

First, I cut a black cardstock down to 11x11".

I love the Crafter's Workshop templates, they look awesome with glimmer mist, but this time I used it as a stencil with texture paste. Texture paste looks like cake icing (a bit stinky though) and you can colour it with acrylic paint. Whatever texture you give it, this is how it dries. 

I spread it over the cherry blossom template with a butter knife, like this:

 I did this in 3 areas, but each area will need to dry before you go on, so it doesn't smudge. There were a couple of smudges on mine, but you can carefully scrape them off before it dries. Put it in the sunshine or wave a heat gun over it to speed up the drying time. Be careful, too much heat-gunning will make it bubble.

Then I stamped and embossed a few journalling tags to pull the branches together. If you use a lighter background you could skip the embossing.

 One of the papers has a row of circles on it and because I am lazy, I cut them out with the trusty ol' Cuttlebug.

 Then I matted the black cardstock on a red one to get a nice frame and glued the circles over the bottom seam. I also added a title and sewed all around it.

  

 If you use foam Thickers, you can sew right through them:

 The collection comes with a cover page, which isn't really scrap paper quality, but has some fun stripes on it. Waste not, want not - I cut 2 strips (2" and 2 1/2" wide) off and cut the strips into 2" bits.

 I rolled them over a bamboo scewer with a bit of double sided tape (but leave the start of the paper unsticky, so it doesn't stick to the bamboo). 

That will give you 10-12 rolls. If you use thicker paper, the rolls will be wider and you won't need as many. 

 I glued them under the photo and added another cut-out photo to the top:

Then I took a 12" piece of velvet ribbon and sewed a running stitch in a zig-zag line along the whole length (skip a little at the beginning and end). 

 Once the thread tight is pulled tight it makes some pretty ruffles and that gets glued on top of the rolls:

 I coloured 2 white star flowers with glimmer mist and glued a cabochon on top (there are different styles available)

 I like these movie-inspired ones.

 All the little flowers got a rhinestone centre (the easiest way to glue them on is with a dot of Glossy Accents).

 Then I added 2 friends charms. One got a twine bow...

 ...and the other one became part of the journalling:

And that's the whole page! I hope you find some inspiration here.

I'll be back next week with the next page. If you have missed the other pages, here are the links: 

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

Cheers, bloggerinos!

Natural Beauty

Somehow I have a thing for diagonals at the moment. Look what we'll do in class next week!

photos by Ulrike Schmitt-Hartmann

Too bad the weather is terribly grey and dark today, I couldn't take a good photo. But if you look in real life, you'll see that there is lots of metallic shimmer here and there.

First we'll make our own metallic paint, it looks like gold leaf. You can do silver or bronze too.

The background has those shimmery leaves on it (looks really good in better light). 

I love rosettes and this one started out as a fence! 

Cheers!

Create an album with me pt 4

Here is my 4th page for Heidi's album. I am including all instructions so you can make one too! I am using the beautiful This & That collection from Echo Park and embellishments from my2angels to make a whole album with lots of photos and hidden journalling. If you have missed the first 3 pages, find the links at the end of this post.

So, this is my latest page, all about the summer festivals we used to visit in Russia. Russians love these festivals and they happen all summer long, all over the place. They will camp out in the forests and there is lots of music everywhere. It is such a wonderful, friendly atmosphere and it's ok to just sit down at anyone's tent and start singing with them. We used to joke that the camp food was full of vitamin D (dirt), cause it's all cooked over the campfire and out in the open. Still, it was yum.

The front photo is one of my favourites taken at a festival. It's awesome how even older people join in and don't you just love the look on the left man's face! Makes you wonder what was going on between those 3...

The photo mat flips out to reveal 5 more photos, like this.

It's very easy to do and you can make yours as long as you want, in case you have a lot more photos to add.

 I cut 2 strips from white cardstock: 4 1/4 x 12" and glued them into  one long strip and scored the strip every 6 1/4".

I inked it all so you can see it better. Fold it like a zig-zag.You can also tell that I had made a couple of mistakes when I folded it all, but no worries, it will be hidden. The last, shorter section will be for gluing and journalling.

Now add your photos on both sides (it holds 6 photos of 4x6") and a little tab to open it. Remember, you can make it longer to hold more photos.

For the background cut 3 flags (3x8" each) with a swallow tail at the bottom. Also cut a mat (4 1/2 x 9 3/4") and ink everything before sticking it down. Distress Stains come in a bottle and make a quick job of inking. The walnut colour is my favourite, it goes with absolutely everything. The white background is inked too, but I couldn't fit it into the photo.

Now add your photo strip by gluing on the smallest section only. 

 Let it sits in the middle when it's closed, like this:

Add an inked flag strip (cut it out from one of the papers of the collection) and glue a tiny doily with a resin flower on each of the 3 big flags. I have a die that cuts these doilies, but you could punch some or use plain circles too.

You can make rolled flowers from a spiral. I borrowed a friend's die, but you can do this with edge scissors. Start with a 4" circle and cut in a spiral so it looks roughly like this:

 Start rolling from the outside. It won't look too hot at this stage, but keep going.

Roll until you get to the circle in the middle. 

 Now put lots of glue on that circle and glue the flower on it. Let it spring open a little.

 I made a little cluster on the left of the photo. There is also a date pin (coloured in, so it would stand out), a guitar and a music charm, held in place with some brads and some mini leaves.

On the other side of the photo you'll find a felt heart and some star flowers with brads. I like the flowers best in white, because then I can colour them as I go with glimmer mist. And yes, there is a tiny lantern charm, too cute!

A round sticker, cut in half, hold down the ends of the flag strip and some letter stickers on the flags are the title.

Now write some stuff on the flap of the photo strip. 

Done!

If you have missed the other pages, here are the links: 

part 1

part 2

part 3

Cheers, bloggerinos!