Recycled Book Christmas Frame with Tutorials

When my friend Rina sent me the link a couple of days ago to Trina McClune showcasing the gorgeous altered book she did for PAPERHAUS Magazine, I was totally smitten and couldn't wait to try my hand at something similar!

I decided to go with a Christmas version of her beautiful creation. What do you think? Wouldn't this look gorgeous sitting on your shelf this Christmas with a favorite family photo in it?

I'd like to share a tutorial with you on how I made this lovely keepsake.

WARNING!!!! This post is photo heavy!!!!

First I started with an old Reader's Digest condensed novel/book but any thick book will do.
I began by drawing my opening size on the front cover {mine is approximately 4"x6"}. I first cut through the cover with an exacto knife and a metal ruler.

After cutting through the cover I traced around the opening with a pencil onto the first layer of pages. Open the cover and with the exacto knife and ruler and start working your way down through the pages to a depth of about 3/4" deep.

 

I then rubbed some sandpaper over the inside edges to smooth away some ragged bits.

Next I adhered all the pages and the cover together with ModgePodge...I didn't do every single layer ..probably every six or seven pages.

 I then sealed all the paper edges with a generous coating of Modgepodge. I laid another book on top of it and went to make supper while it dried {what can I say...the natives were hungry!}.

After everything was dry, I painted the entire thing with a layer of gesso. I did the inside edges with a coat but only lightly washed the front facing page so that some of the text still showed through.{I noticed after I had glued the pages together that my facing page was from a murder story and all the talk was of guns lol..hardly great text for a Christmas project :) }.

I then painted all the outside with brown acrylic paint {I know, I know..the book was brown to start with but I wanted to cover up the titles on the spine}. So while all this was drying, I made my flowers to decorate the front. I used three poinsettias and five roses and a whole bunch of holly leaves . I cut the leaves on my Cricut with the Child's Year cartridge. Unfortunately, the leaves are cut out in  one piece that entails four leaves so I had to individually cut the leaves apart..I used a dotted green cs from Bazzil for the leaves and then inked all the edges with Distress Ink in Forest Moss. Onto the flowers...

I used a Lily Punch Bunch and Cherry Cobbler cs from Stampin ' Up. You will need five of each size petal. I used the two smaller petals for these poinsettias....

I inked the edges of the petals with Distess Ink "Aged Mahogany" and then I spritzed them with a homemade mist {five drops of Scattered Straw re-inker plus a little scoop of bronze Perfect Pearls and then fill the rest of the mini mister with water}. If you don't have any mist then just dampen the pieces with water. While wet, I crumpled them together lenghtwise and left them to dry.

When petals are dry, punch a 1" circle from the red cs and then assemble as follows:

First lay down a blob of hot glue {or liquid glue - it's your preference} in  the center of punched 1" circle. Add the larger five petals in a star shape. 

Add another blob of glue to the center and then layer the smaller five petals on the first layer, staggering the petals compared to the bottom, like so.....

Finish with a blob of Glossy Accents {or liquid glue of choice} in the center and sprinkle on some multi colored beads. I used a brown/gold mixture that I found at Wal Mart.

The white roses are my version of Vicky Alberto's sugarplum flowers. Click on her name and it will take you to her beautiful tutorial on how to make these sweet little rose type flowers.
I finished mine off by touching the flower edges with liquid glue and dipping them in a very fine gold glitter....

You will need to make five of these roses.

The reindeer was cut using this gorgeous Tim Holtz die.

 I actually cut out several with  different color inks {Prima music stamp on white cs} and facing both directions but eventually settled on a reindeer in red Cherry Cobbler from Stampin' Up and facing the left. Ink the edges of the reindeer with Distress ink "Vintage Photo" and finish with a bow tied around his neck. I used a 1/8 wide ribbon in brown from Offray.

OK... Let's start the assembling....

Adhere the reindeer to the right hand side of book and then cut a scrap of brown cs into a right angle and adhere to the left land side of the book. This will be your support base for the flower spray.

The first poinsettia is actually only partially on the brown support with the rest extending over the opening. I stacked a few pop dots underneath to support it. Stay close to the support as you want to be able to slip your photo in here when you are finished.

Add the next pointsetta here:

Using a pop dot, add the third poinsetta in the corner, raising it above the rest. Now fill in with four roses as demonstrated in photo.

 

Now fill in amongst the flowers with a combo of the two sizes of holly leaves.

 

 

Finshing touches.....

I glued a string of pearls around the edge of the opening, tucked in two Maya road heart pins, and added a single rose and two leaves in the upper rt hand corner. I totally forgot to take photos of the banner as I was making it {it was sort of an after thought}. The letters are 3/4" upper case from A Child's Year cartridge and the little banner pieces were cut free hand. I added them with pop dots and then finished with red pearls in the corners of the banner. A 3 1/2" x 5" photo would fit this opening best.

 

 

 

 I will be offering this class here in my home in early December. I can accomodate four crafters. First come, first serve!

 

Thanks for popping by today. Have a great day. Now I'd better get my arse in gear and get started on my Christmas cards! Toodles!

 

A wedding Card and a Quick Idea for Keeping Track of Inks

A couple of weeks ago ,our family celebrated the wedding of the first "Grandchild" with the marriage of my niece, Ali to her sweet hubby, Ian.

 

 

It was a gorgeous September day...perfect for a fall wedding. A great big congrats to the happy couple!!! Ali and Ian's colors were purple and orange and everything was absolutely gorgeous . Her aunt, Janet Tucker, owner of COUNTRY FLOWERS here in Corner Brook, did her decorating and all her floral work and I have to say it was all breathtaking!

 

In keeping with their colors , I made this wedding card...

 

 

Here's a quick tutorial on how I made this card.

 

 

I started with a 51/2 "x 51/2" square card stock base . I then cut a 5"x5" piece of white cs and ran it through my CuttleBug to emboss it using the Brocade folder. Next I used a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set in "Swirling Lace " to punch a square border. Edges were inked with "Perfect Plum' from Stampin' Up.This was adhered to the base card.

Next I cut a strip of white cs approx 2.25" x 5" and punched the edges of both sides withStampin' Up's scallop edge punch and then cut a notch in one end.

 

 

 I thought it needed a little something else so I used my paper trimmer and a stylus as a quick scoring tool { I was too lazy to go dig out the proper scorer...but hey, it worked really well! }.

 

 

 

I then inked the edges with Perfect Plum SU ink and stamped the word "LOVE"  using a really old set of alpha stamps that I think were Recollections from Michael's. Set aside.

 

 

Now comes the fun part ...making the leaves and flowers. I used two stamp sets from HEARTFELT CREATIONS ...  some leafy swirls and another called Daisy Patch. I stamped two sets of leaves on white cs with the Perfect Plum ink and several sets of the daisy patch as I wanted to layer them for dimension. Unfortunately , these were older sets that didn't have the matching Spellbinders die cuts { which are so awesome BTW!} so I had to fussy cut everything...tedious lol.

 

 

 

 

{Yes I cut off the swirls...I'm not a total masochist!}

 

 

and here's the flowers after they've been fussy cut and adhered in layers...

 

The variations in color were created by just swiping the inked sponge over the stamped images until I was happy with the density of color...word to the wise ...add this color BEFORE you attempt to fussy cut them!

Now add a blob of Glossy Accents { or other suitable liquid glue } and pour on the micro beads!

 

 

and leave them to dry!

 

As a last little touch I used the Martha Stewart three butterfly punch on a scrap of white cs that I just dabbed some Perfect Plum ink on.

 

 

 

Now for the assembling.....

 

Run the "Love" strip through your fingers to give it a little curve. adhere to bottom of card as shown. Proceed to build the flower spray on the rt hand side . Add pearl bling as shown on card.

 

 

 

I'd like to show you one more quick idea for your inks. I like to have these tabs to hold against a paper I'm working with to find the closest match...rather than drag out all my inks. I can't take credit for this idea as such and I apologize to whoever came up with it. I've been using this for several years but can't remember the source...so if it's you, then congrats for coming up with such a brilliant idea.

 

 

I cut 2" tags out of white card stock using my Cricut { Storybook cartridge I think}. I actually did several 12 x12 sheets of cs while I was at it{ lots of spares for when I buy a new color rather than drag it all out again! }. I label each tag as I apply color from my ink pad and then dip the bottom half in clear embossing powder..that way I know what the color looks like embossed too....

 

 

 

I keep each brand { ie Tim Holtz Distress inks, Stampin' Up inks etc} on a separate binder ringer. I'm also a tad OCD and like to follow the ROY G BIV rule of colors so the binder rings make it easy to insert a new color in its rightful place on my ring.

 

 

Can I just add one more quick little thing? Of course I can....it's my blog! I'd like to wish a GREAT BIG HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY to my dear daughter, Chelsea. Here she is sampling her first "legal" alcoholic beverage this evening at Jungle Jim's { drinking age is 19 here in NFLD}.

 

 

 and here's the card I made for her using the gorgeous G45 Ladies Diary pps that came in my Sept SCRAPTHAT kit...

 

 

PHEW!!!! Looooong post ! That's it for me tonight. Thanks for popping by. Toodles!

 

 

Frances -Sept Sketchy Challenge

How can it possibly be almost the middle of September all ready???? I'm sure July 1st was only last week! Don't you find that June and July just meander along but August goes by in a snap?

So here we are already half way into the September Sketchy Challenge over at CANADIAN SCRAPBOOKER . Check out the gorgeous sketch by Sue Sykes .

 

and here's my take on this month's sketch...

 

 

This is my lovely mother-in-law, Frances { She'd probably kill me if she saw this page posted here}. Frances HATES getting her photo taken and usually hides when she sees the camera. This beautiful photo of her was taken several years ago at her 50th wedding anniversary party. Photo by her son, Don Marks.  I tucked a little journal note in behind the photo that says " I could never make mother-in-law jokes about Frances. She's a wonderful, loving lady. " and she truly is .

 

I absolutely loved these Shabby Love papers from Harmonie - a great Canadian company! I picked them up last year in Edmonton when I was visiting KELLY . A trip of a lifetime that coincided with Canadian Scrapbooker 's annual Carnival...which, BTW is going on in Edmonton again this coming weekend. Sooooo disappointed to not be there this year but I think my niece, Ali's wedding this weekend is a tad bit more important! Family first!

 

Thought I'd share a brief little tutorial on how I did the floral chippie piece for this LO. My flower chippie is actually from Dusty Attic, but Harmonie does have a very similar piece. I'm creating this tut as an afterthought so I don't have a photo of a couple of steps ...bear with me! 

 

 

This chipboard piece is an open style and I started by laying the plain piece on pink cs and lightly tracing out the center shapes.

 

 

 

Next I applied a mix of Vintage Velvet, Spun Sugar and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks with a Q-tip. I wasn't really particular about this step just sorta smeared it on .

 

 

              Then I cut out the shape and erased all the pencil lines.

I don't have a photo to demonstrate { remember this was after the fact} but I had already painted the actual chipboard piece with a layer of white acrylic paint and then painted the leaves with a mix of two different greens { I knew holding on to all those tole paint supplies would come in handy one day!}.

I inked the outside edge of the flower with Aged Mahogany......

 

Finally , I laid the chippie piece down on my inked pink cs and proceeded to fill in all the gaps with Ranger's Glossy Accents { I looooove that stuff!}. I left it to dry overnight as I had a fairly thick layer of Glossy Accents on it.

 

 

 and viola! pretty custom accent.

 

 

 

 Well that's it for me tonight my friends. Must go batten down the hatches as Hurricane Leslie is fast approaching the island. All schools in Newfoundland have already decided to close tomorrow as a safety measure.Smart move me thinks! Hopefully there won't be too much flooding ....Yuck!

You still have lots of time, so why don't you skip on over to Canadian Scrapbooker and give their sketchy challenge a go. And while you're busy blog hopping check out KELLY"S new GORGEOUS fall LO and tutorial that she posted today using Bo Bunny's  Apple Cider paper line.. Soooo many gorgeous little details! Thanks for popping by! Toodles!

Happy Retirement Chris and the Anatomy of a Card

Well June 29 th has finally arrived and it's a bittersweet day at my Dialysis unit. After many, many years as a nurse, my boss, Christine, has retired. She had a fabulous send off with lots of presents, cards and well wishes for the future.

 Of course I couldn't let an event like this go by without making some little gift to commemorate it...here's a pic of the framed LO I gave her today.

There's a bit of a story behind this photo. Christine is actually an English lady and though she's been in Canada for many years now, she still holds her native land and the Royal family in high regard. { and yes,her nickname at work is MOTHER!} . Chris was all excited about the upcoming nuptuals between Prince William and Kate Middleton { obviously this was last year}. My co-worker , Carolyn got the brilliant idea that we should make Chris a fancy hat to wear while she was watching the wedding! So we took a facepan, covered it with a lovely blue linen saver and tied a ribbon of medical gauze around it. I then proceeded to make some pink roses from our disposable paper washclothes , and cut green leaves from the back of an x-ray requistion form. See how handy my scrapbooking skills are in real life!!!  We brought Chris into the center of our unit { the better to expose her to EVERYONE ---  patients and all }  and sat her down . We then made a little speech about the royal wedding, her english roots, blah blah blah...and presented her with her lovely wedding hat and a matching set of blue latex free gloves{ can't go to a royal wedding without your gloves!}. Chris is such a good sport! She loved her wedding attire and more than willingly posed  with a teacup for a photo. I really wanted to use this photo  for my goodby gift...and many thanks to Regina  for A} taking the photo to begin with and B} sending me ANOTHER copy of it last night when I was all in a panic because Rob had revamped my computer and I couldn't find the photo anywhere! BTW, the little limerick down in the corner reads:
        " From across the pond,Christine once came,
           English nurse was her claim to fame.
           There'll never be another
           Like our dear Mother
           And dialysis will never be the same."

And of course I had to make a homemade card to go with my gift. I'm currently involved with a card swap over at Crop Circles ... a Facebook group of Nfld girls . We had to make 18 identical cards to exchange. This design is what I came up with ...so I made one extra and just swapped out the "On Your Special Day " sentiment for "Happy Retirement".
 So here's the card:

and here's a quick little photo tutorial on how I made it.

Here are all my beginning pieces:

 The leaves were stamped on white cardstock with Versamark watermark ink using my all time fav leaf stamp from Heartfelt Creations , then sprinkled with clear emboss powder and heat set. I then rubbed in distress ink in "Shabby Shutters". Then I wiped the leaves with a paper towel thus removing the ink form the embossed areas and creating this pretty white and green leaf.

The banner pieces were punched using this awesome punch from Stampin' Up.

The punched egde center strip is also from Stampin' Up and the butterflies are from  Martha Stewart using this triple punch that I picked up recently.

The flower was made by first embossing a scrap of pink paper with the "Textile' folder and my Cuttle bug.

I then punched two circles , 1.5" and 2" and cut them as follows:

These are very similiar to the Tim Holtz Tattered flowers die cuts.  I then rounded them by cupping them in my hand and pressing the rounded edge of a paper piercer into it and then used the pointy end
to roll the edges. Add a little ink in colour of your choice  to the petal edges. Glue together , alternating the petals and finish with a pearl in the center.

 Start by adding your punched and inked edge strip to the bottom third of your card. Draw the black line around the perimeter of the card next { it actually added a lot to the card and helped to draw the eye in}. Now add one branch of the leaves to the rt hand side of the card and top with your handmade flower. Cut the other leaves apart and slip two under the flower as shown in the photo.

Now adhere your three banner pieces...don't worry if the corners overlap a little as you'll be covering them with the smallest butterflies.

Adhere the banner strip { I rounded mine a little but flat looks just as nice} and adhere the larger three burreflies /pearls as shown in the photo.

 Here's a little tip if you don't have a lot of sentiment stamps...use your COMPUTER! I simply typed out my sentiment in a Microsoft Office document using the font and script size of my choice. I double spaced the sentiment and just filled the page{ I think I fit nine to a page} . I then printed it on cardstock  and trimmed them all into the banner shape and inked the edges . It is amazing all the things you can create in Microsoft if you just play around with the fonts and stuff! Who needs stamps? GASP...no! scratch that! I cannot believe I just said that! LOL My Stampin' Up Rep, KATHY would kill me if she heard me say that!

Anyway, I finally come to the end of my rather long winded blog posting for today. Thanks for popping by and I hope you all have a great long weekend. Happy Birthday Canada and Happy Retiremnet to my dear friend , Christine!  Toodles