Graphic 45's Little Women collection is so very pretty with its rich vintage colors and beautiful images of the Little Women. I knew it would make a precious little journal just for collecting photos of some little women that I know. AND, it's the perfect gift for the readers in your life. I so well remember being mesmerized by this book!
I used Eileen Hull Designs by Sizzix Passport Journal to die cut the journal and pages. This is a small journal, just 3.5" x 5". It's the perfect size for keeping photos and journaling close at hand and easily fits into a ladies handbag where it makes a great "brag book" and diary for recording those special moments that are always happening when the granddaughters, aka little women, are around.
Front and back cover.
Here's a video flip through of the journal, it's the best way to show you all of the pages!
Tip: Use the small size ephemera cards to make quick waterfalls and flip pages in your journals.
I haven't made many layouts lately. I do love making them but it seems that I have run out of good photos so I was happy when I found this one of my mother-in-law, taken when she was a young lady. Stamperia's Flower Alphabet papers and Creative Embellishments chipboard accents were just what I need to scrap this special photo.
I used a word from the Mother Word Set for my title. I simply heat embossed it with my favorite Stampendous Shabby White Embossing Enamel. I painted a sprig of ivy from the Ivy Sprigs set with green and a bit of white paint, then I lightly brushed on some Prima Vintage Gold Wax.
I used Flourish Corner 2 underneath the flowers at hte top left and bottom right. I colored the flourishes with a little Lindy's mist and Prima Metallique Wax and then dry brushed some white paint here and there and added some white paint sprinkles.
Finally, after a cold wet winter, spring has really arrived in North Carolina! I have birds nesting on both my front and back porches and hummingbirds flitting about their feeders. I've started planting my vegetable garden, the trees are blooming, and everything outside is fresh with new color. I love this time of year!
I made this sweet little birdhouse to celebrate and embellished the roof with some pretty flowers that I made. These are so simple to make. Here's a video showing you how to assemble the birdhouse that iss cut with an XL die from Sizzix's Eileen Hull Designs line of dies. Eileen designs so many great 3D dies, you'll love them all!
Video tutorial
I used Graphic 45's Floral Shoppe collection to make the birdhouse, it's gorgeous floral images were perfect for this project!
These flowers are deceptively easy to make. I'm not one to spend hours making exquisite delicate flowers, I'm not that patient! For me, it's diecut, give 'em a twist and a curl, bam! Done!
Creative Embellishments has so many great Steampunk chippies so I thought it would be fun to play with a few of them along with this Clockwise rice paper image from Stamperia. I glued lace on the left side and then around the edges I used a palette knife to add a thick coat of Stamperia crackle paste. After that dried I started layering on color with Lindy's mists, drying between each color. Next I rubbed on different colors of Prima wax.
Then it was time to add some chipboard pieces. I began with a Mini Dress Form from the set of six. I just gave that a quick misting with Lindy's. The reason I use mists to color my chippies is because mists won't clog up the pretty etched design in the chipboard.
In the lower right corner I added a Steampunk Timepiece and topped that with miscellaneous gears, then a metal piece and finally a flower. The gears are heat embossed with Emerald Creek Oil Rubbed Bronze embossing powder and then I swiped on some Prima Red Amber Wax to give it a rusty look.
I used the fabulous Steampunk Clock Corner in the upper left. I just love this piece! It is heat embossed with Emerald Creek Oil Rubbed Bronze embossing powder and Stampendous Aged Bronze embossing enamel.
To finish it off I added metal pieces that have been highlighted with gold Prima wax. I also used a bit of Stampendous Aged Gold embossing enamel in the upper right corner.
I love this photo of my dear friend, Peggy's grand-daughter. Thank you Peggy for letting me use your photo! Sun Kissed is the perfect
collection for memorializing beachside memories. The bright colors and playful images of the collection paired perfectly with this beautiful little girl enjoying a sunny day at the beach.
Tips: Use layers of different shapes, i.e. squares, rectangles circles, to give your layouts more interest. Pop up some fussy cut images to give your layout some dimension.
I am a happy gal because Graphic 45 is bringing back Tropical Travelogue, ya-hoo!!! I used the last 7 sheets I owned of that collection to make the mini I shared with you yesterday so I thought today I would share these layouts I made with Tropical Travelogue way back at the end of 2011. The Collector's Edition should be available the end of May, I can't wait! Until then, we can just drool over these lovely papers!!
This collection is a fussy cutter's dream! I fussy cut all the large green leaves you see from the papers and made the flowers from Tim Holtz glassine paper using McGill's Floriano flower punch, one of my faves!
Have you heard the news?? Graphic 45's Tropical Travelogue
is being released again as a Deluxe Collector's Edition! Hip-hip-horray!! This collection is so
colorful and has such great tropical colors and imagery! Well in honor of the DCE I had to create something with whatever I had left from the original collection. Alas, I only had 7 sheets
of paper and some little scraps left from the original collection released in
2011. Challenge time, I said to myself. Can I make a mini with just 7 sheets of paper? I'm always game for a challenge so I gave it a go. The answer is yes and here are the results. View the video flip through to see the results.
Tip: When you only have a little bit of
paper, use cardstock as the base for some of your pages. Then fussy cut
elements and layer over the cardstock. Save every little scrap until you are
finished. You’d be surprised how you can utilize those little pieces.
Tip: Coat the cover of your minis with matte medium as this will make the paper stronger and protect the cover from wear and tear. Fussy cut elements in particular, benefit from this treatment and it is best to coat both the front and back sides.
Love that cute little seahorse!
Inside the covers before adding the signatures. Both are little pockets where you can tuck in photos, notes, memorabilia, whatever you want! I used Eileen Hull Designs by Sizzix Journal Die to cut the covers. Its a great die and really makes the task of making these style of minis go quickly.
These are the 3 signatures before I bound them in the cover.
Inside view of a fun tuck spot and a waterfall photo organizer.
This is a tiny little book that slips into a pocket in one of the signatures.
The Creative Embellishments challenge this month is to use a vintage graphic on your project. Above is the inspiration photo.
I love vintage styling so I used some gorgeous vintage paper from Stamperia, Lilac Flowers, that included the vintage images I used on this easel card and tag that I used from the Large Tags set.
I framed the vintage image with the Infinite Rectangle Frame and layered Flourish Set 10 underneath the flowers. I heat embossed both with Stampendous Shabby White Embossing Enamel.
I love easel cards; they are easy to make and present themselves so prettily! I used fern leaves (stained with Lindy's mist) from the Fern Foliage 5 set and layered Flourish Corners 2 underneath the vintage image. I heat embossed the flourishes using Ranger Antiquities Tanzanite embossing powder.
The card is finished off with some pretty Little Birdie blooms!
The monthly challenge is always the first post on the Creative Embellishments Blog. Be sure to check it out, you could win a great gift certificate to the store!
