Accordian Album - Whoops A Daisy

I love making these little accordian albums. They have 8 sides and fold up like an album or stand up as a display. I am making this one as a gift and I wanted to share the instructions with you. It would take the length of my blog to explain each page in as much detail as I usually do so I'm going to give you measurements and hope that the pages are fairly self explanatory. There are a couple of tips to using this type of album, one thing is that you want to make sure that all your pages are going the same way so keep checking that as you go. Make sure that your first page opens on the right. I have had friends who put it on with the opening to the left, whoops. Another tip is to use Tombow or glue dots to attach your paper, since this book gets handled a lot and doesn't have page protector. You really want the paper to be on securely. Complete the whole page before gluing it to the book. I used the retiring paper Whoops a Daisy. It's the best paper for this book because when you cut your 12 by 12 papers into fourths it has the most beautiful decorated corners. Make sure you distress all the pieces of paper in this book so that the pattern papers don't compete with each other.

For the cover I cut three papers, one pattern 6 by 6, one pattern 4 by 4 and one 3 x 3 cardstock. You can see I tipped the second paper into a diaogonal. These three papers form the background for either your title or a pretty flower.

For the flower I used hydrangea ink and my Endless Friendship stamp set. Yes, you can stamp directly on paper flowers. Stamp your image randomly around the flower, not overlapping too much, a little goes a long way. You can distress the edges of the flower with a sponge tool and the hydrangea ink.

Punch out a 1 1/2 inch and a 1 1/4 inch circle out of cardstock, layer them in the center of the flower and add a circle window charm. (The square window charms are being sold dirt cheap in the clearance sale right now). Use Tombow generously on the back of the flower and press it down dead center on your page.

For page two cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper, 5 1/2 by 5 3/4 cardstock, trim one edge with a border punch. Glue the cardstock to the left side of the pattern paper so that it will have good balance when you attach 8 to 10 brads down the right side. I put mine right in the lacy border. Stamp a nice little phrase down at the left hand corner. My theme for this book is friendship. I used our January stamp of the month (this is a sneak peek) True Friends stamp set.

For page three cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper and a 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 piece of cardstock. Notice how that Whoops a Daisy paper has the beautiful flowers perfectly lining the corner. Use a corner rounder on the cardstock and distress. Stamp a pretty complimentary design (again from Endless Friendship) along the opposite corner and attach with hydrangea ink. If you have the wiry sponge tool, make tiny hydrangea specks all over the mat. Add three sparkles to the right and bottom of the mat.

For page four cut 6 by 6 pattern paper, 4 1/4 by 4 1/4 cardstock, 4 by 4 pattern paper and a light colored cardstock 3 by 3. Stamp an image randomly over the light colored cardstock, Endless Friendship here in ocean ink.

Attach that piece 1/8 inch from both top and left hand side of your 6 by 6 paper. Add the 4 by 4 pattern paper to it's mat then attach them 3/4 inch from bottom and right hand side. Stamp a pretty flower in watermelon ink with a hydrangea ink stamped center and cut out. Attach with a pop dot to the upper right hand side of the page. Add a window charm to the middle and three waxy flax threaded buttonst to the bottom left of the page.

On page five you can use one of the pretty quotes and frames from the True Friends set (once you get it in January!!) as your title. Stamp in watermelon and hydrangea then carefully cut it out.

Cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper and two 2 3/4 by 2 3/4 pieces of light cardstock. Tilt those two pieces across the center of page as shown. Add your framed accent with pop dots to the upper left side of the page and decorate with six sparkles.

Page six requires a 6 by 6 pattern paper, three 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 cardstock squares. I textured mine with a dotted template and a Cuddlebug. You also need to cut a 4 by 2 piece of cardstock (I didn't emboss this piece). This piece is turned on it's side but basically you want to lay the strip down on one side 1/2 inch from border then layer the three squares over it, turning one diagonally, leaving room on one corner for the flowers.

Using the Endless Friendship stamp set, stamp three flowers with hydrangea and ocean, cut them out, put them on with glue dots (not pop dots) in the center of the flowers only so the petals slightly curl up. It's a very pretty 3-d look. Add circle window charms to the center. These photos don't do this page especially, justice. It's so gorgeous to layer cut out flowers like this.

On page seven cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper, a 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 pattern paper and two 6 by 1 inch strips of cardstock. Put the strips as shown, 1/4 inch from the sides of the page. Stamp another of the cute friendship phrases from True Friends with it's frame on some white paper. Use your wiry brush to add speckles, cut out and then use pop up dots to attach it to the upper left hand side of the page. Add a couple of sparkly brads to the upper right strip.

The eighth pages is very easy, cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper, 1 by 6 cardstock strip, and a 5 by 5 cardstock square. Stamp those pretty leaves from Endless Friendship on the corners in hydrangea ink. Attach strip to left hand side about a 1/4 inch from the edge. Put mat right in the center of the page and add five small sparkles at the bottom right. When you are finished you will have a beautiful book already for photos. What a great gift!

Cardmaker in Paradise - Finishing the Unfinished

After a very busy few days it's nice to sit down and do some creating. I reached into my unfinished box again and found a bunch of dry embossed card fronts and 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card bases. Since I love the dry embossed look so much I was immediately inspired to finish these cards. The colors were sorbet and tulip so I went to my handy dandy paper supply and grabbed my Key to my Heart paper which uses both of these colors.

To start off you will need some colonial white cardstock, cut it 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" and score it at the 4 1/4" mark and fold in half. Cut sorbet and tulip paper 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" and take your dry embossing tool and trimmer out. Lay your paper on your trimmer about an inch over, draw your dry embossing tool down the groove trimmer, not pushing down too hard, just making a line. Move the paper over an inch and do it again. Once you are finished with that side, rotate it and do it again. Sand the paper on the raised side so it looks like the picture below.

Take out some of the Key to my Heart pattern paper, cut it 3 1/2" by 3 3/4". Cut some juniper cardstock 3 3/4" by 4". Cut a piece of colonial white cardstock 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" and a piece of juniper paper 1 3/4" by 1 3/4." Cut another colonial white 3 3/4 by 1/2", and cut another piece of juniper 3 3/4 x 1 1/2". Distress everything with a foam tool and tulip ink.

You'll need these ink colors: tulip, creme brulee and sorbet. If you want to make your flowers different colors than I used, juniper also goes with this palette.

You'll also need the Extreme Happiness stamp set (oh, I love this set).

Take the 3 3/4" by 1 1/2" piece of juniper cardstock and punch a ruffled edge on it if you like. Distress the ruffle.

On the smallest piece of cardstock, stamp the "Paradise" saying.

Attach the saying to the ruffled paper with the ruffles facing up.

Glue the patterned paper on the large juniper cardstock.

Take the large flower stamp, ink it with creme brulee and then roll the edges of the flower in tulip, this makes the flower have a lot of depth. Stamp it on the square colonial white cardstock then glue it on the juniper square.

Take the center stamp, ink it in tulip then carefully put it in the middle of the flower, doesn't have to be perfect.

Finally use sorbet ink on the stamin stamp and center it in the middle of your flower.

Glue the large square in the middle of your card front.

Attach the flower embellishment on the left hand side about an inch down from the top and 1/4 inch from the left.

Add the ruffled strip just barely up from the bottom, 1/4" from the right.

Add three sparkles on the right hand side and you are done! Easy and pretty!

So there you go, another unfinished project done! How about you?

Dream card

I'm having a lot of fun playing with my new crimper/corrugator, it sure makes dry embossing fast. The paper I used this weekend was light so I needed to do something to make the lines show up besides sanding. For this particular piece I decided to use a brush to stipple it, lots of tiny little dots made from the bristles of the brush. I used a desert sand color and just kept pouncing on the paper until it was the color I wanted. The paper is cut 5 1/2" by 4 1/4", crimped and stippled. Take your ink pad and run it around the outside edge of your paper, it makes a darker distressed edge than using a sponge.

All paper is Notebook, cut the desert sand striped paper 4 1/4" by 1 3/4" and 4 1/4" by 1 1/2". Attach the larger piece 1/4" down from the top of the card front and the other about 1/4" from the bottom.

Cut a piece of black cardstock 4 1/4" by 1/2" and put it through the crimper.

Sand it and then glue it right in the middle between the desert sand patterned pieces.

From the May word puzzle stamp set use the border and stamp it along the two desert sand patterned pieces. You can choose to stamp on these before attaching them, I didn't and the impression was just fine, make sure that you use the spong underneath. Use desert sand ink.

Cut a piece of colonial white cardstock 2 1/2" by 2 1/2. Using the Aspiration stamp set (one of my favorites) stamp the flower in bamboo, the outline in desert sand and then the small flower center in desert sand. I then took a cocoa pen and detailed the small dots on the flower.

Attach that piece to your card 1 inch down from the top, one quarter inch from the right hand side.

Cut a 3/4" by 3 3/4" piece of colonial white cardstock and stamp the word "dream" from the Aspiration set. Glue to card about 1/2" up from the bottom, flush with the left hand side. That's the card. I liked this one so much that I'm going to use it to teach some fellow scrapbookers in St. Joseph, Michigan this weekend. I'll be experimenting with different paper sets to find just the right one to wow them. What a great job I have!!

Endless Friendship card

While my husband and dad went golfing yesterdy after our 4th of July picnic, my mother and I sat down and did some scrapbooking and stamping. I have a crop I'm going to Friday and am teaching the scrappers there how to make a card so I'm experimenting a bit to find just the right one. I took just one pack of paper, this time Notebook, and decided to make cards only out of that paper pack, it forces me to be creative and also uses up paper that I may have not been playing with for awhile. I loved Notebook when it first came out and made lots of layouts with it but no cards so this was a great way to challenge myself. Cut out your papers first, this is for a 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card so you need a card base that measures 8 1/2" by 5 1/2 piece of colonial cardstock, folded in half. I made four cards at once which is why you'll see several cut papers below. Cut the crystal blue striped paper 5 1/4" by 4", that will be your card front. Cut the notebook lined paper 4" by 3" and a piece of the pink patterned paper 2 1/2" by 2 1/2". You'll need some white paper to stamp on also.

If you like to distress, do it now. In general I use a sponge which I brush onto my ink and then around the edges of each paper. I used Desert Sand to distress these pieces.

Using the May Word Puzzle set, I took the word "Mother" on the bottom of the notebook lined paper in crystal blue ink. Check out that paper, isn't it cool how it looks like coffee spilled on it? If you haven't used acrylic stamps before, I highly recommend them because you can see what you're doing.

Attach the blue striped paper to the card base.

Glue your notebook lined paper to the center of the card.

Put the pink patterned paper up towards the top of the notebook lined paper, about 1/4" down.

On your separate white paper, stamp the flowers from the Endless Friendship stamp set, you need three flowers. I used crystal blue, stamped with a desert sand center (not shown in this picture) and then a hollyhock design center (the little star like stamp).

The last step is to cut out your flowers, distress the edges a bit then attached them to your card as shown. It's a very quick and easy card. I made 4 of these and then 4 others using four different ways of decorating a crimped background. Stay tuned for those this week.