Sunday, March 25, 2012

Custom Die Locket Album

This is my newest Accucut Craft die.  I used their Custom Die Service and had this custom locket die made from my hand-drawn designs.  I've designed dies on my BossKut Gazelle before, but I only cut cardstock with it.  The Gazelle can cut chipboard and felt, but I would have to buy a dedicated blade and chipboard dulls electronic cutter blades quickly.  So, I opted for a real, steel-rule die!

Let me tell you, I designed something much more intricate at first. Unfortunately, the intricacies put the price tag through the roof.  So, I simplified it and it was still too expensive. I simplified some more to get the design to within my budget and worried that I had over simplified.

Here is my finished Custom Locket Mini Album.  I think it would make a fantastic Mother's Day shape.
Mini Scrapbook Album Locket

I think it turned out okay.  The layering helps it to look more intricate than it really is.  True to a locket shape, it has the ring at the top for attachment to a chain.  That's where the jump ring for binding goes.  However, lockets also have a hinge at the side, so the base piece has that too.  That's where some side binding can go, whether accordion, stitch or coil bound.  In fact, I think I'm going to make my mother's day card out of this shape and have it fold right at that hinge!

The pages are about 5.5 inches high by 4 inches wide.  I wanted them so that a 4x6 photo could be used with minimal trimming.  However, to let the background papers of the page show, the album is best suited for 3 x 5 photos or smaller.  The papers in this album are from Basic Grey's "Little Black Dress" line.  I love all the papers in that line!

Also in my locket set is a key.  It's bigger than I anticipated.  Great for the album, but perhaps I should have made it smaller for other uses.  Oh well!  There's plenty of key dies out there I can grab.


I originally had wanted holes in the circles on the first border, but the punches needed to do it made it expensive to reproduce on the die.  So, I removed them thinking I could put pearls there.   Enter: AnaBelleStamps.com.



I'm in love with the sprinkles!!  They are SO clear, well formed, and have no little chads (tiny tags marks where they were attached to another sprinkle at some point during manufacturing).  They made my album all better!  They are totally worth having them shipped half way around the world from Australia to Canada.  (The sprinkles are very inexpensive too!) In addition, they have a silver backing (pearls a solid backing) so that if you mapped out a pearl path with pen or maker, you can place your pearl over with with nothing showing though.


Here's a version I have in progress with AnnaBelle's chocolate pearls. I used a Metallic Bazzill cardstock on this one.

I did ink the edges of each layer of the locket with memento black ink.  I think that helped quite a bit with the dimension of them.  But nothing helps more that those beautiful little sprinkles!!


What do you think for my first custom die?  I was really bucking against oval shapes originally. I never use them in my own scrapping but, somehow, a locket as a mini-album just seemed so right!  There's so much use: wedding lockets, family lockets (like a family heirloom), a Gothic Halloween locket... oooo I am going to have so much fun!

5 comments:

  1. Just beautiful Lisa! The detail is fantastic, the distressing really showing this up, and I can see this for many different occasions! TFS :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi! wow Lisa,your own design and die- really amazing :)
    They are both just gorgeous and those papers do look perfect too.
    Thank you for joining us at BasicGrey Challenges,
    Good Luck.hugs Lou and the BG dt.xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! I am so amazed! This is gorgeous. I had no idea you could design a die and have it made. Your design and the final outcome is just fabulous.
    Carole

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your custom die is awesome.
    I love the sparkle you added, like diamonds.
    If you wanted holes instead you could just use a punch.
    Your detail on this die is
    I have a special locket my hubby bought me years ago, so I really like this die.

    ReplyDelete

Thank-you for sharing your thoughts.