Saturday, February 8, 2020

Scrapbook Mini Album - Black and Rainbow - Video!

I made this scrapbook mini album from #10 business envelopes for a friend. This album would work well for pictures of family, or school pictures, or a specific event like a trip or a play day or summer time, etc. Also makes a nice brag book for the mantle or to gift to grandma and grandpa!

The album is stitch-bound with ribbon page bindings and embroidery floss thread. I followed a video tutorial (in a language I didn't understand) for making the stitches and worked out my own dimensions.


For landscape photos, it holds wallet photos: 3.5x2.5 inches or the smaller 2x3 inches. These sizes are 1/4 of a 5x7 and 4x6 photo respectively. It will also hold half of a 4x6 (at 4x3) in but portrait orientation only. It can hold these in landscape if they are not stuck down (i.e. rest the photo inside the pockets and pull them out to see). With 20 pages, this album will hold at least 35 photos.

The cover includes a homemade polaroid-shaped embellishment. I painted a chipboard dragonfly and then stamped on it. I stenciled a heart in the centre with platinum embellishment mousse coloured with paint.

I tried out some different page styles in this album. I liked this one the best. It's a slide-lock closure. Slide the butterfly embellishment to the left and the belt opens so you can lift the page flap. The other style I tried was a slot-lock, but I didn't like that one as much.

I've posted a video walkthrough of this envelope scrapbook mini album on my YouTube channel. There's a reveal of what I used to edge my covers. (I also put it on the pages to make them more durable.) I made a few of these covers before determining I liked it. I hope to do a future video on those practice models one day.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Tall Skinny Dragon Birthday Card

I'm going to host a tall, skinny card class. So,  I thought I would practice on my nephew's birthday card. I love how it turned out! I broke open some NEW supplies for this one.

I started with an ink-blended sky. I used my home-made cloud stencil and my new, make-up brush ink-blending brushes (that I got from Amazon for Christmas).

I have SO many #10 business envelopes still from when my old firm existed. When it merged with another firm, their old business envelopes with the name and address became useless. They let me have them and I have many (hundreds). I've been meaning to try tall, skinny cards for a while. Mojo Monday has some sketches for some.

I modelled this handmade birthday card after >>>this card (click to see!)<<< by Kristina Werner, blended with a >>>dragon card I made (click to see!)<<< before with the same style of sky.
I also used my new Dragon Plushies stamp set from Clearly Besotted. (The set in the link is not the same as mine. I got one with a cloud stamp instead of the one in the link with the really cute sentiments. I would have preferred the cute sentiments.)

I coloured the dragons with my Copic markers, using my new favourite dragon-green combination (YG03, YG09, C5). I used my sparkle pen on the horns and candles. I've tilted this picture so you can see the shimmer.
The sentiment is white embossed on black cardstock for high contrast. I used my cloud border die to cut the base cloud.

I think it turned out cute! And, you know what? This card is the perfect size to hold cash or a cheque - the oft-preferred gift of teenagers!