High School Memories Begin Soon

Wow, New Years Eve already!  I spent all of this year focused on my own studies and health.  This month I am proud to say that I have completed my Diploma of Counselling and have applied to University to continue forward with a Bachelor of Health Sciences.  This gives me a few precious months to relax and get some crafting done!

At the end of my school year I completed a project in anticipation of my son starting his first year at high school.  The pattern for this project comes from the talented Kathy Orta and is called A Year In Review.

This is a gorgeous pattern, creating a HUGE album that has plenty of pockets and large areas for big photos, school certificates and awards.

Inside are 3 different styles of pages, repeated 4 times, for a total of 12 pages. One for each month.

The thing that I loved most about this album is the massive amounts of storage. It can fit full report cards, drawings, pictures and awards.

The perfect way to document my little monkey's achievements during his first year of high school!

Masculine Mini Album

My goodness it's so hot here in Adelaide!  The longest, hottest summer in record.  My craft room is an add-on to the original house with a tin roof, no insulation and no air conditioner.  Needless to say its awful in there at the moment!

Despite the heat, I have been working on a few albums.  This is one I did for my best friend's birthday.  He is an excellent photographer and I would love to see him take his photos from the purely digital format that he currently uses to actual printed photographs in a real album.

This album is my version of Kathy Orta's December Daily album.  If you are interested you can read my first post on how I reworked her measurements and come up with a slightly different style of album.

I used black envelopes and cards by Quill to make the album, and the designer papers are all from the Timeless Vintage paper stack by Kaisercraft.

As I mentioned in my other post I reworked the dimensions of the back and front covers to allow for a little extra space in the middle there.  Kathy Orta's project has all those envelopes and pages interleaving and overlapping in the middle and I felt there would be too much bulk.  You can see from the photos above and below how nicely that extra girth has worked out.  The pages and inserts butt up nicely against each other, without creating additional bulk.

Below you can see what the album looks like when opened up.  There is a phenomenal amount of storage space, not just for photos but for all the little bits of tickets, tokens and other ephemera that we collect that just doesn't fit in a regular album.

Inside there are also literally dozens of tags and pockets with inserts that can hold extra photos or journalling.

My friend was totally thrilled about the album, he loved the idea of filling it with photos and memorabilia and handing it down to his son with the hopes that it would be a little interactive journey of discovery that he could share.

Kathy Orta December Daily Reworked - C6 size

I just love, love, love Kathy Orta's patterns (if you are familiar with her videos you will know she uses the phrase 'love, love, love' quite a bit), so when she published her free December Daily mini album I couldn't resist making one of my own.

If you want to watch the preview of her album you can view it on You Tube here.

The envelope and card kits she uses come from Michael's.  The cards measure 5" x 6 1/2", with the matching envelope measuring 7 1/4" x 5 1/4".  These are not available in Australia, and the closest we can get is the C6 card size which measures 105mm x 150mm (pretty close to 4 1/8" x 5 7/8") with the matching envelope measuring  4 1/2" x 6 5/16".  As you can see that is a sizable difference, which if course is going to mean an adjustment throughout to many of the measurements.

So this post follows Kathy Orta's instructions but converting them down to a C6 size for those of us who can only get access to that.  I am sure you are all capable of doing this without someone telling you how, this is mostly so when I make another one (and I plan to make several), I have all the measurements recorded.  

This mini will be smaller than the original so on most pages and page inserts it won't take a standard 4" x 6" photo, but it will take the 3.5" x 5" print which is the next size down.  Of course you can always custom size and crop your own photos according to your own needs, but the 3.5" x 5" (or 9 x 13cm) print size option should be readily available worldwide in any photo store.  You can, however, put a simple mat on as many of the pages as you want, which will (just) take a 4" x 6" photo.

 

December Daily Part One

You can watch Kathy Orta's original video on how to make part one of the December Daily here.  Watching her video is essential for understanding how the album is constructed, I am merely giving my measurements for using a smaller C6 size envelope and card.

Card Page One

The measurements for this page remained the same as the original.  Go ahead and make the cuts at 2"and trim down to 3".  Trim the corners as desired.  Adhere together as shown and then trim off 1/2" off the side that doesn't have flaps.  Your card should measure 3 5/8" across.  This gives room for the hidden hinge binding and still allows your card to fit in nice and flush.

Card Page Two

Trim the card at 1/2" to the right hand side of the scored edge.  Keep the piece you trimmed off and put it aside to make a pocket later.

Envelope Page One

Go ahead and seal the envelope as instructed.  Trim a sliver off one end, and then trim the other end so that the envelope measures 4 1/8" across (the same width as the card).

Envelope Page Two

Adhere the flap of your second envelope to the first envelope page as instructed.  Trim the second envelope so that it too measures 4 1/8" across.

Pocket One

Take the extra piece you trimmed away while making the second card page and trim it so it measures 5 1/8" along the long edge.  When directed, score each edge at 1/2" and adhere as shown to create the pocket.  This creates a pocket 4 1/8" wide (same width as the card) and 3 5/8" high

Twin Pocket (Variation)

I felt that given the reduced overall size of the album that the twin pockets were a bit too small to have any practical function, so I adjusted it to make one large side loading pocket.  I wanted a pocket that measured 6 1/4" x 2 1/4", so I cut a piece of cardstock at 7 1/4" x 2 3/4" and scored at 1/2" on three sides.

 

December Daily Part Two

You can watch Kathy Orta's original video for part two of the December Daily here.  Watching her video is essential for understanding how the album is constructed, I am merely giving my measurements for using a smaller C6 size envelope and card.

The Envelope Pages

Adhere the two envelopes together as shown.  Place envelopes into your paper trimmer and line up so the edge of the envelope is just a smidge over the 5" marker (this is where Kathy lines hers up to the 5 3/4" mark).  This should place the fold line for the envelope flap directly on the half inch marker, giving you a half inch flap when you trim.

In the original version the envelopes are then folded in on each other, and the top facing envelope is trimmed down to 4" in width. This is a reduction of 1 1/4".   We are actually going to trim off an extra 1/8" so that when our pages are all folded there is an even 1/2" spacing between the three pages.  So we are going to trim off 1 3/8".  You don't have to, you can keep the original measurement, but I am a kook for symmetry.

Slide the envelope into the trimmer so the bottom facing envelope is being cut and trim so that it is 4 1/8" wide.

The Middle Card Pocket

The original directions tell you to trim off 1/2" off one side, do this by lining up your card fold at the 3 5/8" mark.  Score and assemble as directed.  To attach this page to the envelope pages measure 5 3/8" up from the bottom (instead of the 6" in the original instructions).

The First Pocket

On the inside of the first page is a pocket, the original measures 5" x 5".  Ours will measure a scant 4 1/16" x 3 1/2".  Score on three sides at 1/2" and assemble.

Back Page Pocket

Cut one card in half as directed.  Trim the long side of this piece to generous 5 1/6".  Score at 1/2" on three sides and form a pocket.

Belly Band

For the belly band on the back of the middle page, take the bottom flap that you cut off to make the middle card pocket and score it at 1/4" at each end.

To show you just how versatile this album is, I constructed one that was only three pages .

December Daily Part Three

You can watch Kathy Orta's original video for part three of the December Daily here.  Watching her video is essential for understanding how the album is constructed, I am merely giving my measurements for using a smaller C6 size envelope and card.

First Envelope Page

Adhere the two flaps together as shown.  Trim envelopes down to 4 1/8".  Trim the excess off the flaps so it measures 1/2".

Envelope Half Pages

Seal the envelope as directed. Fold in half and trim along fold line.  Trim a sliver off the closed end of each envelope half, which should make your envelope halves now 3 1/8" wide.

Assembling the two parts

Make a snip in the excess flap as shown at the halfway mark, which will be approx 3 3/16" (this measurement doesn't need to be precise).  Attach the two half pages as shown.

Front Page Pocket/Sleeve (to insert the hidden hinge)

Cut a piece of pattern paper 3" x 7 1/4".  Score half each at each short end and attach as shown.

Pocket on Inner Page

Cut a piece of cardstock 5 1/2" x 5 1/6".  Score at 1/2" on 3 sides and fold to form pocket.  Attach as shown.  As this album is smaller than the original, and it already has so many pockets, I chose to omit the pocket here and simply mat with a piece of card cut at 6 1/4" x 4".  This will allow me to put in a slightly trimmed 6" x 4" photo.

December Daily Hidden Hinge Binding Strip

You can watch Kathy Orta's original video on how to make the hidden hinge part of the December Daily here.  Watching her video is essential for understanding how the album is constructed, I am merely giving my measurements for using a smaller C6 size envelope and card.

The only measurement here that is different is the height of the binding strip, which will be 6 1/4".

December Daily Album Cover

You can watch Kathy Orta's original video on how to make the album cover of the December Daily here.  Watching her video is essential for understanding how the album is constructed, I am merely giving my measurements for using a smaller C6 size envelope and card.

There are three parts to the album cover... the back panel, the front panels and the side spines.

The original back panel is cut at 7 3/4" x 7 3/4" which works out to be 1/2" taller than the envelope used in the original.  We can keep the same proportions.  Our envelopes measure 4 1/2" x 6 5/16".  Because this is the cover and 1/6" of an inch extra to the height of this album won't make any difference we are going to round these proportions up to 4 1/2" x 6 3/8".  So we will cut our back panel piece to measure 6 7/8" x 6 7/8".

The original album front panel cover pieces are cut at 7 3/4" x 6" which works out to be 1/2" taller than the envelope and 3/4" wider than the original envelope.  Once again we can keep these same proportions and cut two panels that measure 5" x 6 7/8".

The original side spine panel pieces measure 7 3/4" x 2".  Ours will measure 6 7/8" x 2".

December Daily Album Cover - My Version

The original album cover is done in such a way that the pages interleave.  I think this creates excess bulk in the centre of the album, we have six pages evenly spaced at either end, but in the centre those six pages overlap creating the bulk of 12 pages.  Depending on how you load your pages this can create too much bulk in the centre, so I widened the cover to allow the pages to sit next to each other, rather than on top of each other.

There are three parts to the album cover... the back panel, the front panels and the side spines.

The original back panel is cut at 7 3/4" x 7 3/4" which works out to be 1/2" taller than the envelope used in the original.  By increasing the width an extra inch to 8 3/4" this allows our finished pages (which measure 4 1/4" each, to sit side by side without overlap.  So for my version I cut the back panel piece to measure 6 7/8" x 8 3/4" (this is an inch wider than the original width).

To compensate for the extra inch width to the back cover, we will add an extra half inch to each front flap, cutting two pieces at 6 7/8 x 5 1/2".

The original side spine panel pieces measure 7 3/4" x 2".  Ours will measure 6 7/8" x 2".

Gypsy Caravan, Christmas Style

Caravan front.

I am totally in love with this project.  The concept is just fabulous, and open to so many different style interpretations.  The pattern is called Gypsy Caravan by Laura Denison of Following The Paper Trail.

Caravan side, with the shutters closed.

This is just my practice project, one I 'whipped' up to make sure the instructions and pattern was accurate, before using my good paper.  I am glad I did too, because the instructions are at times a little mysterious, which is helped somewhat by watching the Ustream videos, but even then I threw out the first attempt because one of the measurements were incorrect and you weren't advised until the second video that this was the case, at which point it was easier to just ditch the one I had made and start again.  There are also instructions not included in the downloadable pattern that she goes through on the video, so be prepared.  If you want to make this project I strongly urge you to sit through all the videos before you start construction.

 

Caravan side, with the shutters open showing the cubby space.

I buy my chipboard in 30" x 17" sheets, and this used almost a full sheet to put together.  The paper range I used is by Jodie Lee called Father Christmas Papers which you can still find in scrapbook stores printed under the Pink Paislee label, or you can download it digitally from Jessica Sprague. That is exactly what I did, and then printed it out on matte photo paper using my inkjet.

Caravan rear, with shuttes and drawer closed.

The pattern comes with instructions to make a mini album to fit in the trunk of the caravan, but I wanted something simpler and quicker to make, and also something that would suit anyone, not just photo enthusiasts.  So I whipped up a little drawer that fits in that space which could hold all manner of doo-dads.  Notice it's a wee bit wonky?  That's why I do a test run, it lets me see what fits and what doesn't, so when I do a 'proper' one I am aware of any issues before hand.

Caravan rear, with shutters and drawer open.

 

The fabric trims and buttons I bought in 2011 in a clearance sale at Spotlight(Australia's poor cousin to Joann's or Michael's).  I liked them so much I held onto them and held on to them waiting for that special project... sound familiar?  Aside from the fabric trims I haven't added any embellishments.  As this was a practice project I think I will probably donate it to my son's school for a raffle, or donate it to the local hospital or something like that, and let the recipient fill it with goodies and add any extras.

Linking up with the following blogs:

Make it Monday:  Always Anything Goes

Use it Tuesday:  Make It Sparkle (gold tinsel on buttons and trim)

Inky Chicks:  Anything Goes

Shopping Our Stash:  Use Your Old Buttons (buttons as hub caps on wheels)

Through the Craft Room Door:  Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp & Show:  Embrace the Old (used up hoarded trims and buttons)

Baby Blocks (not so) Mini Album

Excuse me while I collapse in an exhausted heap!  Have you ever undertaken a project that was so big part way through you thought to yourself "what have I done?"  This baby blocks album is one of those projects.  It's huge.  Enormous.  Pain staking.  Totally worth it but I swear I will never EVER make another one in my life!

This album is an impressive decor piece that consists of a functional draw and three blocks, each block measures 5.5" square, and in total the piece when assembled sits at around 14" high.

The pattern is called "A Year In Review" and if you would like to see the album in live action you can watch this video by the patterns author, Kathy Orta.

Each block houses a draw that holds two hinged frames, and each hinged frame holds two albums, for a total of four albums per block.

 

There are three blocks, giving a total of 12 albums, hence the title "A Year In Review".   The entire project is intended to record the baby's first year.

 

Each mini album has three pocket pages inside, and there is a double photo mat slipped inside each pocket page. This album has a lot of real estate for holding those precious baby moments. 

I have used the beautiful Little Darlings paper range by Graphic 45 throughout the album, offset by Vanilla card stock by Kaisercraft. I am so glad this is done! 

This project has taken me a good two months to complete. Not every day, but every minute I have had spare to craft I have spent it on this and finally completed it two days ago in a mad pre-Christmas-I-bet-the-baby-is-going-to-come-early panic. 

My dearest friend and his lovely wife are expecting their first baby in a matter of days. Girl, you can pop that little Prince out now, his present is done! :o)

Sharing this with the lovely folks at:

Make It Monday - Always Anything Goes 

Cookie Factory Recipe Album

The challenge this month at Christmas Crafting! was to use decoupage.  I have a thing for recipe albums at the moment, and when I went through my stash and rediscovered my Santa's Village Collection by Laurie Furnell, I knew I wanted to make a recipe album with her gorgeous artwork.

To start I printed off four copies of the cookie factory image and sealed the back of them with Liquitex Gloss Medium (Modge Podge will do the same thing).  This is important because the Liquid Scrap Dots that I used for dimension is essentially the same stuff as silicone and will leach through the back of unsealed paper leaving a dark spot.

Once sealed, I set aside one image to be used as the base and then cut up each of the remaining three images for layering.  Most kits purchased today have done the guess work for you, but it's not that hard to look at an image and think about the perspective and then cut out what will be the background, middle and foreground.

I didn't get too intensive with the layering as this is a functional item and I didn't want either too much height, or fiddly bits that might drop off when the album is used.

The yellow frame I made with scrap cuts of chipboard adhered together in two layers, and then covered it all with Jo Sonja Texture Paste.  This is a thick, white paste that lets you create dimension, in this case I used it to make the frame look like it was covered in frosting.  Once dry I painted with acrylic paints and dusted with glitter.

Once the image and frame were ready it was just a matter of assembling them onto the cover.  The front and back covers are thick chipboard covered with papers included in the Santa's Village kit, and the interior pages are all cut from plain Kraft card.  I inked the edges of all of the pages with white ink to give it a 'dusted' appearance, and then used the Zutter to punch and bind it all together.

The recipe card was created using Word and the elements from the Santa's Village kit.  There are 18 pages in the album in total, 9 of which have the recipe card on the front and back, and the remaining 9 have been decorated with either white rick rack to simulate the icing on gingerbread, or with ribbon and 'gumdrop buttons'.  I left 9 blank pages so that the recipient could either put in photographs or use it as a scrap book and glue in recipes found in magazines.

The finishing touch was to decorate the wire binding with ribbons and fibres. Don't tell anyone but this hides any imperfections in the binding!


 

I hope I have inspired you to go and create something fabulous using the decoupage technique.  Remember you don't need to purchase special kits, just find an image that you like and use your own perspective to create dimension. 

Linking this up at Make It Monday:  Challenge #113

Twig & Berry Mini Album

When I made the Maisie Book Box, I knew immediately that I wanted to put a mini album inside it, a book within a book!

To fit inside the box tray the album had to be 3" x 4".  As you can see from the photo above, once the wire binding was added it made a perfect fit.

I used the same paper range to make the album as I did to decorate the book box, Twig and Berry by Kaisercraft.  As this is going to be a gift I have used plain kraft card to indicate where photos, tickets, receipts etc can be stored.  There are 10 double sided pages in total, with plenty of built in space for writing.

Here goes, a shot of all 10 pages...


 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

I am linking this up to Make It Monday:  Challenge #110

Live Out Loud

Hello again!

I think as crafters we go through creativity spurts where we find our passions ignited by various ideas.  For me, at the moment, it is mini albums.

I followed a pattern by Kathy Orta at Paper Phenomenom.  The pattern was very easy to follow, step by step photos and very clear instructions, I'll definitely be trying a few more from her store.  This is one of the more grandiose projects I have tried and it was quite difficult to photograph well due to the scale, but I hope you get the idea.

The album itself is constructed from chipboard which I covered with manila folders.

The front has a simple but elegant gold clasp to hold it closed, and a small spray of flowers and a pearl bling, both by Kaisercraft.

The edges have all been inked with Tea Stain Distress Ink and all the designer papers come from the Sweet Nothings collection by Kaisercraft.  This side on view shows you the depth of the album.  It's quite slimline, but as you will see shortly there is still a lot of space for displaying photos.

When you open up the sides the first thing you see is a flip style arrangement of three panels.  Each one is 6" x 4" and can easily hold a photo.  Each is also a pocket so small keepsakes can be stored within.

This is the view when the album is open.  Isn't that paper line just gorgeous, I love the colours, which is unusual, orange is not usually my thing!

On the inside sleeve are more pockets for photo mats, the photo above I have removed them so you can see the sleeves, the photo below you can see the mats inserted into the sleeves.

 

When you open up the flip sleeves you see behind the centrepiece of the album, the main photo mat.

 

On the feature mat you can see one of Mo Manning's beautiful images, called Mummu.   I have used a Sizzix die to create the strip of music, which acts as a catch for the photo mat and the coloured image.  The rubber stamp says "'If you ask me what I came to do in this world I will answer you: I am here to live out loud."  I have stamped this onto a clear acetate overlay, so a photo can be placed underneath.

But wait, there's more!  The main photo mat lifts back to reveal...

Tucked away behind the main mat are more 6 x 4 photo mats tucked into sleeves.   The album has a 2 photo mats on each sleeve, and 4 behind the centre piece, for a total of 8 removable photo mats.

 
 

This was the very first stamped image I coloured, digital or otherwise. I did this over a year ago and put it away in a safe place waiting for just the right project.  It's not perfect, but I love it, and it reminds me of my mother, who also is not perfect but I love her too.  I created this is album for her 60th birthday.

 

I am entering this into the following challenges:

 

Mo's Challenge Blog - Singing and Dancing

Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Before I let you go, if you haven't heard yet, Christmas Crafting is celebrating it's first birthday, which is being extended, there's a blog hop and prizes so head on over!