***ETA:  if you have any questions, please post them in the comment section & i’ll try to answer as best i can.   I will post my answers in the comment section too so that we can keep sharing ideas & tips & tricks.  And also if you have any hints or tricks of what worked for you while you were creating this album, please share!!!***

ya ready???

This project was SO fun for me and I really hope you enjoy it too.

A few things first:

*  All products used (other than standard “stash” & tools) are part of the May Main kit & the Mister Mister Add on, with the exception of the following:    some butcher’s twine from Martha Stewart Crafts, the October Afternoon label stickers that were part of the All in a Row add on, & a #9 that was part of a previous kit (because i used the 9 plate on another layout…lol…you’ll be able to use your 9 :)

* In this post I am going to go through each page & give instructions & hints on how to assemble the album.  Refer to yesterday’s post for the specific instructions on how to create the handmade flowers used throughout the book.

* I used a heart punch for this project that I purchased from Stampin’ Up.  Feel free to use whatever punch you have at your disposal…maybe you’ve got a different heart, or a star, or a butterfly, or you can always use the trusty circle.  OR you could hand cut some hearts in different shapes & sizes.  C’mon, you remember how to cut little hearts!  I’m sure you made them in first grade for valentine’s day :)

* I used my sewing machine to stitch around the perimeter of each page of my book.  If you have a machine & want to do it, wonderful!  And remember these pages are pretty thick, so go slow with your machine and you may wish to use a denim needle.  If you don’t have a machine, no worries :)  You can still handstich around the felt page with embroidery thread & it will look great!

* For this project I used all the pages included in the Fancy Pants Mixed Media Bracket Book, except the second black felt page.  You can save that & use it on another creation :)

*  If you have any questions at all or need clarification or help, please feel free to e-mail me at gigikennedy@yahoo.com.  We’ll work together to get your book completed & gorgeous :)

O.K….LET’S GO!!!!

For the Chipboard pages of your book:

* Take the 3 chipboard pieces from your Fancy Pants Mixed Media Bracket Book.  Paint ONE side of 2 of the chipboard pages a cream color (I used Folk Art Acrylic Paint in Buttermilk).  Paint BOTH sides of the 3rd page red (I used Making Memories Red Wagon Acrylic Paint).  For my book, I painted 3 coats of paint on each side.

* Cover the other side of the cream painted chipboard pages with patterned paper.  I chose to use Crate Paper Maze & October Afternoon Peek-a-boo (both are in the May Main kit)

* If desired, machine stitch around perimeter of your chipboard pages with black thread.  HINT:  GO SLOW when sewing with your machine and you may wish to use a denim needle to make sewing a bit easier.  These chipboard pages are pretty thick.

* For the red painted page (this will be PAGES SEVEN and EIGHT):  Take your “Happy List” discussed at the end of yesterday’s post & handwrite (yes…i said HANDWRITE!!) it on the page using a white pen (I used a Uniball Signo White pen).  Fill both sides of your red painted page with everything you can think of that makes you smile, makes you happy…just take pen to painted page & write.  If you are concerned with keeping everything thing straight so your writing doesn’t go floating away on you, try this little trick.  Cut a bit of scrap paper @ 1/2″ x 12″.  Then, pull up alongside your red painted page, a pad of lined paper.  Line up your scrap piece of paper so that it spans the width of your painted page & lines up nice & straight with your lined paper.  Then write away above your scrap piece of paper.  Keep moving your scrap piece down your painted page as you write to keep everything straight :)

* Embellish your “Happy List” pages with “Lollipop” and “Scallop” flowers as shown below:

* For the front cover of your book:  Create 3 “strip-y” flowers and the tag (see yesterday’s post for these instructions) and arrange & adhere to cover (I used Foam Tape to adhere the flowers & Tombow Multi Adhesive to adhere tag) as shown below:

* For the inside Front Cover:  Using the Pink Paislee Enchated Letter Stickers, adhere journaling (”Go ahead soak it all up”).  To give some emphasis to your letters, outline each letter sticker with a fine tipped journaling pen.  Underneath, arrange a combination of handmade flowers & leaves as shown. For the flowers I used both sides of the Sassafrass Lass Full Bloom patterned paper.

* For the inside of Back Cover:  Take a shipping tag & ink it (I used Ranger’s Distress Ink in Antique Linen) & stitch around perimeter using the zig zag stitch.  Tie on Cosmo Cricket stripe ribbon at top and adhere scallop blue velvet ribbon to bottom of tag.  Journal with black pen.  Punch hearts (or hand cut…remember it is JUST a heart! :) out of the vintage sheet music and October Afternoon lullaby patterned paper (they both are in your main kit).  Take a black market & run around edge of your little hearts to make them pop off your page.  Arrange hearts & tag on your back cover.

* For the Back Cover:  Cut a strip of your sheet music using pinking shears 5 1/2″ long.  Cut a strip of Cosmo Cricket Micheveous Max patterned papaer 3/4″ x 5 1/2″, distress & ink edges.  Adhere to cover as shown below.  Above your paper strips, attach your 09 7Gypsies numbers (I used foam tape…& you’ll notice, I had to use a different 9 b/c I had used it on another layout :).  Journal a bit using a Black pen (I used an American Crafts Slick Writer)

PAGE ONE:

* Take the Bingo card & stitch zig zag around the perimeter.  Add 2×3 photo of yourself.  Embellish page as shown with “Enjoy” (make sure to outline the letter stickers to give them some definition) & with scallop (using Sass Lass full bloom) and lollipop (using Jenni Bowlin Chipboard button & Cosmo Cricket chipboard adhesive button) handmade flowers.  Finish off by stapling a length of the Cosmo Cricket Striped Ribbon to the top.

PAGE TWO:  On the back of your bingo card, add a favorite photo.  Embellish with punched (or hand cut hearts) and some letter stickers.  I popped up some of my hearts with foam tape.  Add a bit of journaling with a black pen.

PAGE THREE:  For this page use one of the Black Felt pages & as you can see we are going to make a “holder” for some of our most important little bits of treasure from our favorite people.  Start by cutting a piece of the Sassafrass Lass bungle dots patterned paper 2″x6″.  Add the Cosmo Cricket blue velvet scallop ribbon to the top edge, distress & ink the bottom & side edges.  Stitch to your felt page using embroidery thread.  The trick here is to make sure your needle doesn’t go ALL the way through the felt.  Just pop your needle through the patterned paper & the top layer of the felt (this is thick felt, you’ll get the hang of how far to push your needle).  I did kind of a ladder “x” stitch, to be honest I just kind of made it up as I went along & it turned out (surprisingly…lol).  After your great little “holder” is all stitched on…add some letter stickers (I used the October Afternoon ones that came in the main kit) & a Cosmo Cricket chipboard star.

PAGE FOUR:  Take 2 of your favorite 2×3 photos & adhere to felt page (I used my Koyoko Roller & it worked fab.)  Do a bit of embroidery satin stitching on a couple of corners & then add  a lollipop flower & a scallop flower as shown.  Dig into your stash & grab a label for a little bit of journaling.

PAGES FIVE & SIX:  For these pages I adhered a 4×6 photo smack in the center of the transparency page.  I stitched around it, but I’ll tell you it was a bit tough because of the thickness of the photos & transparency combined.  Now for each of these pages I added a strip of the Cosmo Cricket Michevious Max patterned paper, cut to 1″x6 1/2″ (I then used my scallop scissors on the edge).  Where the patterned paper & the photo met, I added a 6 3/4″ length of the Cosmo Cricket airplane ribbon.  Pink Paislee Enchanted letter stickers were added to each photo.  As you can see, on page 5 I added a scallop flower & a chipboard button and on page 6 I added a lable sticker & a Cosmo Cricket star.

PAGES NINE & TEN:  These pages are created just like pages 5 & 6, except instead of the patterned paper on the bottom of the photo, I added some of the Cosmo Cricket blue velvet scallop ribbon (a 6 1/2″ length)

PAGES ELEVEN, TWELVE, THIRTEEN & FOURTEEN:  These pages are created by just adhering two 4×6 photos, back to back & zig zag stitching around the perimeter.  Letter stickers & punched hearts are added right on the photo.  I really like how these “pages” turned out & I especially like that I  can continue to add my favorite 4×6 into the book :)

Guess what?  Your pages are all done!!!  Now all we have to do is punch holes to bind it all up with ribbon & we are done!!!  But I’m going to give you some advice, gooooooo slooooooow here.  We are almost done, & I know you are getting excited to see it all put together.  But the last thing you want to do is punch a hole in the wrong place now, or chip the paint, or not cut enough ribbon & then run out & get all frustrated just when you are so close to the finish line (O.K….can you tell this is what happened to me???  lol!!)  So…now….grab your hole punch & punch three holes in your cover.  I punched mine @ 1 1/2″ inches apart in the center of the book.  I did this so that my 4×6 pages will each be able to have 2 holes in them to keep them from flinging all around falling out of the binding.  And take care when punching the holes in your 4×6 pages, take a look at the finished product down below & you’ll see I stagerred them so that each can kind of peek out when the book is opened to that spot.

Now take about 9″ of the Cosmo Cricket ribbon & run it through all of your pages & tie a double knot at the binding.  When you tie your knot, be sure to provide a little give in your ribbon tie so that you can turn your pages easily.  Now cut @ a 3 1/2 length of the Cosmo Cricket Ball ribbon & tie it on top of the other knot to give a little bit of pizazz (truth be told, I finished the project & noticed i didn’t use any of that adorable ribbon & just had to add it in somewhere :)  Snip off the extra edges and…..WE ARE DONE!!!!!!

Here’s a look at the finished product :)

so…what do you think?  PLEASE link me up if you make it!  I’d LOVE to see all of your wonderful albums :)

& just to see if anyone is paying attention…this is how ryan watched Star Wars this afternoon while I was posting all of these photos (yes…the dog chewed a hole in my blanket…but you know what?  it is still just as snuggly :)…guess he was a bit chilly???

Hope you enjoyed this class!!!

xoxo

gi

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 3:47 pm by gigi and is filed under Uncategorized, creative team, project tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.