Wonderland Mini

As you can see I'm still in Halloween mode and have another mini to share with you. It has taken me a little over a week to get this finished due to a sick little one and that pesky little thing known as my full time job.  All distractions aside, I love making minis. You can finish them in a short time and to me that is all kinds of gratifying. Plus, they make great gifts. I have this little problem, maybe you can relate, but when I buy paper, I almost always purchase several in the same collection and even some embellishments that coordinate for the sole purpose of making a mini album.  It's a sickness really. As soon as I see a collection I like, I can almost see the completed album in my head before I really even know what the design is. Does that make sense? Anyhoo.........

 The photo mat behind the Queen and Alice can be removed, so a photo can go on the page behind it and on the mat.

 A photo can go behind the "frame" on the page to the right

 This page is a pop-up when the book is laying down and the purple mat is removable

 The purple photo mat can be removed and the photo for the right side goes behind Alice

 These photo mats can be removed as well and again the photo can go behind the checkered stripe

 I used a magnetic closure under the tiny pumpkin on this envelope

 I love to do fussy cutting on elements from the papers, you just simply add pop dots to the elements in layers and it adds a sense of depth and dimension. It's hard to capture in photos, especially when you're using a phone to take pics with, but hopefully you can see it a little bit closer here.

I made this mini with a few interactive pages. Some of the photo mats can be taken out and photos placed underneath as well as on the mats.  The pages are made out of long envelopes, which made it easy to make tags to insert into the ends, making for even more photo mats or journaling space.  I used a binding system as well. That was a first for me. I usually use the bind-it-all or use a album that is already bound in some way.  If you get on YouTube there are a ton of videos on binding systems, just pick the one that will work best with the type of album you're working on.

Until next time.........

Altered Clock

I recently stumbled across a YouTube video of a very elaborate Halloween project using the Graphic45 Steampunk Spells collection.  Whereas steampunk is not my normal style, it does fascinate me. I like the idea of the altered aspect of it and how it lends itself to the whole mixed media art form.
Back to the video, it was made by an extremely talented artist named Anne. She is from Norway and is on the Graphic45 design team. I am in total awe of her work. It's detailed beyond anything I've seen before.  After seeing the video I had to stalk  check out her blog. Let me say, she does not disappoint! Everything she does is amazing.  Needless to say it inspired me.  I had seen the Wizard of Oz line from Graphic45 and loved it, so I really wanted to make something with that, unfortunately it is an old collection and I couldn't any anywhere.  So the next best thing was the Hallowe'en In Wonderland collection, which I found some on eBay and snatched them up quickly.  I only purchased a small selection of paper, just 6 designs. As soon as I received my happy mail I set off to work on my next project. I felt like an altered clock was the perfect canvas, an homage to the white rabbit you could say.

To start I had to paint 3 coats of gesso on the clock in order to make the paint stick. I then painted 3 coats of black.  To finish the outside I also lightly sponged streaks of brown paint on top of the black and it gave it an old look. I did some fussy cutting on some of the images and layered them with the help of pop dots.

I made the elements like a pop up card. I made stands using black card stock and glued the elements on top.

I used the glass vial from Melissa Frances, which I've had in my stash for a while now. I also used some moss I had on hand. Other than that, it was all the Hallowe'en In Wonderland Collection.  I love the paper in this collection and have another project to share with you next week. 

Until next time........