Scrapping by Design

This project is an accordion album made from a file folder. The theme is “Sewing“. I incorporated an old Vogue pattern, a red zipper that had been in my sewing box for about twenty years and some vintage clip art.

To embellish, I bought a small sewing kit at the Dollar Store and used the bits and pieces as decoration.  I also used a few buttons, rick rack and lace from my fabric bag.

I also made a video showing how I folded the file folder. I will post the video tomorrow.

I am entering this project in Playing in Paradise Challenge #113. The theme for this challenge is to use something recycled, in honour of Earth Day on April 22.

This is video demo of the Romantic Era Altered Book that I described at this post: Altered Book with Romantic Era Theme.

The video shows how I cut and glued the book to form the drawer.

This altered book has “Romantic Era” as its theme. I made it for a swap at Art for the Creative Mind swap group.

Although the group gives very little detail in terms of expectations for a swap, in this one we were required to create a drawer of some sort.

As you can see from the pictures, I painted the book black using Acrylic paint. I used Graphics 45 scrapbook paper to cover the top and back of the book.

On both the top and back, I used some ecru or tan colored edging to frame the main picture.

On the top, I added some fabric flowers and a white plastic bird.
I added the shoe as a decorative element, but I did not attach it to the book. The shoe is a wedding favor that I have decorated with alcohol ink and fibres. You can find the description of it on this blog post: Altered Art: Wedding Favor Shoes.

I added some ecru lace to the back, and I lined the drawer with the same lace.

I printed a love poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning onto vellum and rolled it up as shown in the drawer. I fastened it with black lace, white ribbon and a pearl ended hatpin.

I have made a video showing how I made the altered book. I will post the video tomorrow.

This is an altered book made for a swap at Art for the Creative Mind. The assignment was to make a shadow box from a book.

The theme was to be, “Where in the World is Dorothy“, drawn from the Wizard of Oz.

I started with a hard cover book purchased at a book sale.

I decided to cut two shadow boxes instead of one, and to make them in the shape of a shoe.  When the niches were cut and the pages glued down, I painted the edges of the pages with Olive Green Luminiere paint.

The second picture down shows the double layout with the shoe shaped shadow boxes.

I lined the shoes with red scrapbook paper and filled them with an assortment of clip art, red beads, buttons and clip art.  The clip art used is found on the Net and is all in the public domain.

I had a sound button in my stash. Conveniently, it played the music of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I glued the button in place inside one of the red shoes.

I covered the front and  back cover with scrapbook paper. On the front, I used a cut out image of Dorothy from the first movie, and gave it dimension with pop dots.

For the front, I cut circles out of “map” scrapbook paper and used alphabet stickers to spell Where is Dorothy?

On the back, I used die cut alphabets to spell Follow the Yellow Brick Road. I added a few yellow buttons.

I ran a variegated ribbon around the book and sewed both ends to a clip that closes and opens as desired.

Lastly, I decided to make a bookmark out of the shoe shapes that I had cut out of pages.I covered the top “shoe” with red artist’s chalk, then sprayed this with Pearl colored Radiant Rain. The result was a transparent, shimmery red shoe with text showing through nicely.

Radiant Rain is by LuminArte and is Twinkling H20’s in spray format. You can purchase it at Amazon: Radiant Rain

I punched a hole through the heels of the Ruby Red Slippers and used a binder ring to attach this to the ribbon.

And that is my altered book. It is going in the mail tomorrow to my swap partner.

Yesterday I said I would post the video demonstration showing how I made the altered book garden house. The video runs for about 11 minutes. It shows how I began getting the book in shape, and then shows the finished inner layouts.

Here is the video:

I have been working on an altered book. I haven’t made one in ages. At one time, I was a big fan of this art form but for a while I lost interest. Now they seem fun again.

In any case, the project was to make a house-shaped item with a theme of “Garden Adventures“.

This is my offering. I started out with a Telletubbies kids’ book that had a shape that somewhat resembled a house. Adding a roof made of corrugated card stock made the house shape more pronounced.

The book has six inner layouts. The right side of each layout contained a door that opened to a scene.

In my project, I placed a garden photograph behind each door. I tried for a different garden theme for each page. Since I used only photographs that I took personally, I was limited to what was in my digital collection. There is a photograph of a rock garden, a vegetable garden, a rose garden, a hanging basket, a flowering tree and of a field of flowering tulips (agricultural gardening).

The entire project is distressed,since I hoped to replicate a weather beaten garden shed.

Tomorrow I will post a video demonstration that I made of this board book — or is it a scrapbook? Or is it an art journal?

You be the judge.

Corrine, an altered book artist extraordinaire and publisher of the Glitz-Oh-Girl blog, has a wonderful new book sculpture. It’s a gardening book made into a flower doll.

No description does it justice. Just click over toA Flower Girl for Cyber Fiber.

The Complete Guide to Glues and Adhesives by Nancy Ward and Tammy Young is arguably the best book that scrapbookers and paper crafters will find on this topic.

Published in 2001, the content in this book is the sort of thing that doesn’t go out of date. Not only does this publication cover the basic information about glues and adhesives, it discusses such crucial topics as “Acid Free, pH Neutral and Archival”.

Anyone who does scrapbooking or works on any type of archival projects needs to understand these terms. Not every project I make has to be archival, because I make some fun items that I really don’t expect anyone is going to keep for generations. For this, I may opt to use the more economically priced glues that are not archival. On the other hand, when I make a heritage scrapbook to hand down to my children or grandchildren, I darned well need to know the type of glues that are going to stay safe for many years to come.

The authors also explain and discuss natural adhesives, all-purpose white and tacky glues, clear glues, acrylic-based adhesives, repositional and removable adhesives, pressure sensitive adhesives and heat activated adhesives. Pictures and descriptions of various tools and equipment is also covered — for example, crafting irons, heat guns, rotary cutter handles, and so forth.

The book includes detailed instructions for making more than 30 projects using the glues and adhesives that they describe.

When you do a product review, you’re expected to cover the weaknesses as well as the strengths. To be honest, I do not really see any weaknesses in this book. The only thing I might ask for is that the authors come out with a new edition to cover the more recent products that are added to the marketplace. However, even that is a small “wish” since most of the products named in the book are still available and used.

The search for the perfect glue and adhesive goes on. I recommend this book with no reservations .

Traditional scrapbooking is fun, but I think I enjoy making small books from scratch or altering another object to use as a scrapbook even better.

I made this small album from a children’s board book that I bought at the Dollar Store. It’s easy to do. The video shows me making the altered book scrapbook but I’ll post the instructions here as well.

1. Sand the pages and the covers to create a slightly rough surface. You need this so the glue will adhere better.

2. Cover all surfaces with a few coats of acrylic gesso, sold at Michaels Arts and Crafts store, or at any place where art supplies are sold. I suggest using the white gesso as opposed to the clear kind. You want to hide the brightly colored pages so they won’t show through your paint later.

3. When the gesso is dry, cover all surfaces with craft paint, sold at Michaels, at Dollar Stores and at craft stores.

4. Drill or punch a small hole in the front and back covers, centering it near the edge and about half way down from the top. You will thread ribbon or fabric through these holes later.

5. Decorate your pages with photos, journaling and embellishments.

6. Tie the ribbon.

This scrapbook is not archival. The book itself and the products used are not acid free. These make a great gift for a child or an adult, and should be looked at as a fun project and gift, but not a keepsake that will last for generations. Archival memory books require traditional scrapbooking procedures.