Merry Christmas canvas album

Most of you who know me will be wondering what has happened as I don't do traditional red and green for my Christmas makes but the wonderful Christmas Vibes papers caught my attention and of course I had to get the set with the Shabby Ribbons. To make this album you will also need the a the patterns padpad, the A4 Creative pad, the  8 x 8 and the 6 x 6. To add to the mix of making something with a different colour pattern I have also kept this as a clean style make rather than a shabby or grungy one.

The base of the album is an 20cm square Fabrika Dekoru album but you can of course construct a 6 page album from scratch or adapt the measuments for one of the albums that are in stock. I covered the album with red suede then added the pages from the kit. Before decorating the cover I then set about adding papers to the pages.

For the inside front cover I used paper 19cm square and then added a 19cm tall triangular pocket  which measures 11cm at its base. Decorative elements were added to the pocket and then a 15cm white cardblank decorated and tucked into the pocket. I have used the same cardblanks through out the album which means this 8" album will hold at least 35 photographs.

 To maximise use of papers I created flaps  for some of the pages by cutting a 19cm strip of paper and scoring at 19cm to create a flap being mindful on which way I wanted the flaps to open when I did this. There are several pages in the album which have a small second flap created using 11cm approx pieces of paper scored at 1" and cut so it overlaped the first one. There are some big square toppers in the paper pack and for some pages the smaller flap was created by using these and scoring at 1" from the end I wanted to flod under. The smaller flap piece was adhered in place BEFORE adding the big piece to the album page. To keep the flaps closed I added magnets covering them with decorative elements from the papers. Behind the flaps is a card blank which opens vertically.

 Page 2 is essentially constructed in the same way as the first page but I aligned the magnets so that the smaller flap sits underneath the one from the page background paper. The outside flap has a pocket added from the decorative A4 Creative pad with some tags also from the paper pack.

Page 3 is a pocket page - the base was covered with paper and then a 11cm high strip of paper was glued on three sides to create a pocket into which another card is slipped. 

 Page 4 has a 2" belly band decorated with more decorative elements and then a card slipped into place.

Page 5 has a different style of flap created by simply gluing the base paper into place with the flap opening from the right. The Cardblank underneath opens the opposite way and magnest were added to the card front before decorating it and to the background flap before adding decorative elements on top.

Page 6 is similar to page 2 in its construction.

Page 7 is a pocket page.

Page 8 has a belly band.

Page 9  has the two flaps.

Page 10 has a single flap and page 11 is a pocket page.

Page 12has two flaps and the inside backcover mirrors in the inside front cover.

Having decorated the pages I then turned my attention to the cover. I added some of the green shabby ribbon from the set round the center of the spine and twisted the two ends as you would if going round a parcel. The ribbon was then secured in place with paper from the collection.

I layered decorative elements on to the front cover - building up dimension with cardboard pieces so that the elements felt stable. I chose to use the filigree hello witner tree and then added cutout elements on top before tucking in holly leaves and silk plum flowers untill I was happy with the compostion. I added the word Merry Christmas and then a shabby bow.

On the back cover the ribbon is secured with decorative papers. Finally I added more lengths of habby ribbon under the crossed ribbon on the spine and knotted these inn place before adding a shabby bow. The long ribbon tails were then wrapped around the vertical ribbon legths fefore more hooly and a final flower completed the look.

Winter Wonderland Photo Album

 Hi Loves!
I come with abit of a different album. Seeing this paper pack I knew this album will be a winter wonderland album. It's very soft and pastely. Decorated delicately to keep the softness.

Welcome Home sign

I love a handmade Christmas and this piece would make a wonderful gift for anyone at this special time of year or could be placed in the entrance hall to welcome people into your home. It is deceptively easy to make!

The make is created on a 12" deep canvas which was painted in a metallic brown colour so that the sides that would be visible blended into the natural tones of the products used. I took a single sheet of paper from the Home for the Holidays collection and carefully measured to create a frame the width of the canvas surround. The outer piece was then turned over and adhered to the frame and the central square piece placed into the recess of the canvas. 

I did spent a little time fussy cutting flowers and berries from the collectables set that goes with the papers before adding lots of natural elements. I knew I had to use lots of pine cones some of which had been gifted to me by Marisol when at the September retreat - she had specially gone up the mountains close to her home in Andorra to collect small ones and I wanted to really do them justice. I also added some smaller cones from the shop. 

 I placed the bigger pine cones in place at the bottom of the frame and then tucked in the fussy cut floral elements. Then I filled in gaps with moss before adding in the smaller cones and some red magnolia flowers.  To add more texture I tucked in Holly Leaves and added berries taken from the Twigs with Buds.

For the top corners I used the same elements but also added in some chipboard pieces - the exact one is no longer available but two of these broken up would work just as well. 

 Finally I added lots of snow paste but artic snow paste would give a similar effect and  I know that Agnes shared a reel on how to make your own with white primer paste mixed with 3D powder. Whilst the paste was wet I liberally sprinkled on some white glitter.