Retro Wallet - Pilin' on the 3D Embellishments

The theme this month at Pile It On is 3D Embellishments (buttons, bows, wood veneer, etc). We're sponsored by Freckled Fawn. I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time, and made a mini book: a little wallet to hold business cards. Even with electronic storage, I seem to collect a good deal of business cards that I want to keep, and I also give out a fair amount.

The paper is from Creative Memories. I heat-embossed the chipboard telephones (Grapevine Designs) & wood veneer pieces (Recollections) with neon powders. I added some die-cut bubble borders (Pink&Main) & a notebook edge (Dienamics) on the front flap.

The fun paper clips are from Freckled Fawn. I used jump rings to attach letter buttons to them. 

I used a simple flap method to make the booklet from premade envelopes. I received the envelopes and orange & purple twine from an online challenge years ago; the pink envelope is from my stash.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Country View Crafts' Challenge: Anything but Cute
Cut it Up #140: Organization + Die Cuts
Mini Album Makers Challenge: Any Mini Album
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Update: This was chosen as a Top 3 for Cut It Up #140!

Thank you for visiting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Recycled Cat Food Can

I've often been inspired by our neighborhood cats, so I was excited to be able to help out my neighbors this week by feeding their sweet felines. The first time I fed them I knew I just had to alter one of the cute little cans!

I used cat food packaging for this entire project, from the can & lid for the box, to the outer cardboard for the book pages. Everything is covered with paper or ribbon, except for the outer parts of the can lid (because any embellishment on those parts impedes the opening of this fun box, which I know from experience.)

My husband figured out how to flatten the can's interior edge, using a spoon & a can opener. I covered the inside with a burlap ribbon that I bought at a rummage sale at the church across the street.

I made the paw-print pattern using the Catty font by Anke-Art. I converted two of the letters into cut files in SCAL and made the round frame for the front. It was cut from the same woodgrain-patterned paper I used throughout this project. I printed the "2015" in brown on a textured yellow paper using the same font. I think it look a bit like a flower! To finish the cap, I simply wrapped the top side with a green ribbon.

The cat cut file is from the My Family set by Bird. The cats are cut from textured papers to represent the colors of the featured felines.

The pages are bound with an orange ribbon. I wrapped more ribbon around the book, adhering it only to the front so that it easily unwraps. To secure it, I used a tiny key charm from Cousin/Designs By Me.

I had so much fun making this, and I got the best hugs from my neighbor when I gifted this to her!

Challenges/Inspiration:
2 Creative Chicks Challenge #25: "Anything Goes" (No Cards)
All Crafts Challenge: Anything But a Card
Open-Minded Challenge #34: Recycle (2nd entry)
Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent April Challenge: Recycle
That Craft Place: Alter Something

Update: This received an Honorable Mention for the Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent April Challenge.

Thank you for visiting & for inspiring my crafting,

Purple Poe

You still have a week to join the Purple challenge at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT). 

I had so much fun making my purple book box last week that I decided to make another, smaller version to hold a copy of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

This box is roughly 2.5 x 2.125 inches, and features "Poe Bust" by Ikesart. I printed Poe on shiny ivory cardstock, and printed the raven on a regular white paper. I colored the bird with black & glitter gen pens, fussy-cut it, and placed him atop the pallid bust.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Challenge Up Your Life: Box

Craft It Up & Link It Up Linky Party by Craftin Desert Divas: 3D Projects
DoubleClick Skittles #14: Use a bird

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at One Stitch at a Time,

Pilin' on the Monochrome

This week at the Pile It On Challenge our theme is Monochromatic and we're sponsored by Crafty City.

I just adored Yumi Muraeda's Pop-up Tag Album for Graphic45, and just had to try one myself. Her video tutorial is great, but I really ended doing my own thing. The only tag dies I have are from a Stamp & Die-cut set from Doodlebug/Sizzix, which are very small but I do love mini books! I consider this a pictorial story of the overgrown wonder that has been my garden this year. The pop-up pieces were cut with a QuicKutz border die. The leaves & flowers were cut with Sweet Stamps dies.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafting By Designs: Diecuts
Everybody Art Challenge #286: Monochrome
PDE Linky Party #14: Tags
The Sailing Pineapple Blog #10: Nature Calls
TokBobok July Challenge: Monochrome (2nd entry)

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,

"A Ladies' Diary" box & tiny journals

My mom has a fantastic papercrafting store that she hangs out at a lot, Scraps of Love. Since it's over 2000 miles away from where I live, she generously sends me wonderful papers & embellishments that she finds there (thank you, USPS flat-rate shipping!).

One thing in particular that she can purchase there that I can't find here are Graphic 45 papers. Scraps of Love has insanely talented instructors who do things with these papers that would make you cry, and Mom takes many of their classes and sends me the trimmings and any extra papers.

I decided to use the papers from their A Ladies' Diary Collection to make this box containing small journals, as I also wanted to practice my book-making. One fun thing about Graphic 45 papers is that each double-sided design comes in 3 sizes: 12x12, 6x6, and 8x8, so having different sizes gives you lots of options. The box is roughly 2 x 3.25 inches, based on the size of this cute fashion-card paper from the 8x8 pack.

click photos to enlarge

I couldn't help but use the Stampin' Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit die to add some 3D embellishment. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the butterflies.

The box contains a tier of tiny boxes; I used the tutorial (well, sorta) by Bastel-Oase.

Here's the back of the box, without the lid:

Each 2x2 box contains a small book.

Three of the books are designed around the different sized "vintage stamps" from the paper collection. For the blank books, I used regular printer paper. Everything is inked with Antique Linen distress ink and/or edged with my E04 Copic marker (Lipstick Natural).

This is the smallest piano-hinge book I've ever made, at just under 3/4 inches wide:

I learned this technique from a book, but I used the tutorial at Making Mini Scrapbooks to refresh my memory.

For the second book, I used my awl to puncture a hole in the middle of the pages/cover, and ran some twine around and through the tiny spools, knotting it in the middle.

The next one is basically an accordion book with a wrap-around cover:

Mom had also sent me several pieces of this particular part of one of the collections' 12x12 sheets. It's a column of three of the vintage stamps, so I glued 3 of those together to make the book. I glued the spine, so the pages naturally created pockets for little journal tags.

Finally, I used Prima wood pieces to make a funky little accordion book:

The metal clock hands are actually from Tim Holtz's Game Spinner collection, but hey they work!

I decided to decorate the back of the pages, so I stamped it with a large background stamp (Flourishes llc), heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder, and inked it with pink chalk ink. I had used printer paper, so much to my surprise the heat-embossed portion became almost translucent. It created a vintage look that I'll definitely have to use again.

Many thanks to my wonderful husband for taking these photos, and for giving me some pointers on how to get better photos from now on. We had a real family photo session for this!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Charisma Cardz #33: More than one fold
Love to Create: Fancy Folds
Opus Gluei Challenge #163: The Start of Something BIG! (This project was inspired by my wanting to start book-making again, and to do more 3D projects)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity: Box
The Pink Elephant Monday Card Challenge: Anything but a Card

Update: This was a prize winner at Love to Create. Thank you!

Thank you for visiting, and if you're ever in Peora, Arizona, be sure to visit Scraps of Love!

John Finn's Wife mini book

This week at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT), it's Anything Goes!

I used Rapunzel by Ike's Art, and made a mini-book of the lyrics of "John Finn's Wife" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

The tin is only 1.5 inches. It originally contained tiny paper clips. I sanded and ink-distressed it a bit, and used double-sided tape to adhere the ribbon. I added Stampendous Mica with Glossy Accents to the top. I colored the image with Copics and a white glaze pen.

The text was all done in Adobe InDesign; I hand-cut the circles. The text "pages" are backed with vellum flowers that I cut on my Cricut. It's bound with a sheer green ribbon.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Anything Goes Challenge #97: Anything Goes
Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge #134: Anything Goes
Crafty Ribbons #54: Anything with a ribbon
Creative Moments #22: Anything but a card
Rhedd & Rosie's Challenge #11: Anything goes
Simply Create Too #42: Anything But A Card

Update: Thanks to Juliet's comment (in the Comment section), I was reminded that I wanted to share the backstory on why I chose this particular song/poem: 
Nick Cave has been my husband's favorite singer forever, and back when we were dating in High School he used to sing this song to himself while riding my motorcycle over to visit me. In the 20 years since, we've listened to the song together many, many, MANY times! I actually found that I had most of it memorized. I decided on this design because it reminds me of my favorite part of the song, where she throws all the flowers on the ground... such a strong visual. You should see me with the book wrapped in my hair, it's quite lovely :)

Thank you for visiting,

Flippin' Out with Tellen's Place

As soon as I saw these bathing beauties digi stamps at Tellen's Place, I knew I had to make something with them for my nieces. My sister-in-law recently posted a video of them jumping into the pool for the first time, and I decided to make my life really complicated and make a flip-book out of it.

Flips-books are a pretty simple concept, but getting photos to line up isn't so easy. Since this was a movie, I ended up creating the images from screenshots. Yes, it took me forever. Yes, it was worth it!

I made a fold-out envelope to keep it in:

Thank you TLC Creations for the gorgeous digi paper that I used for the flip-book cover, name plate, and punch-flowers.
The ribbon is from very first Stampin' Dymonz blog candy!
It was a huge hit -- we received the best thank-you call from the sweet recipients (ages 4 & 5).