Little Bits: : Club Scrap Blog Hop for July: Vintage Botany

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Club Scrap Blog Hop for July: Vintage Botany

Hello again. Time for the monthly Blog Hop and this month is a true winner. Some months it is all about the stamps for me, like last month, and other months, well the paper just steals the show. Before we start, some housekeeping. You should have arrived from Jennifer. Or to start at the beginning, Click Here.

Ok, lets look at what I made, and then I will tell you about it.

An Album.

The back:

Close up of the closure.

This album is unique in that it opens long ways.

There are many instructions for making albums, I will link the sources I used and share the details that make this unique. But , the important thing is where did the inspiration come from. The title of my blog is a hint that every thing I make is a "little bit" of this and that.

So lets talk about the design process first.

I had my first inspiration while walking through a craft show and seeing Tim Holtz demoing the distress crayons. I have those, and try as might, they never do what I want. Well, maybe he could help overcome this deficit. So I listened and I talked to him, and AhAh, I needed something to seal my paper so the color would move. OK, good salesman he is, and off I went to fine a shiny new hair of Collage Medium.

Next piece of inspiration came from Karen, with this: 2016-atc-wallet, Mmmm, what could I do with this, I don't do ATC but love the look, the almost box like shape, mmmmmmm.

Then I read the name of this months kit: Vintage Botany. Immediately I thought of Vintage Seed Packets, Boxes for tools, The "look" and the color. An idea started to form. An album but as a Seed Collection Wallet, or folder of some type. I remember from my days in the Emergency Department, we used these little paper folders to collect debris, hair, etc. Would something like that work?

I received an email with a video blurb from Einat Kessler, File Folder Minii Album. In this posting she used a folder system for her travel portfolio /suitcase. And the concept developed.

So lets look at the details.

I started with the file folders.

Easy!! Take a 12X 12 paper and on one edge make a mark at 4" and 8", scoot down and make the same 2 marks ago. Turn Paper and make 2 sets of marks at 3" and 9". Draw lines to connect the dots.

Cut out the corners. Now you have 4 flaps with a 4X6 inch center.

Score on the pencil line and 1/8" away twice. Repeat this for all 4 sides of the box.

Cover the inside of each of the flaps and center with paper. Turn over and cover the outside four flaps, leaving center clear.

Repeat this for 2 folder systems. OK, recaps. You have 2 pages, cut out as shown and scored and both covered on both sides, but the outside center box is bare. With me.

OK, now we make the spines. Get out that grid ruler and measure your center box. It should be 4X6 from first score line to score line on opposite side, if not, just adjust the measures.

So, mine was 4x6, I decided to give a 1/4 inch ease around so, 3.5 X 5.5 plus one inch on the edge for the spine, so was my starting measure 3.5 X 6.5 I cut 3 papers, this side. Scored the first one, one inch from edge, then next 1.5 and the last 2.

Here they are scored. For the first set I scored on the long side.

Stack and staple them together. This is attached to the center panel, I place my close to the right edge and centered top to bottom.

For the second step, I repeated, this step, but wanted the spines to be at the top and open down. Measured as before, only now it is 3.5 " X how far down the page the first will go + 1".. I only wanted it to cover 1/2 of the 5.5 inches, so my paper was 3.5 X 5" scored the same 1", 1.5 " and 2". This will go to top of page

All that was left was to cover the spines, adding folders, papers, envelops in various configurations to create the "guts". There are many blogs and ideas out there to make these into an album. I just started covering and adding. Here are a few of what I did.

Ok onto the the album cover. I used Karens Video and directions but changed out the measurements.

My folders are roughly 4.25 X 6.25 when full and closed. (they bloom a little)..So I wanted a 1/2 inch all around. So I cut 2 chipboard pieces 4.75 X 7.75. I needed the spines. The bottom spine was 1.75 the top spine 2.25. All were 4.25 inches long. This gives a room for the top to fold over and make a box. The front piece is 4.75 X 3.5 and cut out the corners. Assemble per Karens video. The one difference was that I needed to splice 2 12X12 pages together as my project was closer to 23" long with turn over. I did this with score tape. In hind site, I should have just bought some Kraft wrapping paper, next time.

Ok Album finished. inside and out. (file folders not added). Coated the entire thing with Collage Medium and decoupaged the Seed Packet images that I had printed off the internet at 300dpi. I created the :"Seeds for thought" tag, in Photoshop using the fonts suggested for this kit and decoupage this to the flap. Then I just needed patience to let it all dry. And don't rush this, it must be thoroughly dry.

Next step was to color and enhance the cover with Distress crayons. The nice thing is if you don't like it, just wipe off and start again. The Collage Medium is a great product. Lastly I Stenciled the above the saying with paste and the stencil included in the Kit. When I scraped off the past in areas I did not want it, the crayon was removed. I liked it and left tin. Then let it dry and then colored with the crayons some more. Final step was to add some distress ink to the edges.

Now, all that was needed was a handle, which I made from twine and added my signature and date on the bottom. Once finished, I used the scraps and leftovers to make the tags. Had I done this first I would have run out of paper.

I did use a velcro dot to hold my folders closed and then adhered them into their place on the inside.