Made it from scratch: OA Make it Merry Mini

Visiting Santa Mini Book by Mollie Deem

For those of you with more modern photos,this little mini would be perfect for instagram photos too!

When I was home for Christmas last year my mom had displayed photos of my siblings and I visiting Santa at the mall. Like a sneaky little elf, I grabbed them for a quick scan so I could reprint them and make a little mini book later. So last weekend I got an idea and I thought it would be fun to make a little album for my sister for Christmas, but there was just one problem... with only 6 photos needing just 3 pages, using plain paper would make for a pretty wimpy (aka sad and pathetic) little book. So, I needed to come up with a way to give 3 little pages some substance! Thus the grunge paper mini book idea was born.

 

(And my friends will be shocked to learn that I finished this baby in less than a week! -And so can you.)

 

Here's my strategy:

-Make the cover on the weekend (it takes a little while to get done).

-Make one page a day... in just about an hour a page.

-Have a fabulous gift you want to keep for yourself in less than a week's time :)

 

So, want to make this album too? Here's what you'll need:

• October Afternoon Make it Merry:
• One Make it Merry kit (sold out)
• One sheet of PP676 - Make a Card
• One Sheet of PP684 - Make a List
• One package of buttons
• One package of Flyers
• One package of brads
• One sheet of SS446 - Word Stickers
• One sheet of Oxcober Afternoon Witch Hazel SS437 - Label Stickers
• One sheet of October Afternoon Black and Cream Mini Market Stickers
• One package of 6"x12" grunge paper from Ranger/TIm Holtz
• Ring Binder - Large, Advantus/Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collection
• One Christmas Muse Token from Advantus/Tim Holtz
• One "hitch fastener" from Advantus/Tim Holtz
• One safety pin from Making Memories (could use a Fastener from Tim Holtz instead)
• One elastic tie from Seven Gypsies (7ge)
• Green, Black Chevron ribbon from May Arts
• 3 red 1/8" eyelets
• "1" brad from Basic Grey "Clippings" collection
• Silver pipe cleaner (craft supply, Michaels)
• White roses trim, Maya Road
• Red sequins trim (Recollections, Michaels)
• 1.25" Chipboard circle, Bazzill
• Corrugated heart from Jillibean Soup
• Sewing machine and black thread
• .03 Black Pen
• Wonder tape, American Crafts
• 1/8" Tacky (Red line) tape, Provocraft
• Strong runner adhesive (I used a combination of the Xyron Cheetah and the Xyron Tape Runner with permanent adhesive.)
• Clear stamp block
• Versafine Black ink

If you don't have a Make it Merry kit from October Afternoon, you'll need the following:

• October Afternoon Make it Merry:
• Tin Pins
• EM462 - Washi - To/From
• 8x8 Paper Pad
• Tin Pins
• October Afternoon Holiday Style:
• Snowflake Rubons
• Miscellany pack
• SS448 - Mini Market Stickers (peppermint)
• Red baker's twine

So go gather up your supplies and come back tomorrow to learn how to make the the first page in about an hour.

 

Inky fun with Compressed Air

One of the categories at our state fair is "Rubber Stamping - Other Than Paper." After playing with the Tim Holtz splattered ink technique I thought I'd take the technique to some additional mediums and see how it went. I can report that it doesn't work on Tim's special clay coated tags, it works reasonably well on metal but the ink doesn't seem to "stick" very well, and it works smashingly well on gesso'd canvas. So my inky canvas exploration turned into my fair entry. Plus, I have 96 cabinet doors that need to get used up, so I thought I'd use one of those as well.

This entry got a 3rd place ribbon. Pretty cool since it's the first time I've entered this category.

Materials used: Alcohol Inks, Crackle Paints, Distress Inks; Paint Dabber (Ranger); Compressed Air (office supply); Grungeboard, Ticket, Metal Embellishments (Tim Holtz); Trinket Pins (Maya Road); Ribbon (Jillibean); Stamps (Tim Holtz, Hero arts, Inkadinkadoo, other)