Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter Album


This is a cute place to store your Easter or Spring photos. The four panels were cut from empty cereal boxes. Each piece of chipboard (cardstock) is 7 1/2" by 6" so you'll need two empty boxes. After you cut your panels to size, sand the printed surface off of the outside of the box. This makes it easier to glue down your paper.

Tip: I wear a kitchen apron when I sand. Those bits of paper and dust get all over your clothes.

Once you have the four panels, you'll also need six 1" diameter binding rings which you can buy at any office supply store, ribbons, and paper. What you choose to put on your panels is up to you, but I'll walk you through what I did.

FIRST OUTSIDE PANEL

This is a framed scene with a rabbit on the outside. If you email me at savetales@aol.com and put BUNNY in the Subject Line, I'll send you a pattern so you can cut a bunny out from fabric. The frame was made with a Sizzix die cut machine, but you could easily make your own. The inside window is 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. The outside dimensions are 4 by 5 inches. Create the frame first, then cut a background paper of 4 x 5 inches. Start to decorate your background. Cut a frame of foam core slightly smaller than your frame. Cover it with masking tape (mine is green). Assemble.

Tip: Use Pop-dots under your bunny so he doesn't collapse where his body extends over your open frame.

Tip: I strung my letter beads on wire, then curled the end of the wire around a pencil tip.

Tip: See the hole in the right hand corner? The two beads on a string act as ballast so your album can sit on a surface.

SECOND OUTSIDE PANEL

Cover your panel with paper. Make your flowers:

1. Either stamp letters or numbers onto patterned paper or print letters and numbers onto patterned paper.
2. Punch out the flowers.
3. Add buttons.
4. Cut curved pieces of green paper for stems.

The bunny is a rubber stamp by PSX by the name of "Baby Bunny." The picket fence is a rubber stamp by Rubber Stamps of America. Cutting out the area between the fence slats with a craft knife really gives the fence dimension.

Add decorative edged paper along the bottom to "ground" your image.

Tip: Grounding an image keeps stuff from looking like you just threw it on your page/card.


THIRD OUTSIDE PANEL
This is actually a small album. If you use the inside cover and the panel beneath the small album, you can add ten photos to this standing project. I keep really cheap albums on hand just for this. I pulled the four inside sleeves out of the album (which costs about $1.99 and can be found at Walmart or the dollar store). I created a cover larger than my inside pages PLUS 1"extra at the top. I folded over that 1" at the top and stapled my inside sleeves to the back of that extra flap. Then I decorated the cover. This is a neat trick that allows you to ALWAYS get more photos on a project for nearly next to nothing price-wise.
FOURTH OUTSIDE PANEL
Another framed Easter scene. I used my Sizzix to cut the oval out of the center of a solid piece of Bazzill Basics 4 3/4 inches wide by 5 3/4 inches tall. I then cut a background bigger than the oval hole. I layered egg stickers and other cut outs. The images of the chicks I scanned from an old children's book of mine. And I tucked silk flowers under a sticker of a decorated egg.
Tip: The silk flowers here were "magpie" items. That means, I found them in the parking lot of Michaels! I always look down as I walk in and out of that store!
Okay, on to the INSIDE PANELS!

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