A Soul's Heartbeat: Graphic 45 Midnight Masquerade

Showing posts with label Graphic 45 Midnight Masquerade. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Playing with the Scraps from Midnight Masquerade

a Country Craft Creations project

What to do, what to do, when you have leftovers. My biggest suggestion, hint, observation is never ever nicely store them away!! Why??? Because I've found my nicely stored scraps most times stay that way, nicely stored away never to be popped out to play with again. Now of course this isn't always the case. BUT!, if you keep the scraps on your worksurface after your main project is done and just keep playing you'll end up, often times, with scads of projects and often a dozen or more cards.

Here's my first set of leftovers. My niece called one day from Crafter's Warehouse, a local store here in the SW Washington area. She said Aunty they have this set of 5 Kraft things for around $4 do you want one? Nope, get me two. And now I'm kicking myself because the 3rd set had some broken snaps and I told her no don't get that one, duh, what was I thinking? It's so rewarding to find a 'super buy' and watch it transform with paper, paint and embellishments into a gift or card you'd be proud to share with anyone. That's how I feel about these three items. Of course it never hurts to begin the process with a gorgeous paper collection like this one from Graphic 45 called Midnight Masquerade.

This set consisted of the three items here plus a large box (perfect for housing stamps, dies or embossing folders, watch for it a little later since I'm not sure how I'm altering them - I have 2) and a magazine holder which I always use to hold my 8 1/2 x 11" paper. I used Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Wilted Violet to paint everything before adding the papers and pretties. I did remove the front and back covers, painted all the edges, covered them with my main paper and then gently replaced them in the binding. Worked great.

Tammy Merrill shared this lovely collection with me so that I could play. She also had sent a gorgeous set of Petaloo flowers called teal Dahlias. Whenever I start with my leftovers I start searching my crafty spaces (of which there are many) for things that have the same color tones or things that I think would enhance what I'm playing with. I found another set of Petaloo flowers that were perfect to accompany the teal ones Tammy sent. These had hints of purple along with teal excellent for my cluster on the front of the notebook.

Also in the set of flowers was this one, well you tell me was this not the perfect headdress for this dancer? It complemented her outfit perfectly. Since I had two sheets of this paper I fussy cut this lady from the second paper popped her several times on light weight chipboard (fussy cutting each time) and then I inked the edges with a black marker. I find this helps the chipboard piece pop, almost like it has a heavy shadow around.

The second item was this little 4 1/2" square box. These items were all covered in Kraft which is easy to alter and my Wilted Violet paint did the trick perfectly. I covered the box with paper then added two pieces of black lace and then added the cut apart on top. The cut apart has a purple mat and black chipboard to pop it up above the lace. I used 3D Crystal Lacquer for the lady and gent on the top of the cut apart. I also fussy cut another flower to pop above the main sheet. Adding these simple elements gives the finished project a lot more dimension.

Here's a peek inside the box. The notesheets were included I simply tied a piece of colored seam binding into a bow around them. Country Craft Creations has almost any color of seam binding you could possibly want in the store. The lid has been lined with a purple paper from the collection, you can see there how perfectly the Wilted Violet paint matches it.

Using one of the chipboard pieces from the Decorative Chipboard package along with two embossed Embossabilty embellishments finished the inside of the lid.

I found, for myself, it was easier to put a glop of paint on my craft mat and spritz it with a little water applying it to the Kraft items with a brush.

The final item was this little pop up box. It came flat and the inside bottom popped down to create the box. I covered inside and out with papers from the collection and also again used the Wilted Violet to paint the exposed Kraft edges. This box is 4" tall and each side measures about 3". A great size to hold pens or pencils, fill with candy, add a small vase of flowers.

I always try to check out the close out bins and areas at the stores I'm shopping at. Even the local grocery stores have promotional, seasonal, items that close out at large discounts. It doesn't matter if it's red, white and blue for the 4th of July or red and green for Christmas, once you grab your paints, mists or whatever you can change it up to whatever you want. So look beyond what you see to what it might be. Have fun everyone and enjoy your crafting time,

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Monday, June 5, 2017

Double Mini in a Box

a Country Crafts Creations design team project

Hi everyone, I'm sharing with you a project using Tammy Merrills 8x8 mini in a box tutorial that she shared on her Group Page Coffee Talk. If you haven't yet discovered Coffee Talk, Scrapbookers of Country Craft Creations or the Country Craft Creations store you're really missing out on some amazing tutorials and projects made just for you to try out yourself along with an array of wonderful products to create with. I'll link all these fabulous places at the bottom of this post so be sure and check them all out.

My mini is created using the Graphic 45's Midnight Masquerade collection. Oh my goodness what gorgeous color combinations you have to work with in these papers. I made my own mask to decorate the front along with feathers and baubles.

My mini is actually a double since I added a second to the underside of the lid. On the video I'll share each page, how they flip and fold and all the tuck ins included.

The right side is a regular mini, with a spine with hinges and swinging pages which include a large side pocket and pull tab. I used some clear acetate for the pocket on the first page with a lovely fussy cut lady from the collection as decoration.

Here is a double page spread featuring belly bands and accent pieces for journaling, a photo or to leave as is. Slipped underneath are two mats of different sizes. There's amble room to leave more photos tucked in as well

These two pages each share a large cut apart on the swinging flip and an extra mat tucked under the edge. Magnets hold the flips securely in place.

Probably my favorite of the pages are these two. Each side boasts three flip ups which will hold photos just shy of 4x6". They tuck nicely under the chipboard accents to keep everything neat and tidy and the book is looked at. Fussy cut elements adorn each flip up.

The last pages share cream colored Artisan Paper embossed with Swiss Dot. On the left I've fussy cut a large image and backed it with the embossed paper to form a extra large pocket. On the right there's a side flip with a open tuck in area at the top. This finished up the mini on the right. But wait, there's more, there's another mini on the other side (the underside of the top of the lid).

This side simply utilizes the waterfall technique where each right/left flip out has an extra 1/2 inch flange that's scored and glued to allow the swing outs. Each flip is graduated in width so they tuck nicely one side into the other. The heights remain constant. This whole mini is secured with numerous magnets at the beginning to keep it nice and snug when closed. The pocket houses a couple of tags with a huge area underneath to attach a photo. Don't you love that beautiful teal border? That's achieved with one of the Bo Bunny flexible stencils and the Bo Bunny Glitter Paste in Turquoise.

Flipping that first page open to the left you have a huge area to cover with a photo or collage. The middle section is a pocket with an open area and large mat tucked under.

Here you can see both the left and right flip out. I also heat embossed one of the stamps from the collection onto the center panel using Blue Fern's Turquoise embossing powder, the perfect color to complement this collection. You have to keep in mind while making a mini in a box that it's tight quarters and allow for the bulk the photos are going to add to the finished project. That's why you'll notice I have very few bulky elements. Stamps etc are a great balance to give extra detail with out extra bulk. Not adding flowers, bling and chunky pieces is hard for me.

When you flip the center section with the solid orange to the left you get this next set of pages. Pockets both diagonal and horizontal.

Flip the right and you get the center panel, with pocket and the mirrored right side to the left flip out.

Flip to the left again and you get the high orange pocket and the center section that's secured with a swinging chipboard piece, swivel it to reveal the top spot ready to house your photos.

Continuing the alternating flips when you flip the one on the right you have the end of this side. Two orange high pockets on the outer flaps and a small corner pocket and tag in the middle.

So that's it my friends, a huge area for photos left and right all tucked together nicely in a box. Love this tutorial from Tammy, it's so versatile and can be used with endless possibilities. Don't forget the video to follow, it will give you such a greater perspective than the still photos. Thanks for joining me. Be sure to stop by and join and like both the Group Scrapbookers of Country Craft Creations and the Page Coffee Talk on Facebook, you'll be so glad you did!!