Be Elegant or Die-altered album for storing dies

Hey crafty folks-Lynne here with a little project I created to help myself out with storing my thin dies....let's just say I seriously outgrew my Art Bin, and even if I could jam them all in there it would weigh about 9000 lbs-lol!

I grabbed a mini photo album from a thrift store for 50 cents (I forgot to take a "before" photo, but it was just one of those generic ones and had an illustration of a topiary tree on it) and then started going through my papers; I wanted to use a play on words for the "die" theme and of course had thought of many, but at the time was leaning toward spelling out "live and let die"-until I happened upon the Graphic 45 Gilded Lily collection with this quote on it!

That settled it-Gilded Lily would be my paper of choice! I covered the album and added a fussy-cut strip along the top before starting to play with placement of chipboard and paper.

I dry-embossed the frame with my Cuttlebug using a damask patterned embossing folder, then painted it with the pearl acrylic paint shown below. When that was dry, I rubbed some Art Alchemy Rose Gold wax  here and there, focusing on the raised areas.

The dress forms were heat-embossed with Stampendous Champagne embossing powder, then rubbed along the edges with a little of the Rose Gold wax as well. I added tulle, pearls and other bits to "dress" them up.

I fussy-cut flowers and heat-embossed them in clear to make them more sturdy, and layered them with foam adhesive around the cover. The sentiment was cut and mounted to a tag to showcase it a little more, and I added some patterned chipboard buttons from the collection to the frame to pull the colours and patterns together even more. I found magnetic sheets at the Dollar Tree which I cut to size and slipped into the pockets with my dies attached.

As the dies say (albeit backwards), THANK YOU for stopping by and giving my little album a look; I love how easy it is to alter and embellish these great chipboard pieces to personalize my projects. Have a terrifically creative, colourful and elegant week....to DIE for! xoxo

GYPSY SOUL ITEMS USED

Flourish Frame Sienna Mini
Steampunk Shape Set

OTHER ITEMS USED

Graphic 45 Gilded Lily collection
Art Alchemy metallique wax-Rose Gold
acrylic paint-baroque pearl
Champagne and clear embossing powders