nature's bounty keepsake album

There is nothing like the beauty that nature presents to us each and every day. 

I am always awed by the details that can be found in something as simple as a piece of tree bark or as glorious as a cloud formation. I wanted to create an album to house small bits of this natural wonder in one place to spark inspiration or simply pass time in admiration. This album needed to have spots to jot down a note or two about something seen as well as for the inclusion of a snippet, or memento, here and there. The mini album I created allows opportunities for all of these things.

 I started with a bracket edged stagger mini album from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts. This album contains six pages with various edges that are staggered to allow small glimpses of the pages below. The album comes with rings to keep all of your pages together, forming the album.

Since I  have an idea for how I hope to use this album, I search through my paper stash to find some papers that will work best as a base for embellishing and note taking. I also look for patterns that coordinate to cover the "back sides" of each page, since the album is designed to open completely and lay flat if desired. Once the papers are selected, each album page is outlined on the paper and fussy cut to fit. *Tip: mark each page and its respective paper with a coordinating letter/number to make it easier to distinguish what goes where later on. I mark my papers (on the reverse sides) with 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, etc. Assembly is much simpler when you know where everything belongs.  

Once I cut everything out, I begin the process of assembling the album. Each paper is adhered to the chipboard album page with collage medium and allowed to dry. I find it easiest to do all of the "a" sides and then come back after these are dry, turn them over and adhere all the "b" sides. I make sure to place something weighted on top of the pages while the adhesive is drying to ensure that everything stays flat. 

  When the covered pieces are ready for embellishing, I consider each pair of pages that coordinates when the album is open in the flat position. I select a sub-theme that follows nature's inspiration, and then, appropriate embellishments, stencils, stamps and inks to work with. A baroque panel is cut for each upper page. I begin to lay out each spread and when I am satisfied, I create the pieces. When all of the pages are complete, I fasten an eyelet at each page hole location. This will facilitate turning the pages, since they have so many embellishments.

 Pages 1b and 2a contain some treasured feathers collected on a nature walk. I have always wanted a special way to display the "heart" feather, and love that it now has a forever home.
Pages 2b and 3a will be the perfect place to document all of the wonderful moths and butterflies that visit the gardens each year. I hand stitched a small booklet from vellum for wing pattern sketches or color and size notation. 
Pages 3b and 4a are created with beautiful leaves that I collected last fall, when the colors were at their prime. I brought them home and coated them with resin to keep the rich colors intact. I was so happy to use a few of these in the album.

Pages 4b and 5a will be perfect for storing plucked wildflowers, clovers or seeds. There are so many textures and patterns and colors to be found amongst the plants. I even created a mini envelope in coordinating paper to tuck things into.

Pages 5b and 6a are left mostly open for note taking or if there is something significant to be added. I took the opportunity to include a stem from one of my favorite signs of spring, the pussywillow. I create the sentiment "inspire hope, embrace imperfection, see possibility everywhere" which really encompasses all that I hope for this album to become a keepsake of.

These are some-close up  pictures of the inside spreads, showing some of the smaller details like textures, stenciling, stamping, and ink colors. 

I hope that you have enjoyed my nature's bounty keepsake album. Whether it inspires you to take an extra moment to admire your surroundings or create something of your own, I believe we can all benefit from taking a moment to pause and reflect on the beauty in nature's details. 

Enjoy each day to its fullest. 

I sincerely appreciate you stopping by today.

~Ann

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts used:

Bracket Edge Stagger Mini Album

A little flower power.

I felt the need to make something cheerful and bright for my post for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts for today. I suppose everyone knows how much I love playing with house shapes, so it's no surprise that I picked the House Room Box Four Cubbies!
My inspiration came from handling the pretty and delicate Posey Panel. I decided that I wanted to fill the house with pretty, cheerful flowers.
And here it is.

I love the bright magenta, purple, orange and teal on the vivid green house!
Here is where I began....

I assembled and glued my little House Room Box together.

I gave the inside of the House and the Posey Panel a good coat of white paint.

I cut and glued this pretty green paper on the roof and the outside of the house, covering the sides, back and bottom.

Using a hand drill, I put a hole in the center of the ridge vent on the roof of the house and set it aside.

After the paint dried on the Posey Panel, I cut each flower out and glued them on cloth covered florist wire. You can use any wire you have on hand...I used this because I had it and it's green.
I patched up the backs where needed with white paint.......

And went to town with color. After the first coat dried, I added detail with little dots of white (I used a Sharpie Poster Pen in white) and then with a bit of glue, added a couple of pretty beads to the flower stems. If you add leaves, be sure and glue them fairly high up (I glued mine to the back of the beads).

I bent the wires 90 degrees from the flower and cut them to a little less than an inch so that my flowers would fit into the house and sit just inside, but not on the edge.
In oder for them to be easily glued in place, I cut some leaf shapes from the green paper and glued them to the bent part of the 'flower stem'.

I then glued the whole thing into the cubbie.

I chose three of the larger flowers and glued them into the hole I drilled in my roof. After they dried completely, using wire cutters, I cut off the stems that were showing in the little attic.
I added some moss around the flowers at the top and in the attic. I nestled two sweet little birds in....one on top with the flowers and the other in the attic (These were beads I found in a string at the craft store). I added some leaves and a flower to the attic space to tie it in to the rest of the house.

As a final touch to the front of the house, I painted and glued on this cute little Petal Corners to the gable.

I added a flower and a Petal corner to the back of the house and some little dots for detail.
Make sure you paint the backs of your flowers as they show when you turn your house around!
Thank for stopping by!
SUPPLIES:
House Room Box Four Cubbies
Posey Panel
Petal Corners

Additional Supplies:
Acrylic paint
White Dresden Trim
Bo Bunny Butterfly Kisses Scrapbook Paper
White Sharpie Poster Paint Marker
Bird Beads
Moss
Florist wire

Evolve

Hi Everyone,

Jess here today with a masculine project for you. 

 I have been on a kick lately doing more masculine and grungy projects.  This one evolved into one too.   

I used an Extra Large tag and scored the bottom to create the shelf.  I used a piece of mixed media tape to hold the bend since I knew I would be adding some weight to it. 

I used a piece of paper from Tim Holtz that had a blueprint type feel to it and added some stamped elements.

I wanted there to be more wings on it, so I found most of my wings stamps and added them all over.  I liked the man wearing goggles too, just in case my guy is worried about something getting in his eye.  

I used the Butterfly of Gears and cut it in half.  This side I embossed using a metallic gold.  I added different colors by dripping on alcohol inks. 

I added some metal gears and brads.  I used the chipboard gear from the Miniature Guy Things Set too.  

The other side was embossed and backed with paper to make it look like a monarch wing.  

I added a jar of gears for him to stand on and the rest came down to details.  

There are more wings with blueprint details over them.  Tiny blueprints are rolled up.  There are some failed experiments down there too.  

The letters add the finishing touch.  

Enjoy!

Jess

Vintage Girl Greeting Card

Hello there friends and crafty peeps! Happy Sunday to all of you! I'm just dropping in to share a card I created with some fabby chipboard from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.

I chose the Rose Leaves chippie as I  wanted to try stamping on the surface and I really liked that it was wide enough to show a pattern.

Polka dot was an obvious choice for this vintagy inspired card.

I topped the chippie with a combination of handcrafted and premade flowers and loopy twine bows.

I found a sweet little metal charm in my stash and was the perfect aged finish to coordinate with the painted chipboard.

And just to show that you can never have enough flowers on a card.....here's a big pile more lol.

I wiped the chipboard down with a damp cloth to prepare it for finishing.

This acrylic base coat is a creamy metallic gray.

Once the base coat was dry I used my anti static tool to brush the surface. I dabbed the polka dot stamp in Perfect Medium then applied it to the chippie. I sprinkled on white embossing powder then heat set it to make it permanent. It was the perfect base for the vintagy elements.

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts~ Rose Leaves

Wishing everyone a happy and productive day : ) G

A Perilous Pet

Happy Saturday, everyone! My project for today revolves around one of my favorite crafting themes... putting tiny train people in peril. I have done so many things to these little HO scale (1:87) figures over the years. They have been both zombified and chased by zombies. I even staged a crime scene on a mousetrap complete with a tiny forensic investigation team. When I saw this lifelike bearded dragon figure at Tractor Supply nestled in with their assorted farm animal toys, I knew it had to come home with me to play. 

I originally thought I would stage it in a Godzilla-type rampage scene but changed my mind when I saw the GSL Miniature Greenhouse With Stand.

A nice feature of this piece is the greenhouse can actually be used separately from it's stand if you like. I love the look of a wrought iron greenhouse so decided to paint the piece with black acrylic paint. The stand consists of a platform, four legs and four decorative skirt sections. 

Here's the stand glued together with tacky glue. I sat it upside down while the glue dried.

 

The shelf that fits in the bottom of the stand can be placed at any height you like. I thought the height of a spool of thread was perfect and used one to hold the shelf in place while the glue dried.

The awesome bearded dragon is sitting on a bed of newspapers that I shrunk down and printed then glued into place on the greenhouse floor. I selected the train figure from my stash that fit best in it's mouth and glued it in place.

The greenhouse has four walls that fit into the base. I just had to add the lizard, a small ceramic water dish and a piece of fern garland before gluing it to the stand.

The only thing left was to add a bit of Dresden trim around the greenhouse base and glue the two roof pieces into place. For the shelf, I made a tiny bearded dragon care manual from a miniature book and a printed cover image. The Bearded Dragon Treats consists of a glow in the dark worm stuffed inside a small corked bottle and a printed label. Lastly, there are a few more tiny people in a glass bottle. I included one with a rifle for self defense. I think she was originally part of a carnival shooting gallery set.

I may need to pick up another lizard for that rampage scene after all...

Thanks for stopping by!

Gypsy Soul Laser Items Used

Miniature Greenhouse With Stand

Other Items Used

Tacky glue

Acrylic paint

Schleich bearded dragon figure

HO scale train figures

Printed images

Dresden trim

Mini glass bottles

Miniature book

Glow in the dark worm

Pottery dish

Fern garland

Hearts Have All Things

Hello and Happy Friday!! Jennalee here today with a collaged assemblage featuring the Doodled Cage with Solid Back. This cage was the perfect jumping point for the whole piece.

Start by prepping the cage. Emboss the front of the cage using Ancient Amber Baked Texture powder. Heat random spots a second time and sprinkle on Patina Oxide Baked Texture powder and heat set. 

Paint the back of the cage and add random bits of Patina Oxide Baked Texture. 

Make a copy of a vintage photo booth photo and add a layer of Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture powder for the perfect vintage touch. 

Adhere photo to back of cage. With sewing machine stitch down the top of the cage. 

The bottom of the cage ripped a bit when I was stitching it down. I love the added texture and detail. 

Begin building layers for the collage under the cage. As I was looking for the perfect pieces I stumbled across this bit from a vintage cabinet card folder. I added a bit of lace with my machine and some hand stitching with a needle and Tim Holtz's Craft Thread. 

Heat emboss a key and key plate from the Keys and Plates Shape Set with Burnt Copper Leaves powder. Punch holes in the key, the key plate already has holes and attach to top of collage with mini brads. Attach chain piece to other side of key and key plate with mini brads. 

Add sentiment sticker to bottom of birdcage. I used a sentiment from Tim Holtz's Clippings Stickers. 

I really enjoyed this project. It was one of those pieces that I didn't think and just followed where it took me. I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial. Thanks for stopping by!! 

~ Happy Creating ~ Jennalee