Thursday, March 21, 2013

Secret Garden Mini Album with Mixed Media cover - Tutorial!



Hello there blogging beauties! I hope you are all having a GREAT week so far. The clouds decided to roll in here in "sunny" California... signs of Spring were just upon us yesterday, what happened?! Oh well... a few more drops of rain means more colorful flowers in the Spring, right? And what a perfect segway to my latest project....

I am so excited to share this Graphic 45 project with you all. To be honest, I wasn't sure how the cover of this mini album was going to turn out. I kept telling myself, "it's just the cover, I can always start over if it doesn't turn out..." But I'm so super thrilled with the end result! With just a little bit of patience and liberating fun, it ended up being one of my favorite altered art pieces to date! ♥

This mini album was created using Graphic 45's new Secret Garden paper collection and Metal Staples (all products listed and linked at the end of this blog post.)

This is how the cover of the album looked before I primed it up with gesso and sprayed away with my Lindy's Stamp Gang Startburst Sprays...


Here's what it looked like after all the spraying madness! ♥
I incorporated additional embellishments after I primed and sprayed to "fill in" the gaps...


I used garment pins to dangle each element from the charm which hangs from the binding of the album. Some of the elements include a Prima metal flower, Secret Garden chipboard tag, Staples Metal Butterfly, metal key, and a small metal frame accented with stickers from the Secret Garden Sticker sheet...


Do you spy an Ornate Metal Door Pull? It was the perfect "crown" over the mini frame, which holds a sweet sentiment from the Secret Garden "Springtime" paper.


I seriously used up all the Ornate Metal Keys from Graphic 45's Metal Staples collection. I was so super bummed that I didn't have any left for this project. :-( But I managed to find this large metal key in my stash to accent the mini frame. I primed it with gesso, as with all the other elements on the cover, then sprayed it with my LSG sprays...


I used some beautiful I Am Roses flowers to accent around the frame. At the base of the frame, I used a  small Graphic 45 Metal Tag and layered an ornate metal embellishment from Momenta over it. To the right, you'll see my old time favorite, Staples Metal Button...


Here's a close up of the frame and surrounding embellishments...

The sentiment above the frame says "CHERISH". It got a little "distressed" as I was priming up and spraying it...


Another view, different angle, of the charm I created hanging from the binding of the album.


Do you spy a "Remember" Metal Clothes Pin? I love to disassemble the clothes pin to fit a side of it nicely into a project. You can see it here on the right corner under the butterfly, over the clock face...


I used a metal corner from Momenta to accent the right corner of the cover. Check out all the texture on the base of the cover created with crepe paper, lace, and stenciling. I love how that came out! ♥

The "F" is the initial of my Mom's first name, which happens to be Flordelis (or, "fleur di lis" which is a type of Iris bearing bright colored flowers.) My Mom loves to garden and she takes many pictures of her flowers when they are in full bloom. I created this album for her to place those photos and journal about her joy of gardening...


So how did you like the mixed media cover of this mini album? ♥

Here is a video tutorial showing you how I created this album cover... in case you want to give one of these a whirl! ♥


Well, we're not finished just quite yet... I want to show you the inside of this album! ♥

Here are some photos of the interior of my album...
























This is the back cover of the album with my personalized stamp...



Whew! So that's my Secret Garden Mini Album with Mixed Media Altered cover. ♥

Thanks a ton for hanging in there and letting me share this creation with you. I had so much fun with the Secret Garden paper collection, I just can't get enough of it! ♥

I hope you give one of these albums a try sometime... it certainly is worth all the effort in the end!

This project, along with other Secret Garden projects from my Graphic 45 DT teamies, will be featured on the Graphic 45 blog today... so please stop on over to check it out! ♥

xoxo ♥,


Product List:

Secret Garden 12x12 Paper pad
Secret Garden 8x8 Paper pad
Secret Garden 6x6 Patterns and Solids pack
Secret Garden Banners
Secret Garden Tags & Envelopes
Secret Garden Stickers
Secret Garden Alphabet Stickers
Secret Garden Chipboard 1 & 2
Staples: Metal Butterfly, Antique Metal Door Pull, Metal Tag, Metal Button, Ornate Metal Key Hole, Metal Clothespin
Imaginarium Designs clock chippie
Miscellaneous metal embellishments
Lace
Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays: Salt Water Taffy, Cotton Candy Pink, Cosmo Pink, Cape Cod Coral, Fuzzy Navel Peach, Sea grass Green, My Mojito Green, Gator Gumbo Olive
Crafter's Workshop "chicken wire" 6x6 stencil
White doilies
May Arts ribbon
Recollections flowers
Petaloo flowers
Heavy Chipboard
Accucut dies: Tab Album, Pocket
Sizzix die: Pocket
Memory Box dies: Large shutter, Small window
Making Memories garment pins
Pink and Gold tulle
Mod Podge
Gesso (white)
Liquitex Modeling Paste
E6000
Glossy Accents
Hot Glue
CINCH by We R Memory Keepers
Bind-it-all owires (gold, 1")

17 comments:

Bobbie Lynn said...

Gorgeous book Arlene. The paper line you used is wonderful. Love the colors in the line, vibrant but soft. Have a lovely day.

Ana said...

You're loving mix media now. The mini album came out gorgeous! Love all the details in it. Thanks for sharing.

Rena Matus said...

Arlene,
You are just the Cat's Meow! I absolutely love your creative works of art. You are my favorite design team member. I've learned so much from your videos.
Thanks for sharing,
Rena

Crafty Moni said...

Your mini is stunning! I love everything about it! Thank you for doing a how to video,I learned a lot about mix media, and now more then ever I want to make my 1at mini:)

Peace, Love, & Cricut Hugs!
Monica L.

moni023 at yahoo com

Viki Banaszak said...

Wow! That is a gorgeous album. I love the way it turned out, but I wanted to ask why use a fancy paper on the base if you are going to cover it all up? Does it make a difference?

Sandra said...

WOW!! Fantastic book ,i love everything about it
Sandra x

Arlene said...

@Burning Rubber, I wasn't sure how the cover was going to turn out and originally I thought I would leave more of the design paper showing on the edges, but I ended up adding more texture, embellishments and sprays as I went along. If you know you'll be doing a lot of layering and texture, I would recommend doing it directly on the chipboard and not layer on the design paper. You can save the design paper for some tags and images to put inside the mini. :-)

zandra said...

LOL, let me know what the next project is....
Love this! ';o)
Hugz,
Zandra

Ephémère, Qc. said...

Gorgeous mini-album, you are amasing, good job, congratulation!

Bonnie said...

Oh my goodness, your mini is stunning, I love the cover with all the textures, I am so tempted to try this, but I am sure I could not create anything as beautiful as...Your Mom will love it! Thanks so much for sharing the video of your technique, I love watching the process and how you get to the gorgeous end result!

Kathy Straw said...

Amazing cover! I wasn't so sure I I liked when you first started but when it was finished it was gorgeous ! Thank you for showing us the process. ��

Anonymous said...

Your work is simply stunning.

Moira xxx

Cami said...

STUNNING album! Leaves me breathless and I am just amazed at how you put this all together seamlessly! You are so creative and talented. This is by far the MOST BEAUTIFUL I have ever seen.

Marcy said...

Just watched your tutorial recently Ar and this album is just stunning!!! I am so amazed by all of your details and love the art media cover. Wishing you and your family a wonderful Easter!!! :)

Cindyloohoo said...

This is one of most beautiful things I've ever seen. Thank you so much for sharing this I can't wait to even remotely try to do this. Amazing.

Andiepants said...

The cover of this album is absolutely amazing! You did a fantastic job!!

Mary Decker said...

You are a creative genius! I just found your work through Pinterest.

I love, love, love your work!

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