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 paper collection

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

I Am Roses flowers

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")