Christmas Mega Mini Part 1 - Materials

Hi everyone! I'm sorry that I'm a terrible blogger but I am back and ready to go! I've got my creative mojo back and I'm so excited to share this tutorial with you.

I am being obsessed with making paper bag mini albums. They're super easy and really cute. I'm getting a head start on my Christmas album this year because I made one last year and I never finished it. I made the entire outside of the album and then never put anything in it. This year will be different. Making it now (in August) so that all I'll have to do come December is add my pictures (which this album has TONS of room for because I made it too big)

Part 1 of this tutorial series is going to be your materials. So here's what you'll need.

Materials:

• Paper bags 
• In this album I used 12 paper bags. You can use less. It just has to be an even number of bags.
• There's a lot to choose from. Hobby Lobby and Michaels have their own brand. But I'm using Target's "Up & Up Giant Size Lunch Bags"
• 2 pieces of 12X12 chipboard -
• I use mat board from Hobby Lobby because it's cheap and is the exact same thing in my opinion. I can either get 35 pieces of mat board for under 5.99 or I can get a few pieces of chipboard for much much more. Hmmmm. which one to choose?!
• Scissors
• Your favorite adhesive 
• In this tutorial, I used nothing but my Aleene's Tacky Glue. 
• The paper pack of your choice. 
• I'm using "Bright Christmas" by Recollections
• Bone folder.
• This is the most important thing you'll need in my opinion. 
• Cutting board
• Cardstock for your inserts

Optional Materials: 

• Ink pads
• Ribbons/laces
• UTEE
• Puff paint
• Mod Podge
• Circle punch
• Whatever materials that YOU have that you want to use. 

Here's the video of what you'll need as well so you can see them! :D

Old Book Sketchbook - Part 2

Part 2 - Covering the Book Covers

aaaand we're back in 3, 2, 1...

Hellooo! Now that you have all of your supplies together, signatures made and your book gutted like a turkey on Thanksgiving we are ready to cover our book. 

As you saw in Part One, I have a big box of fabric that I bought at a garage sale for $4. I chose a fabric that I liked for the cover and I covered it. 

So for this part of the project you're going to need the following supplies:

• Fabric of your choosing 
• You'll need to choose a fabric for you outside covers and your inside cover (which will be in the next part of the video)
• You will want to cut your fabric like this:
• Length of the book + 2 inches (for a 1 inch border on the inside. 1 inch for each side)
• Width of the book + 2 inches (same as above)
• Glue of your choice
• I use Aleene's Fabric Fusion Glue (Note: This stuff smells to the high heavens).
• Bone Folder
• This is just to crease the spine and allow you to have unsticky fingers when putting down your glue. 

Before I get to the video, I want to add some tips for you: 

1. Please please pleaseee USE WHAT IS ON HAND. Do not go buy things just to do this project. If all you have is paper, you can do the same. exact. thing. Promise!
   
2. You will want to take the top sheet of paper and use it as a template. DO NOT flip your template or your signatures will not be the same and therefore your spine will be off as well when you bind it.
   
3. I learned the "Don't cut the edges and then put them into signatures" thing as I was doing this. Oh the beauty of learning as you go. :)
   
4. When folding the fabric over, do the short sides of the book first and then do the long sides. It'll give you a cleaner edge in the end. 

Here is the video and I hope you enjoy. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or on the video!

Old Book Sketchbook - Part 1

Over the next week or so, I'll be putting together and series of videos showing you how to make your own sketchbook out of an old book. This first part will cover the materials you need to do this project and how to prepare your book for altering.

As I made the video it didn't cross my mind to take stills of what I was doing for the blog. I need to be better about that. But before I get to the video, I'm going to show you what's in the tool kit (I tell you about it in the video) that I have. It was a Recollections brand tool kit that I got from Michael's on sale and I ended up not using half the things that were in there so I put the stuff that I use the most in there. So here you go!

Part One: Supplies and Prep

From Left to Right: Plastic palette knife, bone folder, needles, extra Xacto blades, white Sharpie pen, my old Xacto knife, an awl and my new Xacto knife. 

The Supplies listed (without interruptions in the video) are the following:

• An old book. Pick any size that you want. If you like small sketchbooks, buy a smaller book, if you like big books, buy a bigger book. It does not have to have sewn signatures (other artist's say that it MUST have it. I call bull!). Pick the book you like. (Note: The one thing you will want to keep in mind is the size of the spine. Mine is about 1 1/2 inches). 
• Paper of your choice. For my book I am using Bristol paper. It's 100 lb paper and it's made by Strathmore. 
• Paper trimmer. 
• A ruler. 
• An awl. (see above photo) to make your holes with
• bone folder (see above)
• fabric of your choice to cover the old books
• Thread (again, personal preference. I just used regular sewing thread. Nylon thread is another option. Whatever's in your budget!)
• Needle to sew with.

Okay. So here's the video! Have fun with it and leave your questions and comments!

Update and an Introduction!

HELLO!!!

First I want to start off by saying that I'm sorry that it has been such a long time since I had a post. There's been a lot of madness going on in my life. In March, I went through a very bad Depression spell. I could barely bring myself to get out of bed in the mornings for class. Then I got the flu (which made everything worse) and I ended up missing work for 2 full weeks. Then finals in school came along, I moved into my first apartment with my boyfriend and my roommate from the dorms and now I'm finally back to feeling a little more like myself and ready to get back to creating and making things to share with you all!

So I have a new series of videos that I'm going to make for you on how to make your own sketchbook out of an old book and a pad of paper.

I have part one all ready to go and I'll have it posted ASAP and the other parts will come along within the week!

Thanks for your patience and love,

Sarah

Tracy Weinzapfel March Creative Dare

This month, Tracy Weinzapfel issued us a new DARE...DUN DUN DUN.

The requirements for the challenge were to use song lyrics that mean a lot of us and to use buttons. I am SO not a button person but I'm learning to love them after this project (because I can camouflage them!)
I thought that this Dare was going to go Titanic on me and then I would just throw it out the window like a frisbee. It started off the way that I wanted it to and then I added the buttons to it and I hated it. So I left it alone for a day or two and came back, picked a color scheme and my song.

This is a record. Yes. A vinyl record that I picked up last year at a thrift store for $1. It was extremely scratched and would never be able to play again. And since this was a music themed month, I figured I better use it. I chose the song "Carry On" by Fun because it lifts my spirits when I feel down. 

The poppies are the Donna Poppies by Unity Stamps that I won a few months ago. I stamped them down on a white 12X12 mat board from Hobby Lobby and used my blue/purple/white color scheme that I chose and used my water colors and colored them in. 

The supplies and steps I used were the following: (that you can see that is because the original stuff you can't see whatsoever:) :

*Gesso, just in spots of the record because I blended in 

• Apple Barrel Acrylic - Purple Velvet & Admiral Blue
• Vinyl record (find one that is old and unplayable, please! Save good ones for people who still play vinyls and appreciate them)
• Mesh Tape (from Dollar Tree) 
• Buttons (lower left in the picture. Well hidden because I'm not a fan of them)
• Birdy came from a 4 pack of almost velvety birds
• Donna Poppies Unity Stamps
• White photo mat board (that's what the stamps are stamped on)
• Purple and blue Koi watercolors (from my travel set and that's what color the poppies are)
• watercolor paper (for the song lyrics)
• Crop-A-Dile (I punched 2 holes at the top to be able to hang it on the wall) and matching purple grosgrain ribbon. 

Then I just added the music notes, circles and added more paint over the top of the mesh paint!

She now hangs beautifully on my dorm room wall. :)

Well. I hope you all enjoyed it and will share pictures with me if you make one too!

Video for the Pocket Album

Since I got a comment about how to fold the Simple Pocket Album, I decided to make a short video to explain it. 

Fine Tip Bottles.

I have a new thing I've come to love. These are the bottles (and how I put them together) that I used to make the lines and writing of my Tracy Weinzapfel February Challenge. 

These are the bottles that I bought from my local Hobby Lobby. They're $2.99 for the pack and I had a 40% off coupon for the 2 packs that I bought (2 packs fit my container that I have for them).

Speaking of the container...this is the container I bought, it was full of those nasty little heart marshmellows that tasted like carboard (as much as I love cardboard, not the taste). It was only $1.50 for the container and I wrote my favorite verse on the front in Sharpie Oil Paint Pen in white. 

                                     The six bottles and the 6 tips fit perfectly in the containers. 

Each pack of bottles comes with 3 tips that screw on. There are 3 different sized tips for each pack. A extra fine line, fine and a kind of thicker one. 

 To fill the bottles I did a 50/50 mixture of paint and water. When I'm making mists or these bottle type things, I always use hot water, I feel like it kind of dissolves them better and breaks them down a little better compared to cold water. 

 I used my 6 favorite colors for the bottles (and once they run out I'll alternate them). 

Then I just shake them up and they come out like this. 

 I store them away nicely in my new container and call it a night! 

I hope you all have a happy and creative day.