Sunday, September 28, 2008

A Tutorial for Altered Tins

You start out with a tin. Small tins work great, but so do larger tins, lunch boxes or altoid tins. (If you ever see this kind of chocolate you should definitely buy it because the chocolate is so amazing with wine and the tin is fun to alter. Total win win. I bought 3...)

You start by tracing an approximate shape onto your patterned paper. This works best with lighter weight paper. You can use cardstock weight pp, but it is much easier with the lighter paper. I would like to point out that this tin has a curve to the lid. If you are using an altoids tin or something similar it will not have this slope and will be much easier to alter. You would just be able to cut for the lid and then put ribbon or a strip of paper (or even paint) on the side edge. Notice how imperfect my line is. You DON'T have to be exact, by any means.

Cut out your paper and coat your tin with Mod Podge. Just a note about Mod Podge: It is a sealer/adhesive and comes in different finishes. I usually use a matte finish, but they also make glossy and glitter finishes as well. It is available at JoAnns, Michaels, WalMart...

You want to put the paper on the tin and cut slits aroung the corners.

The slits allow you to fold around the slope. Again, if you are doing a tin without a sloping lid you could skip to the next step.

Tuck your ends in all the way around.

Trim as closely as possible with your scissors. Don't stress about being exact. You don't need to be.

Use a nail file to trim your excess paper.

Coat your project with Mod Podge and add your embellishments (I used die cuts here).

That is all there is to it, folks!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Altered Lunch Box

I made this altered lunch box for a challenge on the [some] assembly required blog. I saw the ones their design team had done and I just got really inspired. I've been doing a lot of tin-altering lately I guess. I had this great paper from BasicGrey's Baby Girl collection. I love it that I used it to alter and it isn't locked away out of sight in my scrapbook. I wanted a lot of texture and depth on this project and I did that by distressing and layering. I love the addition of the vintage inspired lace and the antique button. It gives it such a shabby chic quality that I love. I used glittered chipboard and 'Vintage Photo' distress ink. The flowers are from Prima and I used Autumn Leaves stamps to make the swirls. I mixed the color of acrylic gouache to match the paper exactly. A huge shout out to my Mom for teaching me that useful skill. I used Mod Podge as an adhesive and to seal the paint and paper. I also used Mod Podge to accent my clothes, hair and sewing machine. Do not try that at home. That stuff never comes out once it dries! Suprisingly enough I didn' make an album to go inside this one. I plan on using it to store my cards until it is time to use them. I plan on blogging a lot more frequently, so be sure to stop back in soon.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

A Mini Album

I made this for my Hubby. He is overseas right now, serving his country. I altered an altoid tin for him to keep in his uniform pocket. Inside is a mini album with pictures of the kids and I. The paper is from Scenic Route. I made this album, a card and I still have some left over to play with! The base of the album is a 3 1/2 strip of 'kraft' colored cardstock. It is scored every 2 inches and folded like an accordion. I used a corner rounder to give each page more definition (and so it will fit in the tin). The front of the album says "A World Apart" I used rub ons from K&Co. The inside of the album says "but forever close in my heart"

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Ah...True Love

This is a layout for my 'Love Story' album. I still haven't found the perfect album yet, but I have 6 or 7 layouts for it. For this layout I used some Wild Asparagus paper for the backround. Wild Asparagus is a recent discovery of mine. It is the nicest paper I have ever used. The patterns are so beautiful and the texture is amazing. I sprayed a little bit of Glimmer Mist on the paper to give it a slight sheen. I also glimmer misted the back of the vellum quote, using the black die cut as a mask. If you ever plan to use glimmer mist on vellum be warned that it curls up when wet. I like the effect, but it is not something I could have planned. I used Doodlebug glitter in Beetle black on the title. I also used some doodlebug flock on the braces for a rich, textured look. The locket is a junk store treasure and I crocheted the flowers myself. The brads in the center of the flowers are plain office brads. I didn't have any in the size I wanted, so I used a rub on to alter the look. The notepaper is from Making Memories and the heart paper is a little splurge from my last trip to the scrap store. It is from "Journaler's Notebook" by Creative Imaginations. At $8.50 for 20 pages it was a real splurge for me, but I really loved it. I colored in the leaves with colored pencils and added more glitter to the flourishes. The ticket that says 'Never Forget' is by Melissa Frances. I really hate the way I look in the photograph, but it is sentimental, so I felt like I have put off scrapping it for long enough. I have a lot of photos where the quality is not the greatest, but are very important to me. It is hard for me to get over that, but preserving memories is what scrapbooking is really all about. Of course that and all the pretty papers.... Thank you so much for reading. Have a fantastic day!