Pumpkins and Pears: MBA Design Team October Challenge

Thank you all for hanging on since my sneak peek last week. I can now bring you the full feature... drum roll please...

My Pumpkins and Pears project for the Mini Book Anonymous design team comes with a tutorial (below) and a video (I made a video!), as well as a dashing of versatility in the actual structure of the mini (you can use it for recipe cards, a stationery set, an address book, a card gift set...).

Pumpkins and Pears

Materials Needed:

• 2 x smaller* cardboard rectangles (for centre 'spine'), glued together for strength
• 4 x larger* cardboard rectangles (for front and back covers) - stick 2 together to give 2 covers
• enough fabric to cover
• 6 x sheets of plain card
• 1 x sheet of patterned card
• embellishments of your choice, including other patterned paper/card
• a 1 metre cord or ribbon
• supplies: glue, ruler, scissors, sewing machine, etc

* My measurements were 2 x 5cm x 21cm (i.e. a strip the width of an A4 sheet) and 4 x 14.85cm x 21cm (i.e. an A5 sheet). All subsequent measurements shown are to fit a book this size.

I made the entire structure from scratch. So first up, I'll show you some pictures of that:

1) Line up the cardboard rectangles on the fabric and cut fabric to size. Leave enough room to create a hem all the way around.

2) Cover the spine with fabric, using glue or double-sided tape, and stitch to finish.

 

3) Line up rectangles again, then pin, press and hem edges of fabric.

 

 

4) Fold and press edges over the cardboard. Stick down with glue or double-sided tape. Fold in corners and stick down.

 

Now for decorating your book:

5) Cut the patterned card to size so that it covers the inside (bare) cardboard.

6) Make two trays (click on the first image to enlarge for measurements), line them up on the inside of your book so that they don't come into contact with each other when the book closes, and stick down with glue or double-sided tape.

 

  

7) Cut the plain card to size so that it fits into the trays, and decorate one side with your choice of patterned paper.

8) Now you're free to embellish as you please! 

 

 

 

 

The pumpkin and pear embellishments are so cute and so fun to make. Today, though, I've run out of time, so I'll settle for a few photos now, and then I'll come back on Tuesday with a more in-depth tutorial on how to make these fun little shapes:

9) Once you've got your shapes...

 

...fix them to the cord or ribbon. Then double up your cord so the two shapes, at each end, meet, and loop it around the spine of the book. Fit the two shapes through the loop at the top and pull tight. This is a lanyard hitch (the type you use to fix labels to luggage).

 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the creative process behind this mini. Go check out my video, and do come back here and let me know what you think. I know there's some improvement to be made (sound levels in particular) but it was only my first attempt....any feedback is most welcome! I also really recommend hopping over to Mini Book Anonymous to check out the other DT members' projects - they're amazingly creative, and each one is very different, providing LOTS of inspiration.

I Ain't Gonna Stop the Rain by Complainin'

Now that August is nearly over it's time to celebrate what an awesomely hot, sunny and bright month it was.

Huh?

That's what I'd like to be writing, but unfortunately, the opposite is true: it's time to document, instead, what a disappointingly wet, cold and thoroughly autumnal August it's been this year.

Now, I know I won't stop the rain by complaining. So why not just be practical about it? Make a record of what it's been like and how I've dealt with it. Turn it into a celebration of sorts. Exercise my creativity and make sure that inner summertime is still there somewhere.

I went with a mini-book, inspired by some paper I picked up recently (MME Quite Contrary Jack & Jill: Be Happy 'Gleeful Paper' and My Favourite Thing 'Colourful Umbrellas Paper').

I cut this shape from the two MME papers and also some white and brown cardstock, and some acetate. I used Sassafras Lass cloud stamps and Toga chipboard letters on the front page:

I printed a photo we took at the Belgian Day of Independence in July and inserted it at the beginning. It's the only photo I used - I think it did all the work required from photos, speaking volumes about the weather, about Brussels, about how to deal with the rain. It features a group of drama students arranging themselves into a representation of a thought that was once in Belgian painter René Magritte's head.

I wanted lots of layers, and lots of variety with as few different papers as possible. The MME papers are double-sided, so that meant I had four patterns and two base colours to play with.
Thickers helped raise the relief of the pages:

I incorporated lots of clouds (obviously!) and raindrops (I'm so glad I saved these teardrop gems!). The wellies I cut from foam and drew onto with a thick black pen:

For the acetate page I traced over the umbrellas and coloured them in, using a CD pen (it doesn't come off the acetate):

For one page I stamped around the edges and then painted over most of the page with a layer of acrylic paint (I've seen it around a few times so I wanted to try it myself):

On some leftover acetate I freehanded some swirls and dots with the CD pen, and added a little bit of accent white acrylic paint here and there before cutting around it and sticking it over a page of stamped clouds:
Finally, I couldn't resist including the words of one of my favourite poems, Thomas Hardy's 'A Thunderstorm in Town':
I am proud to say that I have achieved exactly what I wanted from this mini - catharsis, for sure, but it also really makes me smile now when I look at it. A few things I'm really happy with are the layering of the lettering:

Using Glossy Accents over a cut-out umbrella to make a strong, shiny coordinating embie:

And the free-hand acetate swirl:

I hope looking at these bright pictures can put a smile on your face too, even if it's bright and sunny where you are. Thanks for looking, and I'll be back on Tuesday with a little tip I recently came across, and the results of my giveaway.

Back to Basics

The next installation in my mini-album rampage is called 'Nature and the Girl'. It's a light-hearted record of a visit to Kew Gardens, London, and my slight apprehension of the great outdoors (which, of course, is a long way from the controlled environment of Kew Gardens!).
I used cardboard - an old cardboard box that was happily decorated on one side (thanks, Ikea, for selling nice-looking but flimsy storage solutions). I painted the other side green, very roughly, so some cardboard still showed through. And then I panicked about Christmas colours... but the autumn colours in the photos inspired my choice of papers and just about brought it back from the brink of Yule.

I kept to one style of journalling throughout, to give the mini-album coherence and consistency, and threw in a few chipboard letters here and there to brighten things up.



I made all the flowers from scraps of paper, fabric samples, buttons and brads, enjoying more and more the rough, haphazard effect.

The papers I used were from the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird range, as were some of the embellishments, and the bird stamps were from Inkadinkadoo.

And it all came about because of the colours in this photo: