Autumn: It's Here

Where I am in the world has gone through a bizarre six months of weather changes. In May we had our summer; in July and August, storms and flooding; in September, a heatwave and more flooding; and in October, we had a week of winter, then summer, then finally - finally - the season settled on what it should be: Autumn.

What better than a long afternoon walk in the woods?

the park's still looking green

finally! a legendary toadstool to photograph!

oh the colours

somehow he's arranged our walks so that the halfway point is a tavern

Time to scrap some of these beautiful colours!

Watching the Seasons

The final September challenge over at Punky Scraps is up and running - and it's a beauty. Team B picked an element each and Team A had to make a page up from this list.

Michelle - Use canvas (anything canvas)

Nat - use this picture to inspire you:

Elin - use chipboard

Camilla - use 3 staples

Mandy - B&W photo or image

Maureen - make it monochromatic

 For the canvas I used part of a Pink Paislee canvas number border; I used chipboard letters; 3 staples in the top right-hand corner; a sepia-tone photo for the B&W; and tried my hardest to make it monochromatic whilst still being inspired by the image.

The photo on this page is a picture of a watercolour painted by my mum. In the envelope is a story about how I come to have a photograph of this painting.

So what did I do on this page? Because there's a hell of a lot going on! Well... I stamped some Inkadinkadoo leaves onto a page from an old book and cut them out so that I could layer them up. I mixed a little water with acrylic paint and let it run down the page. I coated the inside of an embossing folder with texturised paint and ran a piece of plain paper inside it through the Big Shot to achieve the woodgrain effect (still LOVING woodgrain!). 

 And I used lots of bits and pieces - from Echo Park's For the Record, from Webster's Pages, from October Afternoon, Graphic 45 and Artemio.

Go join in - there's still a week to take part!

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.

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: