Box for Floral Mini-Album–Completing the Inside Pieces

Today I finished embellishing the insides of the pieces to make up the box.

I had a bit of a struggle because at each stage I was far from satisfied, and kept adding more layers until it looked more or less OK. Here are the steps.

First of all, I tore the music fragments from the paper napkins into smaller pieces, and stuck them down onto the box pieces with soft matt gel medium.

They looked far too obvious and there was nothing to link them together. I added more Worn Lipstick and Seedless Preserves Distress Oxides and spritzed it lightly with water, and dried it with my heat gun. Before and after:

It still needed something to link the fragments together so I stamped some music onto the pieces without an acrylic block in order to get a nice random effect.

I still wasn’t pleased with it. The stamping was too hard looking and it just looked messy. I added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink with an Inkylicious Ink Duster which improved things somewhat, especially after I’d spritzed it with water again. On the following photos, it looks as if the music stamping has disappeared, but it is still there, but a lot more subtle, merging into the backgrouond.

I finally decided to add some white acrylic paint spatters and this definitely helped produce the effect I was after.

Coming back later after they were dry, I decided to make them a bit more subtle by adding some Black Soot Distress Oxide with an ink blender. I spritzed it lightly with water and then dried it with my heat gun. Again, before and after:

The finished pieces.

The final step was to touch up the edges and the borders on the outside of the pieces with black acrylic, and when they were dry, I gave all the pieces the heavy books treatment overnight to ensure that the pieces would be absolutely flat, and ready to be assembled into the two boxes.

I was hoping that my metal embellishments would arrive today from Ebay. I may have to wait until next week. At least I can begin assembling the box in the meantime, but I cannot finish the outside until they arrive because I need to cut the covering papers to shape, to fit around them and give a nice professional finish.

Walk-In Pantry–Making Labels

The pantry project is well-nigh finished. The slab arrived on Friday and it fits perfectly, according to the template the carpenter made, and I have got everything moved into it now apart from the spices on the spice rack, which I will deal with after the electrician has been tomorrow to fit the light.

Yesterday I brought all the spare storage jars down from my studio where I’d been storing them since we moved here, and transferred various bits and pieces into them from miscellaneous jam jars, packets and containers, and had quite a job getting everything to fit nicely in the pantry. I am very, very glad I made all those extra shelves! There are quite a few duplicated items (some even quadrupled or more!) because it was so difficult to manage the old cupboard and there was a lot of stuff at the back that I’d forgotten I’d got. Eventually things will get used up and the pantry won’t be quite so full.

I also spent some time transferring everything from the tiny kitchen in the flat back into my lovely big kitchen. I’ve still got quite a bit of sorting to do, and things are ending up in new places now I’ve got the pantry, but I’ll get it all sorted in the next few days. I also need to clean through the flat kitchen now that the cupboards are all clear.

This evening I made labels for the jars. Yesterday I found some very attractive vintage labels on the Graphics Fairy website – free downloads, and you can print them out whatever size you want. I made three different sizes for the various sizes of jars I’ve got. Most of my jars are coffee jars with nice glass lids with a plastic seal – I’ve used this brand of coffee for years and have always saved the jars, which are designed for other use after the coffee is finished, which I think is a brilliant idea. In Serif PagePlus, I created several sheets of labels, adding the text in each frame, and then I printed them out on 100 gsm copy paper. I sprayed each sheet with a fixative spray to stop the inkjet printing from running.

I brought all the stuff down so I could work from the comfort of the recliner while watching TV with my hubby.

The first job was to cut the labels out roughly, and then fussy-cut them with fine scissors.

I stuck them onto the jars with PVA adhesive, using a brush I’d already ruined with gel medium some time ago. I wanted the labels to be the same height on each size of jar, and my hubby suggested cutting a strip of card for each size, to hold up against the jar and apply the label level with the top of the strip – a quick and easy way to avoid having to measure each one. I have saved these strips of card and will keep them with one or two spare labels (waiting for more coffee jars to become empty!) – having saved the PagePlus file, I can print out any more labels I need in the future, knowing that the design will be identical.

Here are some of the jars with their labels attached.

Once this was done, I painted a layer of regular matte gel medium over the front of each label to seal it, and carefully wiped the surrounding glass clean with a piece of kitchen paper. I want to be able to wash the jars without the labels coming off or getting damaged, and the gel medium should protect the labels from getting dirty in use. The last step was to remove all the slips of paper inserted in the jars to tell me what the contents were! So nice that they are no longer needed. For the first time, I have got everything properly labelled, and not only that, but they look stylish and attractive, too.

The jars are all now back in the pantry on the shelves and they look great!

I shall photograph the pantry again tomorrow to show it complete. It will be easier to do it once there’s a light in there. I still have the magazine racks and hooks to attach to the inside of the door, but won’t do this till the electrician has finished fitting the light.

It looks as if I shall get all this finished before the arrival of the kittens. Today was the first day I used the kitchen again properly, and it was such a joy! My hubby made me laugh because he was on auto-pilot and kept going into the wrong kitchen! I haven’t done this once – probably because my mind is so full of having my own kitchen back, and enjoying the pantry. Having a walk-in pantry, complete with a slab, and manageable shelving, has been a long-time dream of mine – I’ve never had one before and it’s absolutely brilliant.

More photos after tomorrow!

Recycled Mini-Album–Sun, Sea and Sand Pt 2

Following on from yesterday, the partially-completed page was still not dry, probably because the foil doesn’t exactly let the air get at the gel medium! Anyway I thought I’d work on it as it was dry enough to handle.

I chose the Deep Red Seashell Collection stamps that I got recently, and selected three different stamps, and stamped using sepia archival ink onto cream card.

I fussy cut the shells.

Then I applied some of them to the right-hand page, sticking them down with regular matt gel medium.

The next step was to paint the sand, for which I used yellow ochre acrylic paint. The coarse pumice gel medium gives a gorgeous rough texture!

I hand-wrote some text using a medium sepia waterproof pen onto the same card I used for the shells, and added some Tea Dye distress ink.

I decided to add some Zentangles as a border to the right-hand page, and selected three from my Zentangle album. Each of these ATC-sized cards has the instructions on the reverse, for drawing the design. The designs I chose were Agua, Footlites and Float Fest.

I had done quite a bit of work on the right-hand page and forgot to take any photos – after I stuck down the shells, I also stuck down the bit of net that I’d cut off from the piece on the left-hand page, using regular matt gel medium, and then adding a bit more glass bead gel medium on top. I added some shading to the shells, using distress inks as watercolours, in Tea Dye and then some Black Soot because the brown wasn’t showing up enough. I added some text around the edge of the photo to break up the hard edge, and then did the Zentangles using my white pen.

I then added the cut out words to the left-hand page and drew a border around each using the white pen, and stuck down a couple of shells at the bottom, using regular matt gel medium. This completes the page.

Now for some detail shots. First of all, the bottom-left. You can see to the left of the shells that the extra glass bead gel medium that I added has yet to dry – it looks milky, but will dry clear.

Top-left. You can see that I have extended the Float Fest Zentangle a little way onto the page, and added the white outlines to the text pieces.

Top-right.. Float Fest and Footlites Zentangles, and text added around the photograph.

Finally, bottom-right. Again, you can see the glass bead gel medium which hasn’t dried. Agua Zentangle, and a couple of swirls to fill the corner.

I am pleased with how this page has turned out, and with the introduction of some colour into this album. Most of it so far has been very monochrome or sepia. As the family history progresses, there will be some colour photos, and the backgrounds need to reflect this so that they blend in, but I shall keep the palette on each page fairly limited, I think, and maintain the black and white borders throughout. On the above photo you can see again how the borders are revealed by the decreasing size of the pages, adding a deeper border to each page as one approaches the centre of each signature.

Recycled Mini-Album–Sun, Sea and Sand Pt 1

The latest page is a remembrance of summer holidays at the seaside, and has just one photo, of the family holidaying with friends, in the 1950s.

The first photo shows some of the supplies lined up, to make a seaside-themed page.

Some time ago, I was experimenting with painting foil with acrylics, and made the two ATC-sized samples you can see on the left, which were then mounted to be part of a display at a craft show where I was demonstrating my stuff. (I don’t seem to have done a post about making these.) Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do the same technique here, and create a fishing net, this time from a fruit net instead of scrim. The small bag contains some spacer beads from a necklace I bought at the village fete and took apart, and these will make great floats for the net!

Also in my stash, I found some pieces of blue card left over from another project, with a rather interesting edge to them, which looks like waves, so I cut them to size, inked them with Salty Ocean distress ink (appropriately), and layered them together with my ATG glue. I added a bit of inking to the top as well, to indicate the sky.

Next step: the foil. I crumpled up a piece of kitchen foil and applied it with generous amounts of regular matt gel medium.

To create the glaze to colour the foil, I mixed a small quantity of phthalo green and Winsor blue, thinning it with some acrylic polymer. (If you use water, you start to lose the adhesive quality of the paint and it won’t stick on.) I didn’t mix it too thoroughly, so that there would be some variation between the blue and green on the foil.

The foil painted with the glaze. It’s quite shiny, but this doesn’t show up ion the photo.

I painted the net with what was left – the blue and green combined with the orange made a nice dark colour. I made a lot of mess on my craft sheet (and my hands!) doing this, and the final stage was to use the net to wipe the remaining paint off the palette. No waste!!

I tried drying it gently with my heat gun, and it started to shrink up (being plastic) – this was actually a good thing because the mesh became smaller, and it had a firmer texture. I must try melting the stuff a bit more and see what happens. Next, I laid the net down onto the foil, again using copious amounts of gel medium. I then added some glass bead gel medium to the bottom of the net, which, when dry, will look like foamy sea water, and some coarse pumice gel medium to the right, to create some sand, which will be painted when dry. I do love these textured mediums! I have used the pumice one to create earth, and the bitumen roof on my beehive explosion box, as well as sand. With the right colour added, it’s very convincing!

Some linen thread and the beads to make the floats.

The floats added to the net, stuck down with a generous amount of matt gel medium. All this gel medium will dry crystal clear, sticking everything down and just leaving the texture.

The excess will be folded round the back or cut off, once the gel medium is dry.

While waiting for the left-hand page elements to dry, I turned my attention to the right-hand page. For this I am repeating what I did on an earlier page, using Versamark to stamp, and then brushing on some Perfect Pearls for an iridescent background against the black page, heat setting it to finish.

I used the Berry Twist Perfect Pearls at the top, and the Biscotti at the bottom – sky and sand! I tore off two strips of the blue card with the wave pattern at the top, and inked them with Salty Ocean distress ink as before, before laying them down with the photo, using regular matt gel medium.

The pages so far. I have laid the left-hand piece in place, but it is not stuck down yet. I added a bit more of the glass bead gel medium along the bottom of the blue card on the right-hand page. Waiting for everything to dry, which is taking quite a long time!

I have completed the border though, using a wavy line to suit the theme, but not so specifically sea-like that it won’t work on the page I’ve drawn it on (larger page on the right, further on in the signature). I still want to do a bit more work on the right hand page as well, and there is some text to be added. Watch this space.

Recycled Mini-Album–Early Family Life

I have completed the first two pages in the Early Family Life section of the recycled mini-album.

The first photo shows the photos for this section, and the materials for the first page. The stamp set is Darkroom Door Alphabet Medley, and I used the larger set. You can see that I have stamped the letters onto scrap card using sepia archival ink.

The photos and letters in place, and the border started. Each letter has been embellished with black and white pens.

The finished title page of the section, with the black border on the right being extended into the photo, and more embellishment added.

Moving on to the next pages, for the background I chose one of the alcohol ink backgrounds I made the other day – this is the black and white one, using black, white and silver mixative alcohol inks on the reverse side of a shiny A5 flier relating to solar panels – an appropriate background for this project as it is using recycled paper!  After cutting the sheet into two, cut down to size, I stuck them down, using regular matt gel medium. I chose three photos for this page,and stuck them down at different angles, using the gel medium as before. In the picture you can also see the glass bead gel medium which I used for texture on this page. I love this stuff!

Here is the completed page. I added the white squares of the border using a white marker pen, and the shading was done with a wet brush and some very dilute black acrylic paint. It made the white marker pen run, but I didn’t mind this, as I blotted it off, and then went over the black squares with a permanent black marker pen.

I wrote the title words with a permanent black marker and cut them out, and then distressed the edges with Black Soot distress ink. These were stuck down with regular matt gel medium. The other text was written with a combination of the white and black marker pens.

I applied the glass bead gel medium fairly sparingly around the edges of the photos to mute the edges somewhat, and a little on the background, using a palette knife. When it was dry, I added some silver gilding wax with my finger on the parts over the photo edges, leaving the medium on the background unchanged, so that the background showed through. Unfortunately the photo doesn’t pick this up very well, but when dry, the glass bead gel medium dries crystal clear and the glass micro-beads sparkle.

If you look carefully at the photos, the smallest child in the canoe and in the car, and the small child in the foreground in the group photo beside the baby, is Shoshi!! (I haven’t changed much, have I…) The Ford Consul was new when this photo was taken, and I can just remember this car, which was lime green with a bench seat in the front. Before that we had a Riley but I don’t remember that.

I am making reasonable progress with this album but there are still an awful lot of pages to embellish!! With this double page spread I have begun the second of five signatures. I am determined to finish the project by the end of the year because I am anxious to start on some new work, majoring on textiles, and getting my new sewing machine going, and developing my teabag art.

Recycled Mini-Album Pages–Wedding

Lovely to be getting back into the recycled mini-album project again! After yesterday’s effort (please scroll down to see previous post), today I completed a page I have been looking forward to doing – the wedding.

I wanted to use the line “White lace and promises” from one of my favourite Carpenters’ songs, “We’ve Only Just Begun,” so I definitely needed to add some lace to my page. I was able to find lace, ribbon and crochet flowers from my stash – little bits of this and that, in keeping with the recycled theme of the album.

I went online to find out the best way to stick down lace, and the general consensus of opinion was that the red-backed ultra-sticky double-sided tape was the best, but I did add a little gel medium along the top of the large piece of lace to keep the shape as I manipulated it to fit the curved border of the page. To prevent the stickiness of the double-sided tape in the holes in the lace, I brushed it with talc.

I stuck down two photos using soft matt gel medium, tucking the right-hand one under the large lace, and then stuck down some narrow lace around two sides of the left-hand photo with the ultra-sticky double-sided tape, gathering it around the top and corner, and brushed it with talc as before.

I cut two pieces from the edge of a small doily and fixed them down at the bottom of the photo on the left-hand side, using soft matt gel medium.

Then it was time to work on the border for the left-hand page, and I continued the alternate stripes of black and white, with titanium white acrylic paint, and tidying up afterwards with my white marker, and some black acrylic paint,making them a bit wider than before, and adding some flowers in between, using my white marker pen. I also added some dots, and some wavy lines and dots around the photos, and ultimately some little white flowers and hearts on the pages.

From my stash I found a short length of narrow creamy-white ribbon and used my bow maker to create two bows – the larger one was a double bow (wrapping the ribbon round the bow maker twice before forming the knot), and glued these down with hot glue, twisting the ribbon and leaving the ends free.

At this stage, I also added some silver gilding wax to the doily pieces.

The final step as far as the embellishments were concerned was the addition of a few crochet flowers. I made a lot of these some time ago for my stash, and found some that were small enough – some are quite large, and with several layers, making them too thick for this project.

Again, these were fixed down with hot glue. I added some liquid pearls (white opal) to the centres and left them to dry overnight.

The final stage of the project was to add some text, and I did this with my white marker pen, putting the date and venue, and adding the words “White lace and promises” on the right hand side of the page.

The completed page.

Here are some detail shots.

This will be the most feminine page in the whole album, and I have so enjoyed creating it!