Floral Mini-Album Pt 12 Waterfall Inside Front Cover

Trying to catch up with updating the posts about making the Floral Mini-Album! Originally I was doing this on a daily basis but I’m afraid that slipped somewhat… I have now started working on a box for this so thought I’d get back to updating this blog with the album posts.

Recently I made a new mini-album, about my mum who died in December. I was unable to publish anything about this until now because it is a present for her best friend, who sometimes visits my blog, and I wanted it to be a surprise for her. I wrote a series of blog posts as I did each stage of the project, so I didn’t forget what I did, and they will be published in sequence now the project is finished and has been given to our friend.

If you want to see the finished project, please click here.

In this session, I returned to the inside of the front cover and began work on the waterfall mini. I found several very good tutorials for constructing these on Youtube – I needed to refresh my memory because it is a very long time since I did one. The last one I did was a special birthday card for my hubby back in 2010.

These are the pieces I have cut for the construction of the waterfall. If you look carefully, you can see that I have already sored the lines on the long narrow piece, ready to attach the square page pieces.

The smaller rectangular piece is the back piece; the rectangular white piece is to reinforce the back piece, and the long strip is the band that goes around the back and holds the waterfall in place. The square pieces are the pages.

The first step was to make the mats for the six pages for each album. In each of the next few photos, you can see the original pink card, and each step beside examples of the previous step, to see how the alteration progresses.

I was keen to achieve a colour scheme to reflect the background paper, co-ordinating the colours, but at the same time giving a bit of contrast in the texture, so I began by smooshing with Barn Door Distress Ink, in order to introduce some splashes of red in the pink.

It’s amazing the transformation of these rather boring papers that can take place with a few layers of different inks.

The second step was to smoosh each one with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide. This gave me the purple splash that I needed. Again, you can see some of the original card underneath, and the previous stage on the right.

I found that this treatment did more or less get rid of the text on the pieces, but I didn’t mind if a bit is still visible as it just added to the texture. Anyway, much of the surface of the squares will be covered with photos.

The final step was the double distressing of each one. The next photo shows phase 1 of this, using Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

Phase 2 – using Black Soot Distress Ink.

The finished mats attached to the pages.

I was now ready to begin constructing the waterfall. The next photo shows the addition of double-sided tape between the scored lines on the back piece. I used the red tape because it is stronger than the regular tape. You could use wet glue.

Starting at the bottom, I added the pages one by one, lining them up carefully so that they were even, and removing the backing from the tape as I attached each page.

Here are both waterfalls with all the pages added.

Propping up the waterfall and photographing it from the side, you can see how the pages overlap and how the scored back piece works – the scored card curves and causes the pages to “roll” over.

The back piece is reinforced with another piece of card. Here, I have added red double-sided tape and marked the centre, and I have cut the small piece of card for the tab, folded in half and glued at the folded end.

The folded tab attached. The reinforcing piece is sandwiched between the two open ends of the tab which is attached with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. This needs to be strongly attached, because it is by pulling on this tab that the mechanism works. After attaching the tab, I was able o stick the reinforcing piece down onto the back piece, again using the red double-sided tape.

Both waterfalls with their pull tabs attached, top and bottom views.

Constructing the mechanism. The long narrow strip is glued under the back and the sides folded around. This is hard to explain and it much easier to understand if you follow a video tutorial on this – plenty to choose from on Youtube.

In this photo, you can see that I have applied Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, and when I fold that piece down, it will be strong and secure.

If I do this again, I shall make sure that the long strip is the same colour as the waterfall because in this case, the folded edges of the white card were visible at the sides of the waterfall. I had to paint them with black acrylic paint where they showed, and they miraculously disappeared!

The completed waterfall, ready to install.

It was at this point that I realised that when the mechanism was worked, the undersides of the pages would be visible, and would require mats. This photo shows the pieces already cut and waiting to be inked.

I began the process by smooshing them with Barn Door Distress Ink. This pink and orange paper seems to resist the ink even more than the other pages I have used with this treatment, and it took me ages doing all this inking because it kept beading up and pooling on the surface of the card and it took a lot of drying with my heat gun.

Smooshing again, this time with Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

Finally, smooshing with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide to get the effect I wanted.

Double-distressing the edges of the mats, using Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks as before.

The page back mats installed.

I am pleased with the subtle stripe which is still visible, and which make a gentle contrast between the page mats on the fronts and on the backs of the cards.

I attached the whole waterfall piece to the inside of the front cover using orange double-sided tape so that it would be firmly adhered.

Pulling on the tab, the mechanism works perfectly! It has a nice definite feel to it, which I am sure is helped by the addition of the reinforcing piece on the back. To close it again, you just push the tab in an upward direction and the pages roll back into place. It’s very satisfying to play with!

I am pleased with the rich colour scheme of this page.