Mini Album Class

This year I started volunteering to teach craft to people with mental illness. Like Me and I am sure many a crafter.

The degrees of mental illness and ability vary, so the challenge for me is to make it fun, easy enough for everyone to be able to grasp, but also challenging enough so that each thing we create does not bore those with more ability or make them feel like I am talking down to them.

For the most part I am teaching Non Crafter’s. People who truly believe they are not creative. I believe there is no such thing because everyone can do something even if it is just stamp onto a piece of cardstock.

Our resources are Limited. So I always try and think of things that are not resource heavy and that can be either used by the person making it or given as a gift.

I tend to go towards the gift giving side of things for the reason that at the end of each project coming out of it with something to give family and friends is a very good feeling. Each small win helps boost a persons confidence and that is no small thing when you are suffering with Mental Illness.

So This Album idea was created.

I made kits up and the extras will go into my etsy store at the end of this week. The Album itself is from the Quickutz Santa’s workshop die set, I use quickutz and Tim Holtz Dies within the album. Various Distress Inks, Foil Tape, Glimmer Screens, gel medium and glitter. As well as various quote stamps and a fiskars circle punch.

For the cover We used the Tim Holtz spritz and flick technique with water. Blended layered inking over the branch, as well as on the birds using pom poms instead of blending tools (I just don’t have enough to go around and craft pom poms when on sale are a cheap alternative) It was also a good lesson on placement and using up space.

The first page used the spritz and flick technique again and also a little inking.

The next pages use a technique with gel medium, stencils and glitter. It was actually one of the more successful things with my group as they really enjoyed it and it was quite simple for them to do.

The cogs and gears covered with foil tape was a little bit of a challenge the first time round. it is a little fiddly however when I gave everyone a toothpick to push the foil through to the other side (the non display side) it seemed to go a lot smoother. My group still have the sanding part of this one to do.

some more inking and placement.

and finally

Yep even more inking (after all practice makes perfect)

I love how this turned out each page stands on it’s own, each person has room to use whichever quotes they wish in whatever order, choose their own colour combos etc. I know it’s quite structured but not rigidly so.

So far there has not been a mistake that has not been able to be turned into a different take on the album page that it is on.

I keep reminding my class there are no mistakes not really, as crafting can be very forgiving and adaptable in that sense.

Denim Mini Album

For about a year or so now I have been totally enchanted by Donna Salazars work with reclaimed denim from her headbands and hand made flowers and embellishments.

Recently I found a 50c clothing section in one of my local op shops and scored 3 pairs of jeans. One was so lovely with embroidered pockets when I discovered they would fit a friend I told her they were hers until they fell appart then they were mine lol. It was a bit of a wrench to part with them because there is the most adorable little embroidered pocket on the front.

Anyway I have pulled appart and cut up one of the pairs and when I got my New Big Shot this week (thanks to an amazing and generous friend) I did some cutting out of the denim and played a bit with some embossing and Inking.

What I have learned is that Denim is a great canvas for ink, it embosses like a dream and is quite a versatile medium.

Steel rule dies are the best to cut through the fabric however as long as you do not mind having to do a little cutting, the thin metal dies work pretty well.

I used a combination of Quickutz and M Press Dies for this album as well as one of the reclaimed denim pockets:

I decorated the pocket to match the Album cover with an M-Press Heart that had been embossed with a Cuttlebug Script folder.

The album is cut from the Quickutz Santa’s Workshop Die Set, I used part of the elastic stretch section of the Jeans as a sort of Handle, all the pages are embossed with an M Press Butterflies embossing folder and then inked over.

and from the back:

The Inside Pages: have spaces added for small photos with more quickutz dies, and random stickers and rub ons from my stash.(not sure of the stickers but the rub ons are from Kaiser Sweet Nothings and bon jour)

I also cut out two pieces of denim for each page though honestly it was quite a sturdy denim and would have been fine as indavidual pages. I used OK to wash it glue to stick it all together, MM Crystal brads to hold it all together

and thats it one Denim Mini Album stored in a Denim Pocket. I may end up cutting out a word from Denim and adding it to the pocket just to tie it all together a little better.

House Album

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail at Christmas time a lovely friend from the states sent me the DCWV paper stack Mariposa 12×12 paper pad (I know spoiled much)

I wanted to make something for another friend of mine so chose a few of the papers out of the Mariposa Pad and set about creating a Kaiser House Album for her. She is Indian and was going to India for Christmas. She is also very family orientated so I created an album ready for her to Journal in and add photos of her family.

It has been a while since I undertook an MDF album (I don’t have many left here these days and have stopped buying OTP things becuase I have loads and want to use the ones aI have up or at least significantly reduce the numbers and also am on a budget at present that sadly doesnt really include craft supplies).

I forget how time consuming it can be to sand the edges and get them all inked and nice thank goodness for Distress Stains Tarnished brass made the eging job a lot simpler.

I did not add embellishments to this preferring to keep the look clean and simple (appart from the window sils on the cover) and allow the recipiant to add her own creative flair to the album as well as her own pics. I did add some rub ons and quotes when they fitted.

Here is the cover and finished look when closed

the inside cover:

the next pages:

and finally the back cover:

A little bit of History Mini Albums Part 2

This next mini album was made at the start of 2010 and was a huge leap out of my comfort zone in terms of colour and style. I Believe I made this for the Kaiser DT call that year. I can certainly see how my photography has also improved a lot since then.

A Kaiser MDF Album with Kaiser Paper, and other assorted things and one of my all time most used set of stamps MSE Friendship quotes.

and last but not least a chipboard Mini Album I created last year after a break up. I am really proud of how this turned out even if it wasn’t the happiest of endings. Sometimes scrapping can be a form of therapy. There is a lot of pockets and such to add print outs of messages and such. Funny though I have yet to add them to the album. I may one day but then again maybe I wont shrugs.

And thats all for the walk down mini album memory lane 🙂

A little bit of History In the form of Mini Albums Part one

You can tell these are older as well as the photos from my photobucket have not been edited to fit the size of my wordpress blog!

The first Mini Album is a Kaisercraft tag book, that I turned into a friendship book. It was one of my first plays with crackle medium and I have to admit I really love how different thicknesses of crackle medium create totally different styles of cracks.

The other thing with this Album is my stash was very new at the time and I really did not have much to work with. I made this album about 4 years or so ago.

Ahh my first Distress ink Pad used here 🙂

The smallest Album I have ever made made with Mini Playing cards and the index prints you sometimes get with photos.

This next album was a couple of years back me Playing wanting to do More Masculine stuff as I do not often get the chance or have the need to do that sort of thing. Another MDF Kaisercraft Album and more crackle.