Floral Mini-Album Pt 8 Working on the Inside of Page 6

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.

During the next couple of sessions, I worked on the innermost part of page 6, underneath the two large flaps that fold up and down respectively.

On the central section, I decided to make three flaps which would open, revealing photo mats or journaling spots.

For these I cut strips of black cardstock, and then made some more of the background paper as before, from the boring green paper in the stack, with the addition of Forest Moss Distress Ink, and Broken China Distress Oxide. I’ve now more or less used up this green card. These mats were stuck down onto the black strips. You can see that the top edge of black card extends further from the mat – this is a tab for attaching the flap to the page.

For the reverse, I took some cream cardstock and added Broken China and Peeled Paint Distress Oxides, smooshing the ink on my craft sheet and building up the layers until I was happy with it. I wanted this to be paler than the front, in case I wanted to write on it. In the above picture, you can see the three flaps, showing the fronts and the mats for the backs.

To create the mat for the central section of page 6, I took more of the cream cardstock and swiped vertical stripes of Distress Stains in Antique Linen and Old Paper, to mimic the background of the spotty paper used for the mat under the top flap. I am pleased with how this turned out. It’s quite subtle, and has a woodgrain look about it.

I distressed the edges with Forest Moss Distress Ink – as I have done with most of the elements on page 6.

Once the mats were attached to the backs of the small flaps, I attached them onto the back of the large mat with double-sided tape, using my Tim Holtz centring ruler to make sure I spaced them correctly.

Here are the flaps in the open position. I think the papers all co-ordinate very nicely – a combination of unaltered and altered papers from the stack, and backgrounds created from scratch to co-ordinate.

I haven’t yet decided what to do with that great blank space.

Here are pages 5 and 6 (one from each copy of the album, obviously, because page 6 is on the reverse of page 5) showing how much I’ve done so far.

Moving on to the bottom flap of page 6, I selected some of the turquoise printed paper from the stack, which like the green version, I felt needed further treatment.

I smooshed on Forest Moss Distress Ink and then did the same, using Peeled Paint Distress Oxide. The edges were distressed with Forest Moss Distress Ink.

Here is the mat in place.

I made a small envelope to attach to the bottom of this flap. Here is the piece cut and ready to be assembled, made from the plain cream cardstock. The pencil line across the middle indicates the position of the envelope liner, which you can see ready to cut from a scrap of paper from the stack – same pattern as the green, but in a different colour.

The envelope liner in place, trimmed to follow the shape of the flap.

Creating the back of the envelope, using the same technique that I used for the mat on the central section of page 6.

I distressed the edges of the envelope with Forest Moss Distress Ink.

The first brad attached to the flap of the envelope.

The inside of the envelope, showing how I have clipped off the ends of the back of the second brad attached to the inside of the envelope front, and protected them with a small strip of masking tape.

The front of the envelope, showing the two brads.

The envelope, open.

The envelope in place, showing the thread attachment around the two brads. It is tied onto the top brad so that it doesn’t get lost when the envelope is open.

Making the envelope insert. This was cut from a scrap of the same paper I used for the mat for the top flap of page 6, and distressed around the edges with Forest Moss Distress Ink.

The back of the envelope insert, prepared with Distress Stains as before, and distressed around the edges.

The envelope insert in place.

I had been waiting for a few days for a new punch to arrive, before I could complete the little booklet to go under the magnetic strap on the top flap of page 6. This punch is the Floral Doily Border Punch from XCut. I wanted a border punch with a small pattern repeat for projects like this.

I made a mat for a piece of the altered green paper, using black cardstock, and punched around it with this new punch. This turned out to be a major pain to do, with lots of trial runs!

The punch removes 1/16 in from the edge of the card. I worked out that I had to cut the mat 3/4 in larger than the top layer in order to make it fit correctly, i.e. 3/8 in on each edge. I also discovered, from my first attempts with pieces that turned out too small, that it is virtually impossible to centre a very small piece of card in this punch, if the edges do not extend beyond the central part, onto the gauge you use to line it up. I tried attaching it temporarily to another piece of paper with a spot of glue stick but this wouldn’t punch properly as it was too thick. In the end, cutting the piece large enough to fit the top layer, it extended just far enough for me to see the edges, enabling me to punch it in the centre and work outwards. The excess at the edges of each punching (part-scallops), I trimmed away with fine scissors.

The inside of the booklet, using more of the beige card from the stack. I didn’t alter this in any way, although on second thoughts I could have distressed the edges.

The back of the booklet, using unaltered green paper from the stack, distressed around the edges.

The booklet in place under the magnetic strap on the top flap of page 6. Unfortunately this tends to fall out. It may be better when it’s a bit thicker with photos etc. but I may have to think of a way to keep it in place. (Note added later: it continued to fall out constantly, but the addition of some carefully placed embellishments sorted the problem – see later post.)

This completes the work on page 6 to date. I am pleased with its colour scheme, with the altered background paper and the use of Distress Oxides. These are definitely a good investment and a great addition to my stash!