Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Alpha Stamps Potion Bottle Swap

Just thought I’d drop in real quick to share pictures of the potion bottles I made for a recent Alpha Stamps swap.  I started with three plain chipboard bottles and let my imagination run wild.

Here they are:

MHughes_PB1 
My favorite of the three.  I do so LOVE froggies!
          
 MHughes_PB2
Hmmmmmmm, wonder what this one contains?

MHughes_PB3 
This one is currently in the running for Best in Show on the Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group!

Until later…………………….
LiveWrite Signature Line

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Merry Christmas Memory Book

Can you believe it?  It's already the first week in December.  There are gifts to wrap, cookies and pies to bake, and trees to decorate.   In all the hubub going on, I was able to find some time to be creative, thanks to Basically Bare and Xyron.

As Christmas is the time you make the most memories, I wanted to have a way to save those most precious to me.  So, I reached for my Basically Bare Krafty Keepsakes Vintage Album and my Xyron Gluestick and Create-a-Sticker.


For the front, I adhered strips of lace to the top and bottom for a border and ran a piece of black and gold punchinella through the center.  I followed with up with a Santa picture (the edges inked in Walnut Stain Distress Ink) and the numbers 25.  The pinecone and flowers are actually a votive candle holder decoration that I got from the charity shop for a quarter!  For the inside, I used my Xyron Create-a-Sticker to adhere the Merry Christmas to my Basically Bare album.  It was really easy to run the letters through the machine, making it a breeze to firmly adhere them to the inside of the cover.  The holly are buttons with the shank removed.
 
 


 
To create the pages, I inked the edges of my Basically Bare album envelopes with Distress Inks then adhered all my background papers with the Xyon Glue Stick.  Next, I inked all the edges in Distress Ink to match the album pages.  I left the backs plain, just covered in the same background paper as the front and all the edges once again inked with matching Distress Ink.
 
The pages were embellished with a mixture of paper cutouts inked with Walnut Distress Ink, ribbons, metallic borders, snowflake buttons, and an ornament (the mitten).  I left plenty of room to go back and add pictures and journaling.  There are always a multitude of memories to be had at Christmas and I wanted to make sure I had the space needed to save them all.  Leaving the back of the pages blank also insured plenty of room for my memories and any journaling I might want to do.

 
For the inside of the back cover, I took a small Basically Bare Dress Form, removed the bottom, papered it, and added gold-trimmed lace at the waist and hem.  The top and bottom borders are Dresden trim.

 
The back of the album needed to lay as flat as possible, so I once again used my lace as a border, cut and adhered a piece of black and gold punchinella, fussy cut a Christmas picture, adhering it with the Xyron Glue Stick, and added a black Basically Bare Key with a coating of white mica to simulate snow.  
 
VOILA!  One completed Christmas Memory Album.

I hope you enjoyed this latest project.  Until later.........................