Sunday, September 13, 2009

Creative Cuts & More Blog HOP!

First, please stay with me. I've got lots to say related to the blog hop and the superduper ladies involved, the awesome Creative Cuts & More store, plus, I made these two awesome mini-albums for the blog hop and just had to include a LOT of pictures. I couldn't help myself.



Okay! BLOG HOPPY STUFF!!


You should have arrived here after visiting KAYLA's blog, but if came here first (thanks you loyal and lovely people) go start at the beginning of the blog hop on the DIE CUT DIVA blog!! Please hop along and check out all the amazing and inspirational projects the whole design team has in store for you!!!!! The next stop after my blog is CHRIS - so after you finish my gargantuan post, go to hers next!

There will be a HUGE 15% coupon code for anyone who visits - so check it all out!

AND, there's even a chance to win a super spectacular prize from the store - so have fun and win!

Pictures! Details! Information on my projects!

1. I got two of these AWESOME things in the mail. (I love getting mail.) This is exactly what the album looks like in the package. It is an accordian album in the shape of the castle. When I heard about this, I immediately thought of Cameron and Chloe's halloween costumes last year. A vampire and a fairy princess. (Here is the link to the castles!)





2. These are all the WONDERFUL die cuts that I got to go with the album. They are the same as the pages of the albums - no extra work for me (hallelujah!) I got pink and purple for the fairy princess and gray tones for the vampire. (all papers were bazzill, I'm not sure of the specific names of each color)


3. For the vampire album, I was going to edge/ink with black. I didn't want any of the white to show through, or the brown cardboardy color on the edges. I used ink pads to get all the white covered, then used a marker to get the edges and spaces I couldn't get to with a full ink pad.





4. This is what Cameron's Castle looks like from the front - all closed up. I used rub-ons for the title.




5. This is Cameron's album opened up, from the front.




6. This is the album opened up. The "first" page behind the title page with the big window, I used a dimensional owl sticker with the branch an the moon. I took some wood patterned paper and trimmed it to resemble a coffin. The next page I "hung" a spiderweb and a dimensional spider sticker from the little tower. The last page I stamped a spider (which I drew in some fangs) and drew the web in behind. I also added the moon/bat sicker to the top of the big tower.






7. This is the "back" side of the album. You're kind of seeing it backwards... when it is closed the journaling is on the very back of the album. I added a trick or treat stamp on the one tower, another spiderweb and dimensional spider, and a little extr journalling too.




8. This is the back view of the album. You can see the corner of a yellow moon on the mediumish tower. That is actually the back of the owl/moon sticker. I used some yellow fun flock to make a nice yellow moon - and to keep the sticker from sticking to the wrong stuff!



9. This is Chloe's Castle album. I wanted to show you that you don't have to leave the album in accordian. (You can buy them either way from the store, but you can also "un" accordian your album if you want to.) I trimmed the folds, then inked this whole album with brown ink pads and a brown marker on the hard to reach places. Also, the little flag flying from the tall tower -- I attached it before I attached each of the papers to the album. I cut two pieces of ribbon the same size. Then I ran them both through the little Xyron X thingie. I kept about half an inch from sticking together by keeping the non stick paper in between the two snips of ribbon. Then I cut the little wave in the ribbon. Then I attached each piece of ribbon to one side of the tall tower, then I glued the papers down to hide the edges!




10. I was going to use my Bind-It-All to attach these, but I had already completed each page - and between the lovely thick chipboard album pages, plus the papers and stuff - it was just too fat. So, out came the crop-a-dile. I punched three holes in each page and then used coordinating pink and purple ribbons to tie the pages together. (Oh, a little tip -- if you use ribbon and you don't want the album to close funny or smash embellishments, etc. -- tie a knot between each of the pages so they won't get smushed together too tightly!)




11. The first pag of the album... I used a little crown sticker I found - it already had jewels and everything! I also stamped butterfly wings on some pink paper and then colored it with a spica pen and some stickles. (I spaced the wings so Chloe would fit between them.) Then I did a silhouette cut on miss chloe, hid her hand behind one of the wings (the best pictureof her, her wand got cut out of the photo) and tucked a little wand behind the wing so it looked like it was actually in her hand. Then I used some neat little stamps I found in my stash that looked sort of like fancy sconces to adorn the little bitty towers.



12. Pages 2 and 3... adorned with lots of stamps, crowns, sconces, hearts. I added pictures of Chloe in the process of getting hair and makeup and added some journaling.



13. Pages 4 and 5 ... I did crowns for each kid (I guess he was kind of the prince of darkness?) I also punched out two flowers and glued them together with the pretty paper on the outside and curled the edges out. (I didn't want the white backing showing.) I added a pretty flower rhinestone for the flower center.



14. For my big journalling block - I used a white cardstock that I inked with the same brown I used to edge the album pages. I added another flower like I used on the other side and I was done!



Now, thank you so much for hanging with me through this whole post. I hope you love these albums as much as I do... go buy some goodies at the shop HERE!
And again - all the blog hop info:
You should have arrived here after visiting KAYLA's blog
The beginning of the blog hop - DIE CUT DIVA blog!!
The next stop after my blog is CHRIS!
enjoy the hop, enjoy the day, enjoy the upcoming season!

14 comments:

Melinda Ford said...

Wow, those turned out amazing! I especially love the dracula one! I may have to copycat that!!! Thanks for the inspiration!

Kim Ross said...

Great job on these two books! I love that you took one item and took it in two completely different directions. Both are fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Oh Diana! I just love these, the castle album is my fave too I scrapped my girls at a fariy princess party with it, such fun! The vampire book is stunning!

Chrissy D said...

Diana - both of these turned out so cute! I love that you did two versions to show the versatility of them. TFS!

Cindy Haffner said...

Oh these are the coolest, awesome job.

Angie said...

Love the versatility of the albums! What great inspiration!

connie said...

Those turned out great! Thanks for showing both ways to use them.

ellen s. said...

i just adore it!

Steph Zerbe said...

OMGosh those are so fun. I love how you cut them out of the picture. I love doing that. Super fun idea! Great job!

Risa said...

Oh Diana,
What super cute albums!!! I love the embellishments you applied to each castle, so cute and fun! Awesome job on both castles!
hugs
Risa:)

Milie said...

You did an awesome job! Love it!

Margie said...

I love these little castle albums! Great job!

Jeri said...

Incredible,incredible albums. I love them both. It's amazing that you can start with the same thing and have them turn out so wonderfully different. Very inspiring.

Maxine said...

Uh what a great gift this would make for my Mom!!!! I LOVE it