Friday, June 22, 2012

Heirloom Book from Graphic 45


Happy Friday!

Today I'm sharing a fairly large project with you.  It's an heirloom Book I started last year in a workshop I attended in Kortrijk, Belgium at a hobby shop called Tiny's.  You can imagine how excited I was when I found out the instructor was from America?!  She had with her an abundance of goodies from Graphic 45 and Tattered Angels.  Our supplies seemed unending.  Everyone was oohing and awing at all of the wonderful things that were placed before us.  

The project was a bit ambitious, but the end result was fabulous.  It took me forever to get this one done.  I put it away after not finishing at the workshop and did a million other projects in-between. After going through all of the wonderful things again I jumped right back on the project and finished it all up at once.  I couldn't believe I would let such fantastic materials sit in that lonely little zip loc, in the closet.  What the heck?!



The cover is to die for!  So many embellishments and products that I would normally not use.  Like the lace at the bottom.  I might jump to say that it isn't really my style, but it is.  It is!  How can it not be when it looks so great?!  The dimensional flowers, blingy brad and the pearls.  The PEARLS!  I love the pearls! I will definitely make pearls a permanent part of my embellishment stash.  They just finish the look perfectly.


The cover and the first page were very labor intensive.  So many layers, textures, colors...and now we are inking.  Inking!  I don't ink!  I do now!  The ink also gives a more polished look. Here was my rub-on disaster.  My rub-ons often don't any more which leads me to cutting them out.  At least it's an option.


What a special treat?!  Scrapping these old, family photos.  People who I didn't know when they looked like this.  Whom I could hardly recognize due to their youth and vitality.  Such young, innocent faces.  A fantastic experience for me.

Until I placed these pearls, this page just seemed so boring.  Not any more.


On this page you can see we used a stencil and some glitter spray.  We were not able to take that home with us, but I could copy it by using a splattering method with some paints and a brush.  Of course it was not nearly as easy and it was twice as messy.  I made an attempt at making my own bling. Hehehe...I used my Elmer's craft glue pen and squeezed out a few small dots of glue, then buried them with blingy glitter, let dry and voila! I plan on using this technique a lot more.


The page with my uncle in the tree is one of my favorites.  We also made this page at the workshop, but with no photos at the time.  All of the layering and the contrasting little stamps looks great.  Check out the page torn from an old book.  I am so going to the thrift store and getting a huge, old book with weathered pages so I can continue this strategy on other pages.  It's fantastic!


My layout with grandma on it, creeps me out.  According to my father she was a terrible mother.  This picture proves his story, in my opinion.  I also had no idea they had colored pictures in the late 20's.  How fortunate was I that there were pages in this Once Upon A Spring Time collection, that matched so perfectly?  Great!  I do plan on inserting information on some of the pages about the people in the pictures.  (I had to temporarily delete this photo due to it's upcoming publication in Scrapbooking Magazine.com.  Sorry for the inconvenience.)


How cute?!  All the little bunnies!  My pops and his two brothers.  Such lovely embellishments all coordinating so magically.  Anyone can make a fabulous page with these kinds of products.


Does it get any easier than the layout above?  A beautiful paper from the collection, a fancy frame, a few flowers, greenery and pearls and it's finished.  That simple.  Despite its simplicity, I really, really like this page.


I left some space on the bicycle layout for information.  My printer is out of ink, again.  That's a paper doily I had left over from a dinner I had ages ago, fancied up a bit with some antique white paint.  I rubbed in a little paint around the edges of the page to make it look a bit more older, used and loved.


The gang's all here!!!  Loving the TV!  More brushed on paint, cut outs from the collection, another gorgeous butterfly, pearls, ribbons and the torn effect.  Man, this stuff is easy!


Another very simple look.  A rustic, brassy frame, applied gold paint for further cohesion, flowers, pearls and ribbons brings the book and the look of this layout all together.  What do you think of the spattered paint look?  The page just seemed a bit too plain without it.


I've seen this peek-a-boo look a while back in a scrap magazine and I couldn't wait to try it out.  Doesn't it look just great on this page?!  More doilies and torn paper finishes this one up.


Straight lines and like colors and hues brings it all together.  Repetition with flowers, ribbons and pearls goes throughout the book.


Did I over do it?  A little over the top?  Tacky?  The pink mesh is a totally different touch, but somehow it seemed to work here.  I love this pinky orange color, too.  It adds a nice little kick of color.


I could not be more pleased than with the above layout.  My pops in his pram, rattle in hand.  Love it!  Cluster arrangements around the picture add a rich, luxurious feel to this.  More gold spatters to carry the  panache to the next level.


Well, you made it to the end.  This is the last page.  It looked a tad bit washed out until I added the blue-green color injection.  Using fabric, pearls and this awesome, detailed butterfly makes it look like you spent a fortune on this page.


The back cover incorporates many of the styles,colors, textures, etc from the entire book.  With repetitive use of papers and colors it gives the book a coherence and lifts the book to a higher level of quality and style.  Use these kinds of techniques in your projects to raise the bar and push your crafting skills.

Oh, the purse! I still didn't give you the purse!  I'll try to squeeze that in next week.  Until then, happy scrappy trails to you...until we meet again....

4 comments:

  1. These are great pictures I never thought they could look this good Thanks sissy, wait till dad sees them, It will bring back memories I am sure lol

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  2. Wow!!!! I can't say much else, but WOW! What a beautiful way to honor your predecessors. I'm truly impressed! Sandy

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  3. Thanks Everyone, for your complements. I can hardly wait to do another one of these. I have a lot more photos to play with. I'm almost certain I will be using Graphic 45 again, but a different style book.

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