"Thinking of you" rustic mini album feat. Shabby Chic Burlap Stack|DT post for Itsy Bitsy

November 10, 2017

"Thinking of you" rustic mini album feat. Shabby Chic Burlap Stack|DT post for Itsy Bitsy

[Originally published in Mar 2017 on the Itsy Bitsy blog]

Hello, dear craft-y people!

I am here today with this itty bitty mini album featuring the Shabby Chic Burlap Stack--one of the latest releases at the store! It's a whole pack of 12x12 inch laminated burlap sheets which are perfect for mini album covers, embellishment, layouts...I can go on :D

I picked the polka dotted burlap sheet for my album cover because I wanted a rustic chic look for this project. The inside pages are matted using leftover patterns from Chevron in Aquarelle and Pretty in Pink stacks, which I have been working on these past couple months.

Also featured in this project are the latest chalk paints (Oh, they are delicious!) and embossed tag dies from the Thin Cut Dies range.

I'll try and take you through as much of the process as I have been able to capture!

As always, I started with prepping the embellishments--in this case the altered frame and chipboard shape.

Going with the shabby rustic theme, I wanted the focal point of my cover to look distressed/weathered. I took a resin frame from my stash (it was ivory coloured) and painted it black with chalk paint in Charcoal. Once the chalk paint dried, it settled into this luxurious matte finish and there was no telling that the frame was not originally black! Yayie! Next, I went over the frame with Sailing Sky, which is a vibrant aqua. (Before this, I made sure the black coat was dry completely--I did not want the two colours to blend and muddy.) While the aqua paint was still wet, I dabbed the carved parts with a dry baby wipe--to expose the black underneath. (I painted and dabbed a corner at a time because chalk paint dries really fast.)
That's it! My shabby frame was ready. I also painted a butterfly chipboard shape with Sailing Sky (over a thin coat of gesso).

Next, I picked a sentiment from the Jen Hadfield Homemade paper stack by Pebbles to go inside the frame.

From here, I moved on to building the pages of my itty bitty mini album. An itty bitty is typically no bigger than 4x4 inches square so I decided my pages would be 3.5 inch square. I made four 3.5 inch pocket pages using one sheet of 12x12 bright white cardstock from the store.

The pieces numbered 1-4 are our pages. Here's how I got to these.

A--Trim a 12x12 inch sheet of card stock down at 7.5 inches (This gives you a 7.5x12 inch piece.) Save the leftover sheet of 4.5x12 inches for later.
Rotate the 7.5x12 inch piece by 90 degrees anti-clockwise and follow the next three steps:
B-- trim down at 3.5 inches
C--Trim at 7 inches
D--Trim at 10.5 inches
Now we have three 3.5x7.5 inch pieces.
E--For the fourth page, pick up the leftover piece of 4.5x12 inches and trim out another 3.5x7.5 inch piece.
You will have a few off-cuts left on your table--use these for hinges or mini tags, like I did! :D
F-G--To make the pockets, place each piece back on your scoring board and score first at 0.5 inches and then at 4 inches. Fold along the lines and you should have four pieces exactly like in picture H.

For my hinge, I used Laura Denison's Stack the Deck hinge system.

Next, I make the album cover using cardboard and the polka dotted burlap sheet from the Shabby Chic Burlap Stack. It's laminated, so you can use any strong glue and it will stay in place perfectly.
I used double-sided tape for this step--it's my staple for draping album covers.

1. I trimmed my burlap sheet down at 5.5 inches.
2. Lined up the front and back covers and the spine--adhered them down.
3. Matted the inside of the cover with white cardstock--this time, I used liquid glue because I did not want the corners to lift with opening and closing of the album. IB silicon glue, as always, worked like magic!
4. I attached metal book corners.

I made tags, tabs, and doilies to go into the pockets, or to layer under embellishments:

I went on to mat the pages of the mini album and add interactivity (flip-out pockets, belly bands, diagonal pockets, tuck spots, and an acetate pocket holding a mini book).

I dangled the butterfly chipboard shape on a pear-shaped pin--with bits of trims, faux pearls, etc., all from the store.

Here are the pictures of the final album: