Book – The Art of Cobwebs

Firstly … sorry to still be posting Christmas cards, in the middle of January, but this was one which I couldn’t post before Christmas as it would have spoilt the surprise, so sharing it with you now.

Originally this was a children’s book called Dear Zoo.

It was one of those books which is ‘interactive’. It had opening doors on each page. So I began by cutting those doors out so that the pages lay closely together.

I set to work and first measured out how much of a section I wanted to cut out of the book in order to leave the right size ‘hole’ inside the card/book at the end. Once I’d cut through the pages, I then glued and used double-sided tape to ensure that the pages I wanted to stay shut actually stay that way.

Then … I went to town. Papers, card, ribbons, flowers, baubles, a sleigh, handmade hearts, berries, printed pictures from a CD Rom, cutting, pearls, snowflakes, die cutting … you name it, I think I probably either did it or thought about doing it.

Mr. Cobs Christmas 2017 2 — Inside, showing page 1, of the book/card.

I die cut the Christmas trees, then painted them roughly with a little paint then once dry I added some dimensional ‘snow’ and added a little twinkling glitter. While those dried I stamped the blue backing paper with clear embossing ink and added some softly twinkly embossing powder so that it gave the background a bit of twinkle. The snowflakes are all die cuts too.

Mr. Cobs Christmas 2017 3 — Inside of the book/card – page 2

I printed this page (above) three times, and cut out various parts of the page so that I could do a little decoupage and give the page some depth.

I added a little white glitter here and there, on these layers, just to catch the light and again, add some depth.

Mr. Cobs Christmas 2017 4 — The back of the card/book

The spine of the book (and spreading round to the front and back) … when you see it in real life, looks like leather. It’s not. It’s actually made from regular craft card and glycerine. (and an embossing folder – but you can use any embossing folder you like). I won’t bore you to death with a ‘how to’, because people have posted how to’s about doing it all over the web. But instead, I’ll give you a video of the fabulous lady who taught me how to make this faux leather: (her name is Sheena Douglass and she’s Scottish – so give yourself chance to adjust to her accent and you’ll be fine then). . .

And that’s all there was to it!

Have to admit that the most difficult bit was actually cutting through those individual pages. Coooo, those were thick and really tough work. But then … I’m a bit of a weakling so taking the top off a bottle can challenge me most days! tsk tsk. drat these muscleless arms!

Well .. it’s Tuesday (or Chewsday as my friend pronounces it), and I think we need a little Tuesday fun, so here are a few jokes to turn the corners of your mouth up . . .

Why don’t you ever see hippopotamus hiding in trees? Because they’re really good at it.
How does NASA organise their company parties? They planet.
My friend recently got crushed by a pile of books, but he’s only got his shelf to blame.
What did Jay-Z call his girlfriend before they got married? Feyoncé.
What do you call dangerous precipitation? A rain of terror.
What do you call a big pile of kittens? A meowntain.
…. and finally ….
Atheism is a non-prophet organisation.

Well even if only one of them made you smile, then I’ve done my job. 😀

Thank you so much for coming. I love seeing you here. Each blog post is, for me, like opening up my front door and waiting for you to arrive . . . and then you all come, one by one, and stop for a coffee with me. I just love it. (and I love it even more when you stay for a chat – so please feel free to chat away in comments. I can promise I’ll reply because, as everyone will tell you, I love to chat!) 😀

Have a truly blessed rest of your day!

Now we are 5 no2

It was my much adored Grandsons 5th Birthday a few weeks ago. We weren’t able to go to his special Birthday party on the day of his Birthday so we (Grandad and I) decided we would surprise him with ‘Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘ at our home the day after his Birthday. (Why have I never had two Birthday party’s? I obviously just wasn’t cute enough).

Now we are 5 no1 — The ‘spine’ of the mini album, and the Spiderman tag (made using two Tim Holtz charms (thick, plastic, shaped pieces, much like you find Keyrings made from. I chose 2 rounds from an assortment).

We took tons of party photographs and I decided that I would make a Mini Scrapbook album to put all the photographs in.

I made him an album just before he started big school, all about the things he did with Grammy and Grandad in the summer before his first day at school. He absolutely LOVES the album. He loves to look through the photographs, pull out the tags and gets me to read them to him, and basically enjoy all the moments or occasions, which are pictured in the album, all over again. So it was a no brainer that I would have to make him another mini to house all the photos of his ‘5th Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘.

The ‘plan’ was that I wanted to make the mini album as if he’d actually been sat there with me as I made it, choosing everything that went inside himself. So this meant that I had to think like a 5-year-old boy. Those of you who are followers or have read my blog posts before, know that I’d have no trouble thinking like a 5 year old. (I admit it. I never really grew up).

The following photographs are of the pages and tags, photo books, magnetic bits, openings, fun stuff … etc… and, I have to warn you, this post is VERY photograph heavy. Because of this I’ll keep the talking to a minimum so that you’re not here all day reading my yammering on!

Now we are 5 no2

The name of the Birthday Boy is all jumbled up on the front there …. he really wasn’t christened with a gobbledygook name.

Now we are 5 pages 1 and 2 — *Tags from pages one and two*

Now we are 5 pages 3 and 4 — *pages 3 and 4*

Now we are 5 pages 3 and 4 open — *Magnetic ‘book’ on page 3, … a hidden tag from page 4, … and a photograph ‘frame’ with a sliding out photo mat and room for notes on the back of it.*

Now we are 5 page 4 — Close up of page 4 so that you can read everything. One of the ‘presents’ we bought for his Birthday was a Spiderman costume – hence the speech bubble which says: “Like the Suit? It comes with the job”. I’ll pop a photograph of Mr. Birthday Boy wearing his Spiderman Costume into that sliding out photo frame so it will make sense.

The long shiny black bit to the far right of the photographs is where the Birthday Boys name is. I die cut all the letter of his name – twice. Once in blue and once in red (Super Hero colours) and fixed them in place so that his name read ‘down’ that black bit. But for the purposes of sharing this mini album on the internet, I blacked out his name. (I’m a protective Grammy)

Now we are 5 pages 5 and 6 — *pages 5 and 6*

Now we are 5 pages 5 tags — *Tags from the pocket on page 5*

Now we are 5 pages 6a tags — *Tags & photo mats from the pocket on page 6.*

Now we are 5 pages 6b tags — *the other side of the tags from page 6. All the tags and photo-mats in the album are all doubled sided.*

Now we are 5 pages 7 and 8 — *pages 7 and 8 of the **‘Now We are 5’** mini album.*

Now we are 5 pages 7 tags — *tags and photo-mats from page 7*

Now we are 5 pages 7 tags close up of embossing — *I love to emboss the edges of some of the tags with this ‘deckled’ twinkly style of embossing. It kind of adds a dimension to them.*

Now we are 5 pages 8 — *close up of page 8. That ‘POW’ is a magnetic fold out book for photos*

Now we are 5 pages 8 open magnetic book — *page 8 with the magnetic book opened.*

Now we are 5 pages 8 front of tag — *A hidden tag.*

The poem written on this tag (above) holds such a special meaning to me. My Grandson has Cerebral Palsy. It affects different children in different ways, and for my Grandson it affects his speech to some degree, educationally to a degree, and his walking. He can walk, but he falls over a lot and has trouble walking very far. He suffers dreadful pain in his legs – and has to have injections into his calf muscles to try to help with this and also to relax the muscles in his legs so that walking is made a little easier. He has some other problems too, because of this condition. This is the reason why this poem means so much to me, and why it catches me in my throat whenever I read it.

Now we are 5 pages 8 back of tag — *the back of the poem tag*

Now we are 5 pages 9 and 10 — *pages 9 and 10*

That big spiders web you can see on page 10, is one I drew on, using an embossing pen. I then embossed it with Tonic Silver embossing powders (because their silver is the best I’ve ever found), and try as I might I couldn’t seem to get a photo to show up how much that spiders web shines!

Now we are 5 pages 9 tags — *tags and photo mats from the pockets on page 9*

Now we are 5 pages 10 a — *page 10 has a magnetic fold out booklet, for photos and journaling.*

Now we are 5 pages 10 b — *page 10 – the booklet folded out fully.*

Now we are 5 pages 11 and 12 — *pages 11 and 12.*

Now we are 5 pages 11 and tags — *the tags and photo-mats from the pocket on page 11, – and … the finger you see pointing to the Happy Birthday – is to point out that it’s magnetic and will hold a tag or note under it.*

Now we are 5 pages 12 — *page 12. The ‘Heroes’ is embossed all around it in Tonic Silver embossing powders. This is a book which folds out to hold photos and bits of journaling.*

Now we are 5 pages 12 open — *it folds out like this … and it’s double sided, so there are photo mats on the back too!*

Now we are 5 pages 12 under the photo book — *.. and when you look under it, there’s a little message for the young man himself.*

If you’ve got this far and are still with me …. keep going .. the end is in sight!

Now we are 5 pages 13 and 14 — *pages 13 and 14*

Page 13 holds a poem which says it all ….

Now we are 5 pages 13. The Poem — I love this poem. *There’s a space right next to it waiting for a photo of my little rascal.*

Now we are 5 pages 14. The large Pocket — *page 14 which has a deep, deep pocket for special things ...*

Now we are 5 pages 14. The large Pocket tags — … his official SUPERHERO certificate; a postcard waiting for something special to be put on it. A very colourful tag/photo mat; some spare balloons from his Birthday Party; and there’s other stuff to go into this pocket.

And finally .... the back….

Now we are 5 Back Cover — I found a fabulous picture on the net, *used by someone else for their child’s birthday party*, and I thought it might make a fun picture for my Grandson … *only* I removed Superman’s features and replaced it with my Grandsons face. *(blurred out here because I’m a protective Grammy)*. It works so well and tickles the heck out of me when I look at it.

Now we are 5 Back Cover 2 — … the bit down the side reads: *you will always be my favourite Super Hero*

There actually is a little bit more which I wanted to share with you, not of this album but of something else I made for his ‘Birthday Party’, but I think you’ve suffered enough for one day so I’ll post a little blog post about it another day.

Thank you SO much for coming and taking a look at my Mini Scrapbook Album. I had so much fun making it – although it did take me rather too many days to actually get it finished. I’m such a slow worker! tsk tsk. I know that my little rascal is going to love it. I just have to get all the photos into it now.

If there’s anything you want to know – glues, papers, bits, pieces etc, please just ask away in a comment. I’m more than happy to share information.

Before I sign off, may I just take this opportunity to say a very warm hello to a couple of new followers. Welcome, it’s lovely to have you on-board, please make yourself at home here, and feel free to ask questions, make comments or just grab a coffee and settle down for a bit of a read.

Thank you everyone, for visiting me. I love you coming. I really do. It’s like having a stream of friends popping round for coffee and a chat. Fabulous. Absolutely, totally Fabulous with a capital F.

Have a wonderful day out there, and what ever you’re planning to do today, remember to stop, smile, and make a memory.