Trimcraft – The Art of Cobwebs

Well now that Valentines Day has been done and dusted I can finally share the ‘card‘ I made and has now been given and proudly on display.

It’s not actually a card though. This year I thought I’d start a new ‘thing’ for us. A new Chez Cobs tradition. A Memory Book for each Valentines Day – and this is the first one.

It’s made in the same tried and trusted way I make mini Albums – but with just a few ‘pages’, as it’s meant to be a Valentines Card/Memory Book. so it has to cover the dual aspect – if you get what I mean.

Rather than try to explain how I made it, I took photo’s of each step of the making so that you can see how it comes together…

Using 12″x 12″ Chipboard, I cut three sections – measurements for my ‘book’ are as in the photo above – but you can make an album/memory book in any size you want.

Pieces cut, and placed in position so you can see how they go together. I’ve written on the individual parts in pencil so that it just makes everything doubly easy.

Cover the front and back in your chosen papers. All the papers used here are from the First Edition Papers, by Trim Craft, in the Love Story 12″x12″ pad and cut to size.

The ‘spine’ is covered in Card – by Anna Marie, and some plain red papers which I had in my stash. Each of these were decoratively cut using 2 different Spellbinders Dies, which work together and come in the same set.

Fixing the ‘spine’ to the book covers. I’d fix the spine chipboard to the papers/card first, once in place, you can then fix that whole spine section to the covers. Make sure that you leave enough space for the book to open and close.

Outside done …. now for the inside.

For my Card/Memory Book I took three 6×6″ ready scored and folded card blanks, then fixed them together using red tape and glue. I then fixed the very back page of those now glued cards to the back, inside cover (which I’d already fixed decorative papers to in readiness).

Then basically, you’ve got your ‘book’. Now you just have to go to town and make it pretty and put into it what you visioned it was going to be!

I decorated each ‘set’ of pages in pairs. Each page which faced another page was decorated in the same paper. That way they kind of ‘spoke’ to each other. BUT … you can decorate you pages in any way you want to. Different colours, looks, designs etc on each page if you wish. It’s your book.

On some pages I just had a sentiment and some decoration. On others, as in the above photo, I fixed a little envelope which had a little ‘billet doux’ (love letter) hidden inside it. I made sure that there was plenty of blank space on the envelope for it to be addressed to the receiver.

There are hidden tags (see the page on the left as you look at the above picture); places for a photograph – either one already taken, or one taken on *that* day; and tags fixed into place which held their own message, but one which could be added to in order to personalise that particular message in some way or another.

A Blackboard, in the shape of a heart, on which a personalised message could be written. Bunting ‘strung’ across two pages saying: ‘HAPPY ❤ DAY’ (happy hearts day – or happy valentines day) … and a set of golden keys.

As you can see in the above photo, there are places all over the Memory Book where you can write little messages.

There are hidden tags, and tags which show you where they are. The tags are of a size that you can write messages or memories on them, and also fix photographs to them – so that all the messages and memories all come together inside the Memory Book.

And finally … I decorated the outside. I knew exactly what I wanted the front to look like, and because of that, I left it till last so that I didn’t crush the roses or accidentally pull something off! (I’m such a klutz and knew I’d do it, so took precautions and decorated it last of all).

I was so thrilled at how this came together and so pleased that, although filled with love, it wasn’t ‘mushy’, but had a charm and clearly showed a true friendship, which spoke volumes. Oh… and I can happily tell you that the Memory Book/Valentines Card was very well received and is being proudly displayed on the dresser. 😀

I hope your Tuesday was a lovely day – whether you celebrated Valentines Day or not. It was just a day which happened to be the 14th February.

Did you know: That academic studies have shown similarities between falling in love and obsessive compulsive disorder, taking cocaine or eating chocolate?

And …. Research (in 2012) showed that when a loving couple stare into each other’s eyes for three minutes, their heart rates synchronise.

oh … and: Research also suggests that the average person will fall in love seven times before marriage.

Also: A recent survey reported that two per cent of couples have fallen in love in a supermarket.

And finally ….. Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary defined love as, “A temporary insanity curable by marriage”.

See? You didn’t know that you didn’t know that did you? And there you are again! PROOF … as if proof were needed, … that The Cobweborium Emporium (i.e. this ‘ere blog) is very much an educational tool. You get educationalmalised every time you pay a visit! Bit like reading a book while you’re on the loo! LOL

And now we’ve reached the depths of my sense of humour, I shall send you love and plenty of happy squidges.

Have a truly wonderful Wednesday, with love ❤ from ~

On Platform 1: A Beautiful BOY!

On Platform 2: A Gorgeous GIRL!

Two beautiful new souls to cherish and love!

On reading one of the blogs I follow, I found out that one the writers of a blog, who had been MIA (Missing In Action) for a couple of weeks, had a very good reason for being away from her computer: She’d had a baby! A beautiful, baby girl! After congratulations had been said I thought that it would be a lovely thing to make a baby card for the mommy and her new bundle of love and scrumptiousness, so I sat at my desk and gave it a bit of thought.

The first thought I came up with was that if I was going to make a card for a new baby girl, then to be totally fair, I should also make one for a little boy too. So here I am again, sharing (this time) two cards for the price of one!

I decided on Beatrix Potter – Beatrix holds a big place in my heart – so made two very different cards, but around the same ‘theme’.

Firstly – Just arrived – On platform 1: A New Baby Boy.

Made on a 6″x6″ white, pre-scored & folded card by Papermania. I love their cardstock – 300gsm weight – so it will take practically anything you ask it to. The backing paper is from a range of Beatrix Potter papers & toppers which I actually got free with a magazine over a year ago, and hadn’t used at all (I think, because I loved them so much, I wanted to keep them!) When I went through the papers I fell instantly in love with this backing paper and knew it was going to be the basis of the New Baby Boy card.

The Gingham Check card which I used to mat and layer behind the Hunca Munca, cradling her baby, topper, is from a range by Anna Marie Designs.

I added the fabulous ‘New Baby‘ duckling tag and then chose some ribbon to match the card. In the photographs the ribbon for some reason looks lighter than it is in real life. I think it’s possibly the way the flash on the camera caught the satin of the ribbon and washed out the colour a little. Little blue bow applied to the top left hand corner. I then added a strip along the bottom of the card of Potter paper ribbon, and then resting just along the top of that I added a blue blossom twig (again by Anna Marie Designs) to represent a branch, to which I knew I wanted to add a little metal, antiqued bird house (which has a baby bird perched up on the roof – which you sadly can’t quite see properly in the photo).

The bird house has a hanging loop on top which was too ‘tough’ for me to snip off with my jewellery tools, so I added a tiny bit of ribbon through the loop and tucked the ends under the New Baby topper, gluing them in place with a dab of Anita’s all-purpose.

Of course – me being me, I had to take the decoration into the inside of the card….

I added a pale blue insert to which I added a matching blue ribbon at the top of the page, and at the bottom I added a tiny topper which had daisies, grass and leaves on it, and it just finished off the card nicely.

~ ~ ~ Just arrived on Platform 2: ~ ~ ~

A Gorgeous Baby Girl

The new baby girl who began my thought of making a baby card was born on the 9th July 2014 and her name is Alea Francesca. (You’ll find a link to the momma’s blog at the bottom of the page).

Because I had Alea in mind, I felt as if I ‘knew’ who I was making this card for and …. well I just went to town on the whole girliness!

Again made on a 6″x6″ 300gsm card, by Papermania. To which I added a 6×6″ piece of pink with white polka dots card (by Anna Marie Designs). I added a small paper doily (Dovecraft) – which I actually stuck to the card with foam tape, as I wanted it to be raised slightly from the card so that I could add flowers which where kind of tucked under the doily.

I’d already chosen the topper that I wanted to use – Mrs. Rabbit and her baby bunnies – but I wanted to give it a little more importance – so chose a frame from a selection by Trimcraft (their Santoro range). I cut some pink, gingham check card (Anna Marie Designs) to fit the back of the frame exactly, and mounted the topper onto that then fixed it to the frame using Anita’s all-purpose glue.

The addition of the ‘Congratulations’ gave the card it’s sentiment.

Then it was time to fix some flowers. All the flowers you see are all paper flowers. I’ve had them all for . . . – ohhh, yonks! I use paper flowers all the time so used to buy a pack of them every time I did any crafty shopping, consequently I don’t currently have to ever buy any – and probably won’t for a while! But paper flowers are pretty much generic so any you have would likely work if you’re hoping to make a card ‘like’ this one for yourself.

To the bigger flowers I added a button for a centre and sprinkled a tiny amount of glitter dust so that it would stick to the glue which popped up through the button holes. To the smaller Blossom flowers which had no ‘centre’, I added a teeny flat-back pearl in a colour which matched or complimented the colour of the flower (flat back pearls by Anita’s – the Gemstone Pearl Wheel). Other blossoms came with their own stamen centre.

The pink and white popcorn type of flowers (look above the Congratulations topper – just above the blossoms there) are by Anna Marie Designs.

Then came the butterflies. With all those flowers there just HAD to be butterflies!

I’ve had a big bag of plain coloured butterflies in my stash for about 8 years and never used even one of them. I don’t know where I got them from or why, and I actually put them in a box to go to the charity shop, along with a few other crafty things which I wasn’t using. However, I got them back out again because I wanted paper butterflies for this card. So I chose colours and sizes and then stamped a butterfly on top of the card shape in order to give them the correct butterfly markings. I creased and folded them a little to give them ‘flight’, and then used Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss to give them all a glossy coating – as if I’d clear embossed them a couple of times (only without the pitting which you can sometimes get by doing that).

I couldn’t catch this glossy coating properly in a photograph. I either got ‘white out’ – where you couldn’t see the butterfly at all, or nothing. So you’ll just have to imagine a photo of the whole card showing the butterflies with their glossy shine! But I did manage a ‘montage’ of the butterflies from the gazillion I took while I was trying to capture one whole ‘good’ photo – so this montage kind of shows that the butterflies did have this lovely glossy accent.

The addition of some really lovely warm, rosy pink ribbon and a little antiqued, metal bird house completed the front of the card.

Inside … I just simply added one tiny thing …

… a silver star, right at the top of the pink insert. Is it because the new baby is a star? Is it a wish star? It’s a star which will have meaning to the new mummy and daddy – and to the baby as she grows up and looks back over her baby cards.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, are the two arrivals at Platforms 1 and 2, today. Not by train, you understand. No no. As is the tradition in all new babies, they came by Stork – naturally! 😀

Thank you so much for reading, looking and for visiting, but before you stop reading: can I just please just give you a link to the blog I referred to up in my post above – so that you can see the wonderful new life which is the little girl who started off my thinking of Baby Cards.

Please click to visit the blog and … if you can … leave a comment of congratulations for the new mommy. After all – we all love acknowledgements on something we’ve done which we’ve worked on, and I can think of no finer thing in life than a new baby, which someone has worked extremely hard on producing (and then some!) and can think of no better thing on which to receive congratulations.

http://artatzazuta.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/celebrating-life-2/

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