7/22/2011

Echo Park Love and a Tutorial

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been great! This one will be a long, picture-heavy post! You'll get to see a cute box, a bright card and a mini album including a tutorial. Phew! Why? Because I have a new love! Echo Park Paper. I recently purchased some paper from the Country Drive Collection and love every little inch of it! Let's get started! I should have taken out the light tent because of our gloomy weather, but now it is too late. Tried my best to improve them with Ps. Project no. 1 - cute box:




I have a thing for little boxes and bags! Here I covered a plain white box with patterned paper. To make it look more interesting, I drew lines around the edges using a black marker. To add more dimension to the die-cut flowers, I curled their petals with a simple pencil:


Project no. 2 - bright card:


I love the bee hive pattern on this! And the bee theme reminded me of the Be Happy set from Hero Arts, so I used it here.

Now to project no. 3 - mini album. I've been planning to create lots of mini albums with all the adorable photos of my girl! Finally I made one. More to follow! Here it is:



I took photos of her while we played hide and seek in our garden and she showed the cutest facial expressions. I wanted to create a little album about that:




For the album, I mixed the patterned paper I had and some digital elements that are available here. The inside pages look like this (click to enlarge):





She is such a funny girl :) Now to the tutorial! That mini is made from a single, large, brown paper bag. I thought of ways to use all those paper bags I hoard and came up with this. Here is what it started with:



Beautiful. Ha!




So, first I cut 2 strips of about 4 1/4 " from the bag and ended up with these paper loops. Then I turned them inside out to hide the print. Next I folded them into half and trimmed them the size I wanted (6 " when fold into half). Then I sewed around the edges. Afterwards they looked like this:



Now I layered them:




And sewed through their middle:

Voilà, a recycled, inexpensive mini album base:



Easy, isn't it? I hope you liked my projects! I will have some more to share soon, because my head is spinning with ideas! And with all those amazing new collections being released now, I have to make room and use up some more paper! For now, thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Patterned Paper, Digital Elements: Echo Park Paper (Country Drive Collection)
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Buttons: Papertrey Ink
Dies: Sizzix, Spellbinders
Other: floss, pom-pom trim, black marker, white box, paper bag

10 comments:

Ulina / Apricot Bubbles said...

Diese Papiere sind wirklich sehr fröhlich in Farben und Design! Ich mag deine Karte ganz besonders!
Aber auch das Minialbum ist extrem süß - es klingt sehr einfach nachzumachen - und nachdem ich meine 30 Jahre alte Nähmaschine wieder aktiviert habe, steht dem auch nichts mehr im Wege :-)
Habt ein schönes Wochenende!
Liebe Grüße,
Ulina

Lindsay said...

I like your projects very much Vanessa! Love the use of Echo Park Papers, love them! Thanks for sharing!

Lin said...

She's a sweetheart! Love all your projects today, too!

Nancy said...

You are so talented, Vanessa! Your tutorial is wonderful! Mini albums are the way to go, they capture a few moments in time. Love yours!

Barb said...

That box is the cutest thing, Vanessa! I love the pattern and colors! Your card is so happy and bright and what a fabulously, clever idea to use a paper bag, of all things, to make a mini album! Love the paper you used and the photos of your adorable daughter are so funny! It's really neat to think she'll always have that to look back on for a wonderful memory! Hugs! :)

Dawn T said...

wonderful Vanessa. Your mini album is very clever. So easy to make. Love your beehive background card and your box is adorable.

Aimes said...

Oh what fun you've had with that paper collection, Vanessa! Love all the projects (the pom-pom trim on the box is adorable!) thanks for the super easy tutorial too!
Have a lovely weekend!
Hugs,
Aimes
x

Anonymous said...

Wundervoll, Vanessa. Es stimmt, das Papier ist wirklich toll und ich muss es mir dringend genauer anschauen. :D Heute habe ich mein erstes Ponpon-Band bekommen, es ist weiß, aber dein rotes gefällt mir auch seeehr gut.

Ganz liebe Grüße, Tina

donna mikasa said...

Such wonderful projects! You are so crafty and creative! I especially love the paper bag journal--such cute pics, too!

ivy said...

your mini album is so adorable! love that's it's made from a brown paper bag! must give this a try! i must have 30+ sprinkles cupcakes shopping bags and i should put them to good use!