Mini-book: Anything Goes

Happy Monday! And the best thing about Mondays is that a new Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is revealed. This week we have a 'no rules' challenge, so anything goes. I've decided to try to do more mini-albums, because I often want to include too many photos to fit into a layout - and instead, those photos never get scrapped.



The mini-album is about an outing to an old farming community which has been turned into a museum, also including the surrounding farm fields. The title translates 'Postcards from the past'. I cut the covers from chipboard and covered with woodgrain paper. They were stamped with the chicken wire stamp from the Stamper's Anonymous Mixed Media set. I used this stamp throughout the album. The one edge was die-cut with the On the Edge Brackets and I adhered some printed masking tape on the other edge.

The girl from Artistic Outpost Kudzu Kafe looked like she could belong in this village. She was stamped on manila cardstock (a left over from the inside pages) and coloured with pencils.

The Idea-ology timepiece and game spinners were coloured with alcohol inks to give them a faux patina, aged look. I used the same inks on some glossy cardstock and die-cut shapes as embellishments for the inside pages.

The idea for the mini-book came from wanting to use the Stamper's Anonymous Folded Paper Background stamp as the base for pages in a book. It looks just like an old post card with a 'post card' stamped on top (from the Letters to Santa set). The pages are made from manila cardstock which was aged by misting first with water and then dipping into Distress Stains (Weathered Wood, Frayed Burlap, Stormy Sky) smeared on my craft sheet. When all the papers were dry, I stamped them with the Folded Paper stamp on the front using Archival Ink Coffee and then stamped the post card stamp with Jet Black ink. I didn't stamp the Folded Paper on the back of the pages.

The pages were stamped with lots of different relevant images, after I decided where all the photos would go, so that the stamping could be planned to fit with the photos. The stamping was done with both Archival Inks and Distress Inks and some of the images were softly coloured with coloured pencils.

The album has 12 inside pages, decorated front and back. As you can see, I used the chicken wire stamp on most of the pages, to bring the book together. It was stamped without an acrylic block for a more random look.

All the edges were inked and distressed.

I used a wallpaper looking pattered paper for the inside of the covers. Here are some of the pages:

I love old stone walls.

I always take photos of information signs, to help me remember the sites.

Lots of old farming equipment standing around.

Here I used one of the alcohol inked glossy cardstock pieces, a key hole from the Hardware Findings die.

The back pages were perfect for adding some 4x6 photos, I just needed to trim them a little bit.

A may pole that had been used earlier in the year to celebrate Midsummer.

The inside of the houses were kept as authentic as possible.

The key is another die-cut glossy cardstock accent. I didn't want to use any bulky embellishments.

There was a re-enactment of an old village meeting.

The back of the book. I messed up a bit with the spacing of the white embossed stamped flowers.

The last step was to punch the holes, using my Cropadile. Here you can see the book from the top, just to give you an idea of the look of all those distressed post cards together.

I hope you will play along with us this week! You could be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher to Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you so much for visiting! Have a great week!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Folded Paper Background, Letter to Santa, Spring Sprung, Mini Ornates, Mixed Media, Going Somewhere, Warehouse District; Artistic Outpost: Kudzu Cafe, Country Life, Blue Bird, Birds of a Feather, Home; Prima Songbird; Hero Arts Playful Letters
Ink: Distress Ink: Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Vintage Photo; Distress Stain: Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Antique Linen, Stormy Sky; Ranger Archival Ink Coffee, Jet Black; Adirondack alcohol ink: Raisin, Snow Cap, Silver, Lettuce, Juniper, Stonewashed, Stream, Ginger
Dies: Sizzix: On the Edge Brackets, Hardware Findings
Paper: Ranger manila cardstock; My Mind's Eye: Miss Caroline Dilly Dally and Fiddlesticks 6x6 pads
Other: Tim Holtz idea-ology Timepieces, Game Spinners, Trimmings; 7Gypsies Paper Tape Ledger Numbers Writing, Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder
Tools: BigShot, Cropadile