Recently finished projects and some still in the works!

I have recently completed a few projects which I would like to share. The first is a mini chipboard album, measuring 4"x5", for my grandmother. I am terrible at sending photos of the kiddos and thought this would be a nice brag book for her to have. It's small enough that she can carry it with her in her purse. I repurposed the Cheerios box from Costco for the pages. It is a perfect weight cardboard. Heavier than the regular cereal boxes at the grocery store, but not so heavy that I couldn't cut them myself. I then covered it with some of my favorite paper from Basic Grey called Sublime. The collection has long been retired and it will be a truly sad day when I use up my last scrap! :. (  I inked the edges with black ink and embellished with punched flowers, stickers and rub ons. The mats are cut at 3.5"x2.75" for a wallet size photo ( I always cut my mats at 1/4", so I add 1/2" to my total size. If it's a 4"x6", then my mat is cut 4.5"x6.5"). Here are few photos of that album.

The next project was an altered wooden birdhouse measuring 2.5"x3"x4.5" that I found at a local thrift store for $0.99. This was fun, but challenging since there was no way to trace a template. I had to do a lot of measuring and cutting to cover the house. Once the house was initially covered with paper (DCWV linen closet) and mod podged, then I started embellishing. I used my Fiskars "Threading Water" edger punch to create the roof and the edging around the bottom. I inked all my paper before placement with the Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. I used a "fence" sticker, which I had to cut down, around the bottom part of the house. I finished it off with Martha Stewart Smoky Quartz glitter on the roof line and a fussy cut crown rub on from Prima at the peak. My rub ons are all Prima from the Madeline collection.

Lastly is a tiny little schoolhouse that I put together thanks to Martha Stewart's Winter Village template. For templates click here. This is a tedious project but if you are detail oriented like me and enjoy the reward of such work, it's so worth it! They are really adorable and can be used in many ways. Martha says to use chipboard and paint them, then cover with glitter snow. But I thought, why not use heavyweight cardstock? Then I don't have to paint them or try to cut out chipboard with a craft knife. Ugh! So, once again I used my favorite Basic Grey Sublime papers and created this adorable little schoolhouse. I used vellum to cover the window openings which allows light through. I used Tacky glue and it held really well. I plan on finishing a whole village someday.