Hello and welcome to The Capricious Crafter blog! Who or what is the capricious crafter? Well, that would be me, Becky, a sixty something child of God, wife, daughter, aunt, great aunt, friend and lover of crafting, cooking, reading, travel, and more. My husband and I have been married almost thirty years and are looking forward to his retirement at the end of 2014. Our plans are to buy a new camper and hit the road as much as possible. Oh, the possibilities are endless for our future!

I am a child of the 1950's and that is definitely my favorite 'era'. I collect Fire King items from the 1940's and 50's, clear glass or crystal glassware, especially pitchers, cream and sugar sets, etc., as well as old dishware and serving pieces, vintage fabrics and so much more!

I have been crafting for as long as I can remember, and definitely from my early childhood. I remember my mother teaching me how to make paper dolls from the Sears catalog and 'shirt cardboard' from the cleaners. And now I still love playing with paper! My primary crafty passion is paper crafting items such as mini albums, cards, tags, etc., however I also enjoy crocheting, some sewing, embroidery, mixed media art and art journaling, felt crafts and so much more.

My purpose for this blog is to share the crafts I make, foods I cook, decorating and caring for my home, new products I try, treasures I find at estate and yard sales, my collections, and anything else I come up with. I hope you will join me on this journey ... it's going to be a very 'capricious' ride!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Sharing ... Graphic 45 'Twelve Days of Christmas' Mini Album

Hello!  Do you believe it's just over a week until Christmas?  And I am so not ready, and that's just fine and dandy to me!  This year things are very lean for us financially, so we're just going to enjoy time together and eating some good southern cooking and relaxing.  I do have the tree up and one of my Christmas flags out on the front porch, and that's as Christmas-y as it will get here.  But .....

 ... I have been doing some crafting!  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, for 'Small Business Saturday', I went to my local scrapbooking store (Altered Angel) to show my support and look for some bargains.  One thing I had to have (and they were on sale) were the papers from Graphic 45's 'Twelve Days of Christmas' collection.  Have you seen them?  They are gorgeous!

Anyway, as soon as I finished the mini album I was working on then ... you'll see it this weekend in full, but I posted a sneak peak HERE a week or two ago ... I got right to work on a new mini album.  It is basically a modified manilla file folder album.  Here is the front cover ...


The pages are made from file folders, but the covers were cut using my Cricut Expression and the Elegant Edges cartridge.  This cartridge had MANY different frames, mats and yes, book covers!  For this cover I used the <swirl1-s> cut using the 'book' feature.  This was a little wider than I needed, so I trimmed about 1 1/2 inches off of the left hand edge.  I added a felt rose and leaf, and added some Diamond and Platinum Stickles to bring a little bling to the cover.



This is a view of the right hand edge, with a nylon seam binding ribbon for tying it closed.


This is a view of the opened book.  If you will look at the page on the right, you will see the red card stock ... I used that to cover the ribbon and hold it in place.  After I made the Cricut cuts (on both front and back inside covers) I cut a slit in the card stock, pulled the ribbon through and glued it down with the card stock ... it is surprisingly secure!  The glue I used was Beacon 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue.



Above is the page that is the inside front cover.  The pocket is formed by the file folders, trimmed with an EK Success 'Arch Scallop' edger punch.  Inside the pocket are two photo mounts with room for photos and/or journaling.  The frame for the 'rose' picture at the top is kind of unique ... I used a round, metal edged grungy prim tag from the Kraft Outlet.  I was on their design team a while back, and still enjoy using their products.  I simply added some Glossy Accents around the metal part of the tag and added a light gold glitter on top of the Glossy Accents.  I'm sorry I can't remember the brand of the glitter, but it came in a small box of 3 small apothecary jars with different glitters.  After the glitter dried, I punched the rose image using the Epiphany Round 25 tool and bubble cap, and adhered it to the tag.  It looks very cool up close!




The photo above shows the first pages ... a small flap page, plus a tag that fits inside a pocket between pages one and two.Plenty of room for photos and journaling!




Pages two and three above show  a small pocket with a fussy cut Christmas rose image, touched up of course with some Platinum Stickles ... my favorite color!  Inside the pocket there are two journaling tags with more Epiphany bubble caps (round 25 and square 25) and pictures cut from the Graphic 45 papers.  There is a heart with the Epiphany round 25 punch and bubble cap in the top right hand corner of page three.



Pages four and five plus a flap in the middle.  The pocket on page four has two more photo mats.  You can see the tag sticking out at the top, in the pocket between pages five and six.



Pages six and seven ... very simple and plenty of room for photos or ephemera.




Pages eight and nine ... a pocket with more mats on the left, another flap page, and another big tag coming out of the top.  I used a gift stamp and paper pieced the gift at the bottom center (on the green ribbon) of the left hand page.




Pages ten and eleven, with photo mount tags sticking out of the pocket on the last page.

Product List:

  • Patterned Paper - Graphic 45 'Twelve Days of Christmas' Collection
  • Card Stock - Bazzill Basics
  • Manilla File Folders - Dollar Tree
  • Seam Binding Ribbon - Hug Snug (via eBay)
  • Epiphany Bubble Caps - Round 25, Square 25 and Heart 25
  • Glitter - Misc.
  • Stickles 'Platinum' and 'Diamond' - Ranger Inks
  • Felt - Hobby Lobby
  • Tags - Kraft Outlet
  • Brown Ink - Stampabilities
  • Adhesives:  Beacon 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue, Scor-Tape 1/8"

Tools List:
  • Cricut Expression and Elegant Edges cartridge
  • Scissors - Fiskars
  • Paper Trimmer - Martha Stewart / EK Success
  • Scoring Board - Martha Stewart / EK Success
  • Ruler - CThru Ruler Company
  • Stamp - Gift Box - Fiskars

Thank you for visiting me today, I have enjoyed it!  Blessings,