Clear Scraps Project Post

Hello crafty friends! It's CraftyScrapsByKel with you today. 😊 I have a fun project to share with you this month. I am playing with a mixed chip and acrylic album called the Cutie with adorable edges, it is a particularly cute album. And I brought out my alcohol inks, so hopefully I will inspire you to reach into your own stash and play along with me.

Here's a peek at the finished album

and what we start with:

Aren't the edges fabulous? This album is a mix of pages, so you can use techniques you may not ordinarily use. Pages front and back here:

So now for my inspiration…I had long admired this paper set from Mintay Papers entitled Mediterranean Heaven. It so captures the photos my parents took of that region from their travels. And because I wanted to play off of the deep sea images, I thought it was the perfect way to highlight a spray of inks on the acrylics. My thought was that it should look as though a wave leapt off the page and onto the album. So those scenes were my inspiration this month.

I started typically, by deciding which papers for which pages, tracing them and cutting with cutter bee scissors. Marking the holes to punch but not punching yet. Once I had planned the pages and where the ocean water acrylics would fall, I decided to see where I could tuck an extra mat, pocket and flip to expand the amount of photos I could feature.

I decided on this paper for the back of the acrylic pages, with mists on the front.

As I was reviewing my pages, I decided on a change for one of them.I decided I would do a peek a boo type of feature on the page with the lovely double door entrance. I decided I could use that to hide a large pocket behind and chose a gold foil to peak out between the open doors once cut. I handled that with an exacto knife and then delicately inked the edges.

And now time for the acrylics! I used a stamping mat and laid some paper down around for overflow sake, then carefully peeled my edges away.

I had three acrylic pages to do. I wanted to do a full blast on two and then just half on one of them. I chose Altenew Ink spray and Heidi Swapp gold metallic ink. I laid out my Altenew mat and just went for it. I then started my first timer. I wanted to add just a few dots of white to mimic the spray of the ocean.

So the first two acrylics I use the Altenew Ink spray only, and I am satisfied so set those aside to dry for a bit.

Now for the third page, I wanted to spray only half. I peeled down the protective film and used some washi tape for a border. I wanted some gold mixed in here and so used the Heidi Swapp metallic along with the ink and made it a bit finer. It turned out like this.

I did not use the Beacon to glue this page to the cardstock. I left it free standing so it revealed more of the design when flipped. Once all pages were sprayed initially, I set a timer to wait for initial drying time. I thought 90 minutes would do it.

So after about 90 minutes I went back to two pages and took out my Avery Elle white ink. Poured a small amount in a cup and really loaded a paint brush full with it. 

I then positioned my left hand above the two pages and tapped that hand to drop a few random dots. It’s a technique I’ve seen often on Instagram but hadn’t tried it for myself. And you know what—it’s as easy as it looks. Try it!

Once my splatter dots fully dried (I waited 24 hours), it was on to finishing. So I end up with pages looking like this and I think I’m ready to assemble with a few die cuts placed just here and there for accents.

But…when I was going through the flipped pages I decided I wanted a little peek of gold foil at the back and decided to cut a paper page to finish things off. I had a fuse ruler with a great edge that I thought complemented things nicely. A trace and a cut, a little doily on the front and back and now…I’m finished!

Here are the final pages. What do you think?

I’m happy 😊 I think that does it for June. Remember this has been the Cutie, a mixed chipboard and acrylic minialbum—definitely grab one for your scrapbooking stash. Please visit me at craftyscrapsbykel.com for even more mini albums. Happy Scrapping!