the hybrid chick

Hi there, it’s Sharon here with a tutorial on how to make up a little gift box containing a handmade accordian album. I made this recently as a keepsake for a 6 year old’s birthday present. I thought she could pop some photos in of her birthday party to remember her happy day.

This project is very inexpensive overall as my base was a kraft cardboard box from Kaszazz which cost only a few dollars. The mini album is made from cardstock and all the embellishments on the box and album were made using bits and pieces from my stash. I never throw out any scraps as they always come in handy when making mini projects up such as this.

The first thing I did was to prepare the box by painting it with gesso and dusty pink paint. I wasn’t too concerned about the coverage on the box – I was going for a shabby chic look. I then painted Mod Podge all over the outside of the box to seal it from dust and fingerprints.

While the box was drying, I headed off to print my digital paper and embellishments from Strawberry Café, a beautiful kit from Sugarplum Paperie. I measured the areas of the box (lid and sides) that I wanted to adhere paper too and just printed those portions on some scrap white cardstock. I cut them out and used a sponge to apply some Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Walnut Stain) to the edges of my papers to give them a little bit of a lift and then I used Mod Podge to adhere the pieces to the box and again covered the box all over with Mod Podge to seal it totally.

Then I gathered some embellishments from my scrapbooking stash such as ribbon, flowers and ghost shapes. I printed off some of the digital elements from the Strawberry Cafe kit, cut them out and inked the edges with a sponge (you’ll notice that I do this a lot in my projects)!. I laid the embellishments down on my cutting mat to cover them with Crystal Effects, which is a clear dimensional glaze from Stampin’ Up. There are other products on the market such as Dimensional Magic or Papiere Glass but I find Crystal Effects is the least runny out of the products I’ve tried so it doesn’t run off your embellishments as easily. By applying this glaze, it gives your paper elements a bit more ‘pop’ by making the colours more vivid. The glaze requires a little bit of drying time, depending on how thick you apply it. Usually a couple of hours will do the trick.

As you can see from the picture below, I have stuck a piece of gingham ribbon around the edge of the box lid using double-sided tape. A liquid glue is not good for adhering fabric or ribbons as it seeps into it, so always use a dry adhesive such as tape, tabs or glue dots for this type of embellishment. On the lid, I have used a Lil’ Davis green flower with a gemstone in the centre of it, a Heidi Swapp ghost bird shape and some alphabets out of the Strawberry Café kit. I used 3D foam tape to pop the embellishments off the box and give it a more 3-dimensional look. For the last touches to the box, I adhered some strawberries and hearts from the digital kit with some 3D foam tape. Ta-da – all finished!

Now to the mini accordian album that goes inside. First I needed to know what size my album was going to be so I measured the inside of the box. It was a nice easy shaped box to work with being a square. It measured 8cm across so I made my album 7.5cm as the closed up size so it still fit nicely into the box without having to force it in. I took a piece of pink Bazzill and cut out 6 strips measuring 7.5cm across and 15cm long and scored them across the long side at 7.5cm. I then overlapped each piece with the next, keeping the textured side to the front, and stuck it down with double-sided tape to form the accordian shape. I also inked the edges of the Bazzill so it picked up the texture of it. I didn’t take any photos of this step but you can see in the photo below some of the overlapping pieces of pink Bazzill if you look carefully (see, behind that red flower)!

Next, I cut some pieces of Confetti White cardstock from Stampin’ Up into 7cm squares. I used a Mesh stamp from Lucy’s Stamps which I got through Kaszazz in the Walnut Stain in from Tim Holtz. I went off the edges with this stamp at random on each piece. The only embellishments I added inside the album were the red digital flower from the Strawberry Café kit and I stapled a piece of gingham ribbon to the last page with some blue Making Memories staples.

For the final touch to the album, I created a mini digital page with a picture of Alex (the birthday girl) on the front from the Strawberry Café kit and also some Pea fonts. This only measured around 7cm squared but it came out so cute when she opened it to see herself on the cover! I printed off the cover and inked the edges, again in Walnut Stain, and then matted it onto some Old Olive cardstock from Stampin’ Up before sticking it to the front of the album with 3D foam tape. I then grabbed some pink satin ribbon and poked it through the front under the cover (remember, it’s raised with the 3D foam tape) and threaded it around the album so you could secure it closed by tying it into a bow. I taped the ribbon onto the back cover of the album so it didn’t fall off each time you opened it up.

Here’s my digital cover:

And here’s the final album, all tied up with the pretty pink ribbon, ready to pop into the box!

So there you have it and I hoped you learned a few little hybrid tips along the way! You really can whip up a storm with goodies in your scrapbooking stash by combining it with some digital goodies! Have fun

Other Articles by skyezak:

• Stamps + Digital = So Much Versatility! - October 4th, 2009
• Personalised baby's name gift - September 28th, 2009
• Recording memories of your little ones - August 19th, 2009
• Time to start those Christmas cards! - July 22nd, 2009
• Win a gift card to Sugarplum Paperie's store! - June 25th, 2009