Another Special First For Me! :o)

Hello, my friends! Guess what? My big project is complete! It's actually not really that big...it's mini since it's a mini album! lol It's a special mini album that I made for a special event. I was invited to be the Guest DT Diva at the Creative Scrapbooking Divas Mansion for the month of November! So I made a special house mini just for them. When you're finished here pop on over there and take a look. I even answered some questions for them! :o) You'll find their bright pink button just to the left of this post! Today I'm going to share a little bit about my process of putting this mini album together. First though, here's a peek at the finished product:

This album is entitled "OUR HOME IS FILLED WITH..." I'll share more about that in later posts, but for now we'll just talk about the construction. The first thing I did was gather up some supplies that I decided I wanted to use.

Then it's time to cover the base pieces with the paper. I covered my house pieces liberally with my ATG adhesive, laid my chosen paper over, and used my craft knife to trim around. I did this on all the pieces of the album. Some careful planning was involved due to the varying sizes of the album pieces. Next, it's time to smooth all the edges of the album. I've discovered a quick and easy tip when it comes to the sanding all the edges...I use my Dremel Tool. I used to use my sanding block and emery board, but when I saw the Imaginisce d-stress tool it reminded me of my Dremel sanding tip and I tried that. It works like a charm...so quick and easy! I just have to remember to keep it on a LOW speed, or I have a completely new shape! lol
Usually I ink all my edges but this time I wanted to try something different. I thought white would look nice so I painted all the edges with white acrylic paint. When using acrylic paint on paper products, try to use a good quality paint because it has less water in it. Also, use a dry bush and don't ever add water. I applied the paint and set the pages up on some paint bottles until it was dry. When you paint with acrylic paint it leaves quite a "tooth" or a texture. My solution for this is to take a little piece of brown paper bag and give it a quick sanding. This does a fabulous job of removing all the tooth but not taking away any of the color. It leaves it as smooth as the paper.

For the front cover I used one of the great house stickers as it fit the shape perfectly. I backed it with cardstock and popped it up on dimensionals. I then punched out a few tiny flowers and glued them along the fence. A few tiny bling and it was finished.

Since I bound my album along the bottom, and it's made to open forward, I really needed to make a closure of some kind. I also want to have the flexibility of adding more to this album as time passes, so it couldn't be a solid closure. Here's what I came up with:

The title is a label placed in a Grungeboard book plate that has been heat embossed in white and backed with a tulle ruffle. I took a long piece of tulle and tied random knots along it's length. A loop is sandwiched between the title and a chipboard circle with velcro adhered on the back. The other end of the tulle is looped through another chipboard circle with the other side of the velcro. This end of the tulle is then tied in a bow and can be tightened or loosened as needed. This fastener can just be wrapped around the album and placed above the house to look rather cloudish!
So that's my mini album construction! Thanks so much for sticking with me for such a LONG post! Hey, wake up...it's over!! lol Next Sunday I'll start showing you the inside pages! If you have any questions please leave a comment! In the meantime give some thought to what your house is filled with and have a JOYFUL week! :o)

Materials Used in Book Construction:
7 gypsies Home Sweet Home binderie board kit;
My Reflections Paper Packet - Sweet Home;
 My Reflections My Stickease Assortment - Sweet Home,
Bind It All & 1 1/4" O-Wires, ATG gun & Adhesive,
Folk Art Acrylic Paint - Wicker White,
Dremel MultiPro Tool & Sanding Tip; 
Flowers: Stampin' Up Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, Mulberry paper,
Crystal Fire BeJeweler & i-Rock Hot Rocks Metal Accents;
Title Band: Dymo Letra Tag & label, blue tulle, 
Grungeboard bookplate, chipboard circles,
Stamp'n Stuff Embossing Powder - detail white opaque, 
Recollections Brads, Self-Adhesive Velcro, Unknown Bling.