Graphic 45 Design Team Audition 2016

Well, I’ve finally mustered up enough courage to apply for the Graphic 45 Design Team.  I do love Graphic 45!  All their lovely collections bring you back to a dreamy era of the past.  Their stamps are a wonderful timeless accent to their collections.  And the staples…wow!  They are so deliciously amazing!

Graphic 45’s products get me salivating every time they come out with a new collection.

Anyway, I need to show them 3 projects that show my strengths.  So, here goes…

The first project I selected is my Jukebox.  It just popped into my head one day.  I’ve always loved jukeboxes, and the tv show Happy Days.  So why not try to create a jukebox.  Off I went, playing with my chipboard.  Oh, those dreams of Fonzie, and the Cunninghams!  I really had fun with this.  I even included some song listings from that era.

The album inside I made out of used computer CDs.  What else would you use to make an album for a jukebox, right?  I thought I would have trouble punching holes in the CDs for the binding, but there was no problem punching the holes with my Crop-a-dile Big Bite.

I was also very lucky to discover I had a collection of paper called “Happy Days”.  What a perfect collection to use!

While I was constructing the jukebox, I thought…how could I make it light up.  I decided to put a battery-operated tea light inside with a record made out of black cardstock to go on top of it.  It worked pretty good!

Since my album was on wonderful places we’ve eaten, I included copies of a few of the menus.  I copied them down into miniature then laminated them.

To make the jukebox tubes on the front, I used some aquarium-type hose from Home Depot.  I then sprayed the hose with a glass frosting spray so it wasn’t as see-through.  To add color, I painted behind where I was going to put the hose.  To attach the hose I needed to use something heavy duty.  So out came the Super Glue!

The next project I choose to showcase is my unique Outhouse Mini Album.  It is an outhouse made out of chipboard with an album made out of toilet paper rolls.  It had been floating around in my head for quite a while.  I was trying to think of something that hadn’t been made before.  Outhouse popped into my head.  So I sat down to play with my chipboard again.  It might take a few times of trial-and-error to make these projects, but I just keep at it.  When I have something in my head….I just have to get it out!

I wanted to create the outhouse as real to real-life as I could.  I am, I guess, what you call a nit-picky crafter.  I am very devoted to making sure that every detail is just so.  To make the outhouse look like real wood, I used the Tim Holtz Wood Grain embossing folder on some kraft cardstock.  Then I cut them into strips and glued them on to simulate the wood planks of the outhouse.  I also added the detail of the crescent moon window.  I even included a potty hole, and a roll of poo-poo paper!

Now for the album…what could be more appropriate than making it out of toilet paper rolls?  Genius, right!  Took me a while to flatten those suckers, though.  For my album I used the Madeline papers from Prima.  I put tags in the middle “pockets” of each tp roll.  A great way to add more pictures!  Since it was an outhouse afterall, I used my grade 6 camping pictures to fill the mini album.

I’m so very happy the way it turned out.  Boy, my mind is a great crafty resource!  Lol!

For my third project I’m using A Proper Gentleman collection from Graphic 45.  It was perfect for this project!  My husband had told me he wanted to hang up ALL the photo booth pictures he had of him and our son.  ALL???  I was racking my brain…how on earth am I going to do that?  First I was going to make some sort of background in a large frame and put them in there.  Then I found a movie-strip-style frame.  Maybe I could use that.  Nope…too many pictures.  Then I had been seeing some crafters decorating printer trays.  That got my wheels turning.  I could put them in each of the spaces.  Great idea!  I did have to shrink/reduce the size on a few of them, but that wasn’t too hard.  The other “request” from my hubby was that it not be too frilly/girly/feminine.  Oh boy, what was he thinking?  I’m a girl!  I DO frilly!  This is a tough one.  But I plodded on…

So what do you think?  Did I hit it?  Not too frilly, with some masculine accents.

My boys are so silly, aren’t they?  For the title of the piece, I used some blank wooden squares…stamped on them and inked them around the edges.  Very masculine-like I must say.

Now, in addition to the projects, Graphic 45 has requested a tutorial that showcases my strengths.  I have decided to go with the video tutorial of my “Kisses” layout I did in January for Create Craft Share.  I just love this layout!  The pictures are taken from all over England.  My hubby wanted to have pictures of us kissing at all the major places we went in, and around, London a few years ago.  He’s so silly!  Never a dull moment with him!

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEtrNV_ZKLk[/embedyt]

And yes, I had to use glitter!  Actually I can’t believe I actually felt like using glitter.  If you know me, you know that I have a phobia to glitter.  I just can’t stand the way it gets everywhere, and all over everything.  I panic when I have to use it.  But this time, I managed pretty good!

So there you have it!  My submissions to Graphic 45.  Wish me good luck…