Graphic 45 Design Team Audition 2015

Hello everyone.
Today I am excited to be applying for the Graphic 45 Design Team for 2015!

I love to make books and three-dimensional paper projects, and the Graphic 45 paper collections are always a great source of inspiration. I have selected seven projects which I believe best represent my style and would like to share them with you.

1. By the Sea Tunnel Book

Paper Collection - Graphic 45 By the Sea

Type of Project - Specialty Book
Video Tutorial - YouTube

This tunnel book is a triptych with a gate-fold cover.  The center section features a seaside scene  constructed with four separate panels, each with a portion of the scene, and then a background.  The panels are attached to accordion bindings which give the scene depth and create the "tunnel".  The left and right sections feature additional images from the paper collection.

French Country Portal Construction Videos

Hello all!  I've uploaded all the construction videos to YouTube and the PDF Construction Guide to Dropbox.  So if you would you like to build a French Country Portal of your own or just see how it was constructed check out the videos listed below.

These videos show the construction of all the parts of the portal and the base.  Instructions for the Mini-Album that fits in the drawer are not part of this video collection, but there is a Step-by-Step guide on Snapguide and I will include a link to that as well.

I  kept track of all the materials I used and the measurements for all the specific pieces used to make each part of the project.  All this is included in the PDF file named "French Country Portal Construction Guide", and I'll include the link to that file over on Dropbox (Public access - no fee).

French Country Mini Album

Hello everyone.
Remember that drawer that was in the base of the French Country Portal (March 14 post)?  Well today I finished a mini-album to fit inside.

The mini stands almost 9" tall and 4" wide - just the right size for the drawer.  It coordinates with the Portal by using the same Graphic 45 French Country paper collection.  It can hold at least fourteen of the small 2x3 size photos.

I call it an "unfolding tag" album.  It has 6 tags, two of which are chipboard (the front and back covers) and the remainder are Graphic 45 Large Black Tags.  The tags are all hinged together with different sized hinges to allow lots of room for pockets and photo mats and lots of goodies.

In this photo you can see the front cover and the chipboard charms that hang from the eyelet.  You also see the main spine on the left which is about 1" thick.

French Country Portal

Hello everyone!  I have a new project to share - I call it the French Country Portal.  "French Country" comes from the paper collection I used to create the project - Graphic 45 French Country and the "Portal" is because I think the scene on the top creates a doorway or window into a country scene.

I love the rich colors of this paper collection and it had a great variety of both patterns and elements for fussy cutting

The project is based on the concept of nesting boxes or nesting dolls.  The portal is actually four individual boxes with openings on their bottom sides so they can slip inside each other.  The scene is created by having a window inside the front of each box.  When the portal is in the stacked position, you only see the background of box 4 - all the other box backgrounds are hidden.

Secret Garden Slipcase Construction

Would you like to build your own Secret Garden Slipcase (see March 1st's post), or just see how it was constructed?

Well, for this project I made a series of videos as I built the project. These videos show the construction of all the parts and pieces of the tree and how the background was designed.

I also kept track of all the materials I used and the measurements for all the specific pieces used to make each part of the project.  This is all included in the pdf file named "Secret Garden Slipcase" which also includes templates for all the tree parts.

Secret Garden Slipcase

Today I'd like to share the slipcase I created to house the Secret Garden Star Book.

I had the idea for the Secret Garden slipcase even before I created the  Star Book. But I decided I'd better make the book first to see if I would need to tweak any of the slipcase dimensions.(You can see the Secret Garden Star Book on the blog post dated February 25, 2015.)

To really get a feel for this project it is probably best viewed in three dimension, so there is a video on YouTube which takes you on a tour (see link at end of post).

The tree has a "knot hole" so you can put your finger in it and push out the drawer that contains the book. Here you see the drawer pushed out on the right with the book inside.

This project uses the Graphic 45 "Secret Garden" paper collection - hence the project name.  I used paper I had reserved specially for the slipcase from both the 12x12 and 8x8 pads. After making both the book and the slipcase, there is very little left in either of those pads!