Maple Street Tea Shop

Laura Denison has done it again!  Isn't this Tea Shop she designed for her Maple Street series the cutest thing ever?

It uses Graphic 45's "Botanical Tea" paper collection which I have to say is one of my favorites.  I love how the browns complement the softer pastels - perfect for this shop.

By the Sea Tunnel Book Construction

If you are interested in how I constructed the By the Sea Tunnel book, I've posted two videos on YouTube.

• PART ONE - Shows the design process and the development of the individual panels

• PART TWO - The book comes together and covers are added.

By the Sea Tunnel Book

I love making tunnel books, and when I saw the new Graphic 45 By the Sea paper collection I knew it would be perfect for one of these books.

The design for the book was taken right from the primary pattern paper ("By the Sea") which has the perfect scene - a foreground (the beach), some middle ground (lighthouse), distant objects (sailing boat) and the sky. And this particular paper line has three sheets of each patterned paper, making it even easier when you need multiple objects from a pattern, or want to use the front and back more than once.

The book is a gate-fold construction; the cover opens in the middle.  The lighthouse image is the closure.  It is backed with chipboard and is permanently attached to the left cover and the right side has two hidden magnets that attach it to the right cover.

The outside border with the shells comes from the primary pattern paper.

On the left and right side, the front covers are attached to the back cover with red corrugated paper.  I colored white corrugated paper using Distress Ink to coordinate with the Graphic 45 paper.

Construction Begins on Maple Street!

I was so excited when Laura Denison started talking about her newest design series that will have different buildings making up a street in a small town.  The possibilities seemed endless and her first building in the series - the Couture Dress Shop - is sure a fun way to start.

This project uses Graphic 45's "Couture" paper collection, which couldn't be more appropriate.  The mannequins in the display windows come right from the paper as do the posters behind them.