autumn accordion booklet…

have you ever wondered what possibilities one die has? well media team anna-karin explores that very question with remarkable results. wait until you see how she magically transforms the new sizzix textured leaf into the highlight of a dimensional colorful accordion book. nothing is off limits here…t!m

Hello everyone!! I am happy to be here with you today with a fall project. I love leaves and the vibrant colours of fall and I knew I was going to love the new Layered Leaf die. For this project, I wanted to create something that could be both a gift and an ornament, and accordion booklets are perfect for that. I am going to share a whole bunch of techniques, which work great for both dies and texture fades. There is some stamping too of course.

Supplies:

Surfaces: Specialty Stamping Paper, Kraft Resist Cardstock Paper Stash, Kraft-Core Cardstock
Dies and Texture Fade: Layered Leaf, Alphanumeric, Big Ticket
Stamps: Wallpaper & Wood, Reflections
Distress Ink: Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Antique Linen, Fired Brick, Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Walnut Stain
Ink: Ranger Jet Black Archival
Alcohol Ink: Adirondack Sunset Orange
Crayon: Caran D’Ache: Neocolor 1 Wax Pastels
Embellishments: Gumdrops, Words Remnant Rubs, Life Quotes Remnant Rubs, Botanical Remnant Rubs, Linen Ribbon, Observations Word Bands, Jute String
Tools: Sizzix: Vagabond or Big Shot, Magnetic Platform, Dimensional Cutting Pad; Blank Mask Sheets; Ink Blending Tool, Mini Round Ink Blending Tool; Tiny Attacher

Start by die cutting four Big Tickets from Specialty Stamping Paper. I love this paper and can’t help to reach out and touch it when I come upon a sheet. You can also use watercolour paper for a similar result – if you do, work on the smoother side.

I wanted my leaves to be dimensional and decided to use the Dimensional Cutting Pad. Use this sandwich: cutting pad, die facing up, ticket (you can angle it a little as long at the leaf fits), dimensional cutting pad. That is, you replace the top cutting pad with the dimensional one. The dimensional pad has a groove in the centre, which means that the die won’t cut the material there.

At this stage you might not like your leaf so much, but don’t worry, it get’s better! The part that isn’t cut doesn’t have to be right in the centre for all the leaves.

I am very fond of text stamps and I decided to do use one of the Reflections stamps to get text inside my leaf. I didn’t want the text everywhere on the card, so I die cut a mask using the leaf die. I discovered that I had run out of Blank Mask Sheets, and instead I just used printer paper. The Mask Sheets will work better and is easier to use since they are self-adhesive. Place the mask on the coordinating texture fade, on the side of the folder where the text is written. The die comes with the texture fade.

Stamp through the mask. Remove the mask and take the stamp off from the acrylic block. Quickly stamp the folder randomly here and there.

Place your ticket into the folder, lining it up with the leaf on the folder. Run through your Vagabond or Big Shot. As you can see, the embossed parts of the leaf have no stamped text. Pretty cool. After the embossing you can also better see the areas of the leaf that weren’t die cut earlier.

Place a mask over the ticket and rub a white wax crayon over the embossed areas. You don’t need to be precise. A white candle will work too, or a kiddies white wax crayon.

Leave the mask on and ink the leaf with Distress Ink, using a Round Mini Ink Blending Tool.

Still keeping the mask on the ticket, wipe the ink off the wax areas with a slightly moist paper towel. As you can see, the wax has resisted the ink. This technique works great with all texture fades.

Remove the mask and the leaf is looking a whole lot better than when we started out. It is such fun transforming white paper like this. If you want to, you can leave it now, the leaf looks nice on the white background.

I was in the mood for some more techniques and placed a mask on top of the leaf. Again, this will be much easier if you use the Mask Sheets.

Ink the ticket with Antique Linen and Gathered Twigs, using an ink blending tool.

Ink the Wood stamp with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap and stamp on top of the ticket, keeping the mask in place.

Now you can fold up the leaf and give some shape to it. You’ve created a dimensional and textured piece out of only a single layer of white paper.

I couldn’t help myself but to add some splattered texture too. Smear Walnut Stain ink on your craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. Tap the paint brush to create splatters (remember to protect your work area and your clothing).

For the base of the accordion, I used Kraft Resist cardstock, 5.6 in tall (14.2 cm). Score and fold each panel at 3.8 in (9.8 cm). Leave a small flap on the third panel and cut a fourth panel from leftover kraft resist. Adhere to the third panel.

I wanted to use a lovely fall quote by Peter Mulvey, and the Alphanumeric set makes it easy to die cut many letters in one go. The only additional letters I had to die cut were two ‘e’s, because I ran out of ‘e’s, even though there are 7 in the pack. Die cut from kraft core cardstock using the Sizzix Magnetic Platform.

I coloured some Gumdrops with Sunset Orange alcohol ink. Just drop the ink on the Gumdrop and watch the magic. It gives them a really great shine, hard to capture on a photo.

Adhere the ticket panels to the accordion background and add some foam dots under the leaves. Make a border with Linen Ribbon and Jute String.

I added some random rubs words and sentiments, to represent the secrets the leaves where telling the wind.

Here you can see the text and texture of the leaves a little better.

The combination of text, wood and ink looks nice on the background of the tickets.

For the front, I used another piece of kraft resist as background and made two more leaves, this time without the ticket part. Instead, I die cut a ticket from burlap. Add a Word Band, another die cut word and a Gumdrop and the project is done.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! As you can see the Dimensional Cutting Pad is a great tool to add quick dimension to a project. The die and texture fade combo’s can be used for some really fun techniques, especially if you also use the die to make your own masks. Try the same techniques, but ink the background behind the leaves in a darker colour instead, for a different effect. The techniques will also work great together with the Layered Butterfly, Layered Dragonfly and Layered Bee dies.

Thank you so much for looking!

Happy crafting!