Fairy Needle - My First "Mini Album" Try

**** 05/05/2013 Edit:

This album won the first prize at Child's Play Challenge!
In addition, it was included into Top3 at Dream Valley Challenges.
And got a prize at Love To Create "Punches or Dies" Challenge
I'm so happy!

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Hello dear visitors and welcome a new day!

Today's post may be a little long, so I'm warning you :)
Most of the time I make cards, but I've always wanted to make mini-albums too. I just adore mini albums, especially in a grange & vintage style. I find very inspiring the works of an extremely talented crafter - Anne (you can find her blog here, or a YouTube channel here). Her mini albums are totally amazing!

I may admire Anne's style, but my style is different - ribbons, butterflies, flowers and Copic colored images. What can I say - even my mini-albums look like cards :) hhh

The one I'm sharing with you today was made especially for a 'Mo's Digital Pencil' DT Call (I wanna try my luck), I used Mo's Digital stamp called Fairy Needle. The folding instructions may be bound here.

The image is Colored with Copics of the following colors:

Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, R20

Hair: W5, W3, W1

Wings: B000, R000

Needle: C4, C1, C0

Outfit: R89, R85, R83, R81

Lips: R32

A look on the opened album from above (this way you can see all the folds and pages):

After you open the cover, this is how the first page looks:

Unfolding another page:

These are photo mats (altogether there are 4 of them for the pictures of 3.5" X 5", and another 4 smaller ones for the pictures of 2" X 3"). I've attached transparent photo corners to each mat. A clear plastic strip holds the mats on the album's page:

Unfolding the third page:

And the fourth:

And getting to the middle:

Above the middle part of the album there are two folds with pockets and little tags for notes and journalling:

The papers I used are from the Prima 6X6 Botanical Paper Stack. The mini is pretty chunky and heavy. I stitched each and every page:

Several close-ups from the pages:

And from the front cover:

The big brown flower is a hand-made one (I used Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Bigz Die and brown cardstock to make it, misted it with the Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold glimmer mist).

The chipboard scissors are from Kaiser Craft Wooden Flourishes FL389.

I used (as usual) several dies here:
- Spellbinders Circle Dies,
- Magnolia So Wrapped Tilda Lace,
- Spellbinders Lacy Circles,
- Magnolia Feather Dies,
- Cheery Lynn Small Exotic Butterflies,
- Cheery Lynn Nautical Wheeler Doily.

The wings of the fairy are covered with Clear Rock Candy Distress Dry Glitter:

I want to enter this mini in the following challenges:
1. DT Call @ Mo’s Digital Pencil
2. Things with Wings @ CardsInEnvy

3. Tis a Twine @ Wild Orchid Crafts

4. Anything Goes @ Challenges 4 Everybody

5. Stitching @ My Time to Craft

6. Flowers @ Dilly Beans

7. For a Child @ That Craft Place

8. A passion for Flowers @ All Sorts Challenge

9. Punches or Dies @ QKR Stampede  

10. Pretty in Pink @ Whimsy Inspires

11. Floral Bouquet @ Cupcake Inspirations 

12. Bingo @ Love to Create (I chose - Stitching/Die Cuts/Tag)

13. Anything Goes @ Nut Crafters

14. Handmade Flowers @ Creative Card Crew

15. Anything Goes @ DianaMlarson Blog

16. Use Flowers @DoceRelaShop

17. Things With Wings @ Dream Valley

18. Fantasy & Fairies @ Moving Along with the Times

19. At Least 1 Die Cut @ Stamp & Create

20. Anything Goes @ Stamp’n’Doodle
21. Anything Goes @ Through the CraftRoom Door

Today my package from "Simon Says Stamp" has arrived (it was shipped on the 5th of April). I've ordered 6 paper stacks by First Edition Paper. Each stack contains 64 sheets of heavyweight cardstock paper, lots of pages have embossed elements, and the designs are so pretty!! I recommend you try those papers too!

Some dies and Magnolia Postal stamps:

Score Tape (so strange that this amazing product is not widely sold here in Singapore, only one shop has it, so I've decided to add these to my order from Simon)

On the past weekend we had a real April shower!!! It was foggy and gloomy outside:

See for yourself:

That's it for today! Thanks for reading!
Pop back soon and have a pleasant sunny day!