Collaborative Accordion Album Project

A couple of months ago, Karen Burniston asked a few of us to make two pages each for a collaborative Accordion Album, which she could take with her to the CHA show this month in Las Vegas.

Karen just posted pictures of the finished project... isn't it fun!! It really does show just how versatile the Accordion Album die is for different styles. 

Follow the link to Karen's blog, to see a list of everyone else who contributed, and go have a look at their super panels!

 Here is a break-down of how I made my section.

 Karen asked that we each include a picture of ourselves, and our blog addresses, but other than that it was up to us what we chose to do. I think it's quite funny that given the heat-wave we are experiencing in England right now, I decided way back then, to do a hot summery theme!

1. First of all I cut out a mount board label from the 'Frame & Label, Bracket' die which accompanies the Accordion Album die. I used it as a template to draw round, for the background of my first panel.

2. I trimmed away the top edge of my background, so that I would be able to line it up with the blades of the die, when I came to cut out the piece.

I used the large oval from the Movers and Shapers Sized Ovals, to cut a couple of pieces of sand coloured glitter card, and layered them up on foam pads to create two swathes of sand. I let the bottom edges overhang the bottom of my background.

3. I took the piece, and face-down, lined up the top edge with the blades of the label piece in the 'Frame & Label, Bracket' die. I washi-taped it in place, then ran it through the Big Shot.

 4. This gave me a background piece, with my sand layers also cut perfectly to shape.

I then made some little beach huts by hand, using red paper-backed satin to make the stripes.

 5. The separate sections of the beach huts were stuck down with foam pads. I cut foam pads in half for the tiny roof and door bits. All the pieces were lightly edged with black Distress ink.

 6. Next I used Tim Holtz's 'Brackets' On The Edge die to cut four strips from blue shiny card and glitter card, to be waves.

 7. I drew round my template piece from Step 1, to create a backgound for my second panel, and used my ATG to stick on my layers of waves.

 8. I again trimmed off the top edge so I could line it up with the blades in the die. I taped the piece down, and ran it through the Big Shot, to give me neat edges to my waves and the rest of my background.

 9. I made a little boat, with paper pieces cut from the smallest die from the Movers and Shapers Sized Ovals set. I glued them to a cut down cocktail stick, and glued on some twine and mini flags.

10. To this panel, I also added a sun, which I added Glossy Accents to, some Perfect Pearls to the polka dots on the boat, and tiny letter stickers to give my boat a name. ('Why Worry' is the name of my parent's little boat, which we have had a lot of fun on during our summers in France.)

11. To my other panel, I added some little hand cut birds, covered with Glossy Accents, Perfect Pearls for door handles on the beach huts, and a little picture and my blog address.

 12. Finally, I added some washi-tape flags to some twine for a mini strand of bunting in the bottom right-hand corner.

I just realised today that I had got the wrong end of the stick with the instructions for doing our panels (amazing I managed to get any G.C.S.E's, quite frankly!), and so I didn't think I was supposed to decorate the outer frames of my panels, and they are plain white in the collaborative project. (Doh!)

Here's a picture of my finished panels, with some polka dot frames which I had temporarily adhered for these pictures:
(Update... Karen took pity on me being a twit and has now stuck on some more red polka-dot frames for me!! Love her!)

Some of Products used: