Tim Holtz Snowflakes Winter Mini Album Tutorial

Hello friends and happy New Year!  I've taken quite the long break from my art this month for very good reason, but I had a stretch of free time and wanted to make this winter album for our New Year's challenge at Mini Album Makers.  Our sponsor this month, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts, is offering a great prize bundle to the lucky winner, so come play along!

It's taken me a while to find the words to share with you, but on December 4 our youngest daughter Sydney (that's her on the right) was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  We have spent 16 days this December at the hospital and completed four rounds of chemo.  We have every confidence that Sydney will be cancer free, though the next two years will be quite the struggle.  We truly appreciate your prayers, as this is her senior year of high school and having to pull out of classes and basketball has been really hard.  But she has strong faith, great spirit and is a fighter!  <3

This idea popped in my head and I just went with it, and am happy with the results.  I wanted to make some "Polaroid" style pages to fill with my sweet girl's photos.  Her birthday is in January and I thought it would be a thoughtful gift.

I cut four panels from leftover Christmas packaging, aka cardboard and gessoed them with really thick coats.  While the gesso was wet on one side I laid cheesecloth into the wet gesso and brushed over it to secure.  On the reverse, dried gessoed panels I applied Dusty Concord and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide directly to the panels (DTP) and spritzed with water to move the color around.  I blended with my finger where necessary.

I used the Tim Holtz Rosettes layering stencil with DecoArt Snow-Tex and the Holiday Knit stencil with BoBunny Glitter Paste over my four inside panels.

I used a combination of Tim's Shadow Script dies for the sentiments over my "Polaroid" panels.  I cut them to 3x4" from white card and used Tim's 2 1/2" Stitched Square die to cut out the center.  I added foam tape on the sides and bottom so I could easily slide the photos inside.

I used a combination of Tim's snowflake dies: Iced Flake and Stacked Snowflakes.  The glitter paper was from a gift bag my other daughter gave me for Christmas.  I love those sentimental details... <3

On the cover I layered lots of snowflakes from the glitter paper and Metallic Kraft Core.  I glued Tim's Flurry #2 snowflake, which I stained with Dusty Concord DOX along the edges.  I stained seam binding with Tumbled Glass DI and made a loopy bow.  The beautiful charms are from The Funky Junkie Boutique.  Thank you Linda!

Over that beautiful Flurry #2, I added a metallic Christmas Small Talk sentiment.  Here's a shot of the reverse panels with that beautifully stained cheesecloth.  For this side, I mixed my ink with water and brushed it on.  I tied the panels together, making sure the strings went out when the book was accordion folded.  I used cotton yarn, then glued tiny pom poms to the ends of some of the strings.

I hope you've had fun seeing this project and will pay the Mini Album Makers blog a visit to see our Design Team's beautiful creations for this challenge.  Though my posts may be few and far between for a while, I love and appreciate each of you wonderful friends I've made through blogging and will try to catch up with your beautiful work when I can (wifi permitting!  ;0)  Huge hugs, Autumn

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