Christmas Craft Challenge 9 of ? (Nearly there)

I had Tai as my secret swap partner on Artistic Creationz. Along with some scrappy goodies I made her an altered box and coordinating paper bag mini album filled to the brim with tags of all sizes.

The box started out as a shoe box that I cut down in height by about half. I loved the finished height though I also would have liked it to be just a little bit taller as the mini album only just fitted inside it... so no room for anything else. 

The patterned paper used for both the box and the mini album was a Rosie's Studio set "My Favourite Recipe" from The Warehouse. I used coordinated dimensional stickers from the same set in the mini album as well. 

Does that just look so sweet... quite retro 50's style. And just a simple layered flower embellishment on top. 

 The little paper bag mini album that really isn't all that little... it's about 2 1/2" thick. The covers were recycled cardboard which were covered with patterned paper to coordinate with the altered box. With leftover scraps from the album pages I made some coordinated rosettes using my Sizzix Tim Holtz Rosette and Mini Rosette Dies. I also die cut some doileys using a Couture Die from some photocopy paper that I had distressed with tea and coffee. I then misted the die cut doily with Lindy's Stamp Gang "Don't Eat the Golden Snow" Mist.

I covered the spine of the album with masking tape... kind of retro looking. I coated it with Distress Inks which I heat set then covered all of the spine and onto the covers with Golden Matte Medium to stop the masking tape from lifting over time. 

 The album includes five pages with pockets and flaps on each page.

 Above and below you can see one of the full size flaps on each page. Not counting the front and back inside covers or tags... there are four pages for photos or journaling for each of the five paper bag pages... so a lot of retail space is built into the album.

You can also see the pockets on the pages here. To the left is the back of the page where I have tucked in the largest of the three sizes of tags. To the right is the front of a page which has pockets both on the binding side and along the bottom running the length of the paper bag.

Inside each paper bag there are also full size decorated cardstock tags... more space!! 

Above are all five pages with the pocket tags all partially pulled out.

The smaller tags and descriptions of the techniques used to decorate the tags can be found in the next blog post.