Saturday, May 11, 2013

FOR MOTHER’S DAY



My idea of the prefect Mother’s Day gifts?…a delicious box of chocolates and a good book.  And lo and behold, here they are, in miniature of course.  Quick and easy little projects that can be used as accessories in many miniature vignettes.  
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A BOOK FOR MOTHER


Make a copy of the printie on bright white paper using best printer settings & a landscape setting.

Click on image; copy and paste to your computer.
Set to print at 8-1/16" w x 3.54"h

Cut out cover. 
Clip on 4 lines as shown.
Score on all lines.  Crease & fold all borders inward, using a quality glue stick to hold.  Fold front and back cover inward on spine lines.
Cut out pages in one continuous piece   Crease and fold the pages accordion-style, following  directions on printie. 
Glue pages together, back to back, in twos.  Do not include the smaller end pages. Press flat until glue has set, making sure that any excess glue is not causing the pages to stick together where they should not.  You may insert small pieces of waxed paper between pages to prevent any glue mistakes if desired.


Glue assembled pages into the prepared cover by centering the back sides of the end pages on the inside of the cover…do not glue anything to the spine.  Press the book flat until the glue has set.
For a glossy cover you may choose to coat it with a couple of coats of clear nail enamel or water based acrylic gloss or it may be covered with clear packaging tape. Do test your computer ink for compatibility with any finish you use.
You may choose to add ties to close your book.  If so, use fine sewing thread and work with longer threads that you will need.  Cut two lengths, one for the front and one for the back.  Glue them in place on the front & back cover before the pages are glued in place.  Glue them centered top to bottom and an end set in approx. ¼” from the front edge of the cover. After the book itself is complete, tie the strings into a tiny bow.  Decide how much string you want to extend beyond the bow and tie a knot.  Cut of excess string approx. 1/8” beyond the knot and fray out the cut ends, tassel like.

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BOX OF “DELICIOUS” CHOCOLATES

Make a colored copy of the 4 chocolate box parts and the

chocolates onto matte presentation paper using printer’s

 best settings.  Cut pieces out using a craft knife and straight 

edge, eliminating the black edge lines.  Score on fold lines

 using a pointed stylus & straight edge. 


CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE 

SAVE TO YOUR COMPUTER
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Glue tabs of box & lid pieces to inside.  Using a quality Glue Stick, adhere the top piece, centered, over top of lid and the bottom piece under the box. Using glue stick will give you more time for correct placement.



Using a toothpick, coat each chocolate on the chocolate insert piece with Diamond Glaze.  This will give the candies depth and dimension. If you feel that they are too glossy, add a light coat of clear semi-gloss acrylic over the top of the glaze.  In fact if you don’t have Diamond Glaze you can use acrylic glaze or even tacky glue in its place,   Allow to dry. Insert chocolate piece into box bottom. 


You can also choose to decorate the box top with the tiniest of nail art to add dimension & interest.  


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To all of you Mother's out there, do have a wonderful, loving day.  To all others, give your mother, grandmother, sister or any other significant  female in your life an extra hug,  just because.  
Joann
PS
I have not forgotten the shadowbox project, real life has just been so busy and sunny that I have ignored it for a bit.  But stay tuned for the end of section 5 and filling section 6.







18 comments:

  1. Thanks. It's a wonderful mother's gift.
    Bye, Faby

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  2. I love your blog and all of your minis. Is it possible to have the freebies in 300 ppi instead of 72? The great detail is lost in 72. Thanks for your consideration.

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  3. Hello Joann,
    Thank you for taking the time to teach us your techniques. They look incredible!
    Big hug,
    Giac

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  4. Thank you for this cute little project for Mother's day!!

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  5. Muchas gracias Joann, eres muy generosa. Saludos.

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  6. Anonymous, I agree with you, 300 ppi has much more detail. Dear Joann, would you be willing to do that instead? Thank you from me too for considering this.

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  7. Hmmm, interesting...all of my printies are entered at 300ppi and had always assumed that they would print out that way for you. But it seems that this may not be the fact. At this point I am not sure if Blogger does not take that high of a res or of there is another way for me to give the printies to you here, at full "strength". It is disappointing to me that you are not getting the fine detail in my printies that I spend a lot of time working on. Any suggestions, short of using my own web site?
    Joann

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  8. Great tutorial, as usual! ;)

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  9. Hi Joanne...I know nothing about blogging, so I can't tell you how to fix this, but when I save your images they usually end up in 96dpi. If I save the image directly from your blog page, I get a teeny-tiny version saved in 96dpi...but if I click on the image, so a larger image displays on a black background (what blogger USUALLY does when you "poke" an image, as they say) then I get a GIANT sized image saved in 96dpi. For example, the book image saved directly from the blog page comes out as 4.17 x 1.81 inches, while the "poked" version comes out as 16.67 x 7.24 inches...and both are 96dpi.

    Since a 96dpi image prints a lot better if you "shrink" it...and fuzzier if you enlarge it...the way I deal with this is to open the giant version in PAINT. I select all, then move the entire image as close to the left edge as possible. I then use the image attributes option to change the size to 16 x 20 inches (or, double an 8 x 10 size). I save these changes and then print this giant image as an 8 x 10 image using Picassa or Microsoft Office Picture Manager (the two "free" image printing programs that came on my PC). That's as close as I could get to your specified size. The giant 96dpi image printed as an 8 x 10 image is not as fuzzy as an enlarged version of the 4.17 x 1.81 inch version of the image.

    Plus, with the book image, in PAINT I was able to "select all" on the image and then copy and paste it into the full 16 x 20 inch "page" twice, so that I have three copies of the book on my single 8 x 10 print.

    I know that everyone ONCE in a while, your images HAVE ended up in 300dpi, but I've never understood why they sometimes come out with the higher resolution and other times they don't. - Sharon

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  10. Muchisimas gracias ! gran tutorial! Saludos

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  11. What a neat project and I just loved your irises in the last post.

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  12. Joann have not seen a new post for awhile are you alright???

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  13. @Chris - I wondered the same. Hope all is well in Joann-land!

    BTW blogger will "automagically" resize to a medium size, if you don't watch it. Sneaky, it is!

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  14. Re where to find Lite Brite Pegs...One can often find used games or bags of just the pegs in 2nd shops for pennies on the dollar. But you can also find refill packs online from Amazon.com. "Anonymous in Australia", if you send me your email address I will try to send you a few samples. Joann

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  15. How amazing of you to give free printable miniatures!

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  16. Your blog is so great, I can't stop to read it!
    I really hope for a new post from you!

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  17. mothers day is coming, this article is very helpful for those who wanna wish mothers day to their moms,,,, happy mothers day

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  18. Is this inch or half inch scale

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