Black Hat Society Art Coin Mini Book

Until a few months ago, I could not have told you what an ATC coin was. Well, the name says it all so maybe I could've made a pretty good guess. It took the May Kit from Alpha Stamps to introduce them to me (yes, I live under a rock) but I am here to tell you that they are a whole lot of fun! But you already knew that.

It isn't just coins that Alpha Stamps created; there are also square art coasters (clever!) and pockets, folders, and holders for all of your new art. Neat! I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the bits sent to me because, honestly, what couldn't you do with a bunch of these? In the end, I smashed a bunch of the pockets and folders together to make a mini album. I think a group of the little pockets and coins would be cute if glued vertically along a ribbon and hung on a wall. Maybe next time.

The book has two signatures, each of which is made from two 3" coin holders.

Page one is a 3" Simple Pocket:

Page two is a 3" Wallet and page three is another simple pocket:

The closure of the wallet is a spinning arrow attached with a brad. There's a small gold jump ring under the arrow to accommodate the width of the wallet's flap.

Pages four and five are made up of a 3" Square Folder:

Another great thing about these coins is getting to use up all of those scraps of super special paper that you cherish. You know, the paper that makes you feel like Gollum with his Precious? My Precious paper is for sure Authentique's Nightfall series. Love it!

The construction of the album is very basic. I used this chipboard for the album's covers and spine. The cover is made from two 3 1/4" squares and one 7/8" x 3 1/4" rectangle (spine). See third picture below. The first picture shows the hinges for the book pages. It is a 5 3/8" x 2 1/4" piece of cardstock with score marks at 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", 2 7/8", 3 3/8", and 3 7/8". Mountain fold the two creases at 2" and 3 3/8" and valley fold the others. 

Mountain Folds at Red Arrows

Add glue to the back side of the mountain folds and pinch together, like so:

Cut out a rectangle of cardstock that measures 4 1/2" x 8 1/2". Glue your spine piece in the center followed by the front and back covers. If you score some guidelines on the cardstock, it makes it easier to line up the pieces. Be sure to leave a little space between the pieces.

Snip off the corners of the cardstock and ignore these measurements because they're wrong and I had to pay Twin 2 five dollars to edit the picture above. Apply glue to edges of the cardstock and fold over.

Align the hinge piece along the spine and glue in place.

All of the finished "pages" which are actually just the coin holders:

To make the book pages, slather glue along the top, side. and bottom of one folder. Clamp a second folder to it. Let dry. Repeat for the other folders. You will attach the pages by adding glue to the hinges and sliding the unglued portion between the pages over the hinges.

Since I don't have a picture of that, please enjoy the back.

To see a complete list of supplies go RIGHT HERE. Happy crafting to you!

Alice All Around, a Weird and Wonderful Spinny Thing

I am very excited to tell you about a Quarter Scale Four Scene Room Box - Forest from Alpha Stamps! This tiny thing with its long name is simply awesome! It is two flat chipboard pieces that you can paint (or paper, decoupage, whatever!), assemble, and then affix to the round base. That means there are four little areas to decorate until your heart is content. The whole piece is 6" wide, so each room is 3" x 3", with a bit less space as the floor is round.

And what better way to decorate it than with Alice! And miniatures! And miniature Alice paper dolls! And let's also make it spin!!! (insert flailing Kermit arms)

Okay, I am getting a little carried away..ahem. But this four scene room box does deserve all of those exclamations. 

Up first is Alice herself with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. I just love those pink geraniums popping out of the bushes. They are incredibly detailed!

Next is the caterpillar room with all the wild foliage and mushrooms. The collage sheet mushrooms look great in there, but I also think a few of these little guys or these would have made it a bit better. The ferns were really easy to make using laser-cut Boston Fern leaves. I colored them with markers, snipped them out, rolled them lengthwise around a thin knitting needle (a dowel or paintbrush would work, too), and using the end of the knitting needle, creased down the center of the leaf to make it curl.

Ah, the Tea Party. One of the most memorable parts of Alice in Wonderland with all of the Hatter's nonsensicalness, the seemingly random times to rotate seats, and the sleepy Dormouse's story. So kooky! All of these characters came from the Tin-Sized Alice collage sheet and were meant to be used as little paper dolls. The March Hare, Mad Hatter, and Dormouse can be removed or placed in the seats at the tea table, which gave me an idea for the other collage images I used in the other rooms. More on that later. I felt the Cheshire Cat needed to make an appearance, so I cut him and his branch out of the Tenniel's Alice collage sheet, recolored the branch, then glued him onto the tree.

Finally, we have The Queen of Hearts amongst her mostly red roses. "Off with her head!" 

After cutting out the aforementioned Tea Party group, I decided I wanted all of the characters in my room box to be removable and gave them all stands on the back. The stands are made from two pieces of heavy weight card stock; one thin strip and one tiny triangle. I just painted the pieces and glued them on the back of the images.

Here's what I did to the Quarter Scale Four Room Box:

Painted Black

Added happy tree

A few bushes, yadda yadda

And covered the base with old Alice in Wonderland book pages

Did I mention that it spins?

Under the base is a turntable that I fashioned using this tutorial, but I used a few layers of thick cardstock instead of a cd. Do yourself a favor and just buy either 3" or 4" lazy susan hardware from Amazon.

I see lots of possibilities for this, including adding tiny furniture, flowers, and animals and making it a gnome home, or what about a pumpkin patch and a few graveyards for all the spooky things? Cool!

Supply List can be found RIGHT HERE

Oh! I nearly forgot about the itsy bitsy Black, White, and Read All Over Alice book I also made. Here it is!

Now go off and get crafty!

Supplies for Alice book are HERE