Beer Mats!

Carolyn from Pickwells (yes, that wonderful local-to-me crafty emporium and veggie heaven! lol) handed me a pile of beer mats a while ago... "You might find something to do with these" she said. And I did. For a while, my eldest daughter Naomi tried flipping them off the table edge and catching them, followed by a mini-beer-mat-frisbee-contest. Callie-Cat found one quite interesting for about three minutes, and the dog had a sniff, but decided that without poseable thumbs (and the beer mats not being made from bacon) she really wasn't interested.  Which left it to me and some really amazingly cheap bargains - including Papermania brads and papers, the wonderful Craftz Boutique, 99p store book, and  £1 paper roses.



Front Cover





The front cover was spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer (Angel Mist) after being "Ranger-Inked" and stamped. The roses are also spritzed using Lava Red.

Page 1 has two photo mounts with journalling space on the back, and little key and padlock charms that I inked using black and plum inks. Page 2 has a simple folded down pocket decorated with a brad and ribbon, and a two-sided tag slipped inside decorated with another paper rose (lots of stickles used on all the paper flowers).

Page 3 has a journalling tag held under some die-cuts which I inked with brown ink, and then dabbed on distress embossing ink (not all over) to create an aged effect. Inside can be found 2 further photo mats, and these are covered on the reverse side with matching patterned paper (as are all the tags and mats). Page 4 is a simple journal booklet and tag held under two strips of lace.

I matched the butterfly on the 3rd page with a butterfly under the tags on page 4.

Next pages, and I decided to simplify it a bit...  a small tag is hidden in a pocket made behind the lace-up pocket. This laced pocket is designed not to open, but just to hold another tag. On page 6 is a simple photo mat that can be pulled out from behind the acetate covering.

The acetate is simply held onto the frame with small matching brads, and beause of the space needed for the rings, a ribbon was added at the side for a cover-up and decoration.

My favourite pages - 7 and 8! Both are very simple - a journalling tag being held under a chipboard piece and the page stitched around, followed by page 7 that has a simple photo mat held under some ribbon.

Under the photo mat is stitching, and the ribbon also has a sliding cardboard button (made by me) so that any photo can be held in and the 'button' moved up or down so that it doesn't cover any important part of the photo.

Finally, the last pages! Number 9 is a simple corner pocket decorated with leaves and paper roses. The corner is stitched and also has a tiny paper flower. Page 10 is two tags held in a pocket with stamping on one side (Angel Mist used again) and a journalling spot on the other sides.

I also decorated this page with a little stick pin (a free gift) with added embellishments - a butterfly and a bead.

The back cover is the same as the front in that it is coveed with a page of an old Charles Dickens book (don't panic - it was bought for 99p at the Discount Store, and I bought 2 copies - one to keep and one for crafting).

Well, that's my beer-mat-mini.

Looking at my latest projects, I am now going to set myself a task... that I should not use green, red, or brown in my next project - or only tiny splashes of said colours if needed. I really think that these must be my favourites, as I'm always using the same papers and colours!