FRAGMENTS Travel Scrapbook

Here is my long-awaited Fragments Travel Scrapbook that I finally recently finished! I'm really happy with the way it turned out. This is one of those projects that could have turned out looking really bad if I wasn't careful, lol!





I began with an older kraft chipboard scrapbook by Making Memories. (I don't think you can get it anymore - I kind of stash and hoard things for a while). It's made with blank chipboard covers and a beautiful canvas spine that's been embossed with travel words and logos. Other than being undecorated, it's a regular 2-ring square scrapbook that takes 8" x 8" pages.



You can see the rings here:


I took my favorite designer scrapbook papers that I've also been saving for a while and measured and cut to the same size as the scrapbook cover. I cut out 4 sheets - 2 for the front and back and 2 for the inside covers. I also cut out a couple of other smaller pieces of fun travel papers from Making Memories to collage onto the front of the album. Using my foam brushes and archival glue by Lineco, I thoroughly coated the backs of all the papers and adhered them to the album. I like using Lineco glues for my scrapbooks because they're conservation grade, which means it'll help conserve the album for many years by not using harmful ingredients.


I waited a couple days to make sure the glue had completely dried and settled into the album to add the fragments and stamping. I didn't want to add them while things were still damp because there was a chance it might warp and bubble the papers. I decided to use all rub-ons and stickers for the fragments this time, since I had already tried alcohol inks last time (on my mini album 2 posts below).

After applying various travel-themed stickers by Making Memories on top of the fragments, I flipped them over and applied Ranger's Glossy Accents glue on the back. Since fragments are by nature glossy, you want to use a glossy glue to adhere them (a glue that dries shiny and clear), and not a matte glue. Ranger's glues are made to work with the fragments and the glue is acid-free. I started out slowly to see how much glue was going to come out.


I wanted to put a lot of glue on since these fragments were going on the cover of the album, I know that they're going to get a lot of knocking and bumping.


Here's how much glue I ended up putting on each fragment. For a smaller project like a card or something that's going to be protected you could use a lot less glue. IMPORTANT TIP: Before I glued these fragment pieces down to the album, I had already placed all of them where I wanted them to be, then snapped a photo of it and printed it out. That's how I was able to confidently and quickly glue the pieces and stick them on without much fuss!


On some of the fragments I used travel rub-ons by Basic Grey - they were extremely easy to rub-on because the fragments are hard, they went on very easily! I glued them down on the side where the rub-on was to protect them from being scratched off. They show through the fragments beautifully, as you can see on the album cover.

The final touches were stamping and heat embossing the word *travel*, which I embossed with Tim Holtz's Distress Powder in *Tattered Rose*. The reason it looks pinkish-brown is because I used dark brown craft ink! It's amazing, the combos you can come up with!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed my new scrapbook album! Stay tuned for more fun stuff!

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Tim Holtz *Fragments* and Mini Book

I'm excited to share about Tim Holtz's *Fragments* and this little mini book I made over the weekend - it was my first time working with Tim Holtz's new (semi-new) FRAGMENTS, and it was so fun! Fragments are a very cool tool/embellishment you can use on just about anything.

--They're a part of Tim's Idea-ology line by Advantus, and come in three different varieties. The first one that came out is simply called *Fragments* which contains square and rectangular pieces of clear acrylic tiles in different sizes. The largest is a 3.75" x 3.75" inch square, and the smallest is 5/8" x 5/8" inches. There are also various rectangular pieces, and they're all approximately 3mm thick. You get 48 pieces in one package - it's actually a LOT, and goes a long, long way. You can ink them, stamp on them, drill through them, and glue patterned paper to them! All of these supplies are available at Creative Play Stamps.

More recently Tim has released two other varieties: *Charms* and *Ovals & Circles*. The charms are cool because they're shaped like tags and have holes at the top of each charm. They come in many different shapes - square, round, etc...

Here's a photo of the package:


And a description written on the back of the insert:


You can watch the master himself demo-ing the Fragments:
TIM HOLTZ FRAGMENTS *HOW-TO* VIDEO


For my book, I used 2 of the largest square pieces (3.75" x 3.75") and decorated them with Adirondack alcohol inks (Cranberry, Butterscotch, Red Pepper). (See tutorial on the previous posting). Then I measured and drilled 2 holes in the fragments using a drill bit made especially for using on plastics and acrylics. (If you use a regular drill bit it will crack the acrylic and won't drill through correctly.) Then I just fiddled around with my other new goodies: Tim Holtz's *Sprocket Gears*, *Swivel Clasps* and Keyholes, and pushed them around until I liked how it looked. I also rubber stamped 2 more fragment tiles with permanent *Timber Brown Staz-On* ink and shuffled everything around and around until it looked good. The final step was gluing everything down with Ranger's *Glossy Accents* which Tim Holtz recommends for using with Fragments and his metal embellishments.

close up:


I left the bottom right-hand corner empty so I could place a photo or stamped image on the paper behind it and have it showing through. Neat, huh?!?

top view:


The hot orange rings are by *Junkitz* - I bought them about 4 years ago before they went out of business, and the metal button is also an old one by *7 Gypsies*. I custom-made my own half-pearls by soaking them in Adirondack *Espresso* alcohol ink. The pages of the book are thick paper coasters which I cut down to fit the size of the book.

I'm going to post 2 more projects made with FRAGMENTS over the next week. Stay tuned!

~~~ All supplies are available at: Creative Play Stamps ~~~

***I'm currently trying to fix my blog so that people can leave comments - I didn't realize the template I chose doesn't allow for comments!!!

inspiration for today:
*We need the freedom to discover how God wants us to grow, for his design will not look quite the same for everyone.* - John Ortberg

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