My boys are always "colorful", often into mischief, forever dirty. They live to catch (and release luckily) frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, turtles, caterpillars, and other assorted critters. Their BOYS 100% and their adventures inspired this album cover with a custom made Makin's Clay® ribbon slide.
- Cindi Bisson
Materials:
Makin’s Clay® - 120g Multi-Color
12x12 Black leather album
Plaid Industries & Making Memories acrylic paints
“BOY” text rubber stamps (unknown brand)
Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black inkpad
Unknown brand of striped ribbon
Unknown brand of flat top black eyelets
Sherwin Williams Krylon Crystal Clear spray finish
Non-stick mat, heat tool, craft knife, embossing stylus, pencil, paintbrushes in assorted sizes
ProvoCraft Silent Setter eyelet setting tools
Font: Hopscotch Plain downloaded from the internet
Instructions:
Open a blank document in a word processing program and select a font for your text. Enlarge the size of the letters as large as possible to fit onto the cover the album. For my lettering, I chose Hopscotch Plain and enlarged the font to 850 and printed one letter per page.
Cut out each printed letter and use as a tracing template on the cover of your album.
Select your color palette. My choices were based on the striped ribbon I chose for the project. Begin by painting your background
color on the traced lettering, allow to dry. I found that 3 coats worked best for a good, solid coverage. For this project, I chose chartreuse green.
For the stamping, choose a permanent black ink. If you use a product like Staz-On or Palette, create use the scrap paper from the lettering you cut out as a MASK before stamping so you do not get the
text onto the black background of the album. If you use Brilliance ink as I did, immediately remove any overstamped text using a cotton swab or small cloth from the background. Ink assorted text stamps (I chose “boy” words) and randomly stamp over the painted letters. If using a heat setting ink, heat set with a heat tool.
Paint a thin outline around each letter in a contrasting color. Once dry, paint a second outline in another contrasting color. For this project I used teal and white.
The frog embellishment was created by mixing bright green Makin’s Clay® and yellow paint together to create a lighter green. It was then rolled out thin onto a non-stick mat. A craft knife was used to hand cut the frog image. An embossing stylus was used to gently push a bumpy “texture” into the frog. (Makin's Clay® texture sheets would have been perfect for texturing this quickly and easily!) Tiny black balls of clay were flatted to
create his eyes and spots. Allow embellishment to dry overnight. Another option would be to roll out the Makin’s Clay® and use a Makin's Brand® clay cutter, or a large cookie cutter to cut the desired shape, remembering to use a knife to cut the ribbon slits before the shape dries. Or an image could be printed off the computer, cut out and traced onto the clay for a custom shape. A chipboard shape, large silk flower, or die cut image could also be used.
Cut the ribbon to approximately 11 ½ inches and gently fray the ends. Coat frayed ends with clear
nail polish, or any clear drying finish to prevent further fraying if desired.
Slide the dry embellishment onto one piece of the ribbon.
Use a craft knife to carefully cut slits* on either side of the bottom of the “Y” to slide the ribbon under and then back out to the other side. * Be sure to use a protective surface under the top cover
before cutting, or you may cut through to the back cover.
Use flat top black eyelets to mount the ribbon to the album.
Spray finished album with Krylon Crystal Clear finish.
Here's a peak at another project on our Makin's Clay® Pinterest Board. This piece was originally created as a lanyard but it would also make a fun summer necklace. The bubbles and fish were made with Makin's Clay®. The fish were textured with the scales from the Set D texture sheet set, and then cut with Makin's Brand® fish cutters. I carefully made two holes in each fish so the decorative fiber could 
