craftgrrl | Mini Shriney Album thing from AOL's new packaging.

Now, no, I'm not so vain as to make a mini shrine to myself (despite popular opinion) There's a story here! A good one! and a tutorial!

See, I have this addiction..I am addicted to Sonic's Mozzarella sticks (don't worry we'll get to the project)

Mozzarella sticks don't fit in with my current diet and threaten to sabotage me everytime I pass sonics. See, in the past year I lost 150 pounds and I certainly don't want to go back to where I was, so I whipped up a little reminder to keep me in check. It fits perfectly in my car's console. And all I need to do is take it out and have a peek and everything works out!

has anyone gotten one of these in the mail yet? Has anyone gotten 43 a week like I do? It's a little bifold CD case, but it's made out of chipboard so it's really sturdy

The insides are even all beveled so it closes nicely!

Coat it with some ink...(colorbox black)

Then hit it with some black embossing powder and emboss

Follow up with some UTEE until you get your desired effect

ooh, leathery! (this is about 4 coats of black/utee)

Why 2 powders? The UTEE melts into the black and makes little inclusions and since the grains of powder are different sizes you end up with some interesting texture

Then lets decorate the outside with some collage papers, mulberry, a little word bead, epherma, whatever you'd like.

bust up the xyron, measure and line the inside of the box (which you already painted/stained/embossed/left plain/whatever)

add some before/after pictures. mine ended up being 4X3 (the inside of the box is 4.75 square) and only 1/4 of a inch deep which you need to remember when you...

embellish it as you like, with some stones and fibers, tags, mini wooden scrabble stickers, branches, twigs, republicans...(check if it can still close before you start gluing)

I think this would be a cute gift for the guys in your life (which is what i'm doing next) or if you used smaller pics you could make a mini photo album. Or a very odd scrapbook, pics and some journaling. It could be easily modified to make a great keepsake after a wedding, baby shower, birthday, whatever.

I also think it'd be really cool if you could find enough and make a book for every year of your kids life, like with their school photo, report cards (sized down) interests

Or as a unique way to present a family recipe with a picture of the dish and the recipe, decorated with some kitchen themed stickers

or..*thinks* you could make mini games, like checkers and tic-tac-toe for long car tripes with some sheets of magnets and little discs

I think that's it

If you've read this far, i'll buy you an ice cream ;)

thanks for looking
Adam :)