Articles : Creative Team Reveals

Beyond the Page with KaiserCraft

This month I had the pleasure of working with the new KaiserCraft Beyond the Page items.  The collection includes mini albums and tons of different alterable items at really affordable prices.  All of the Beyond the Page items are made of sturdy MDF and would make fantastic holiday gifts. 

Family Tree

I had the thrill of attending Summer CHA this summer in Orlando.  KaiserCraft had an amazing booth and all of the their new products were exciting.  The one product that we all loved was their new Family Tree.  When I found out I would be working with the Beyond the Page items, I knew I had to include the Family Tree in my reveal. 

The tree comes unassembled and my first step was to paint the tree trunk and branches.  I wanted a textured finish and one that resembled actual tree bark.  I started by painting it with a dark brown acrylic paint.  I let it dry then painted it  with a thick layer of Tim Holtz Crackle paint (thicker layer=more crackle.)  My shade of TH Crackle Paint was more of a light tan color and I wanted it to be darker.  I took a Colorbox Brown Ink pad and inked over the entire crackle layer once it was dry. I was really happy with the amount of dimension I achieved by following these steps.  It took a bit of time but it was worth it.  I did seal it with Mod Podge Matte. 

I used a piece of OA green houndstooth pp for the area that would be where the leaves are.  I love houndstooth so that's why I chose it.  You could use any number of pps for the leaves.  I cut frames and a scroll out of a sheet of KaiserCraft patterned paper.  I added my photos and assembled the project.  I used KasierCraft Ice Green Pearls around the branches to resemble leaves.  I love what this detail adds to the project.  The hooks to hang the frames were included and you screw them into the MDF where ever you like.  Here is my finished tree:

If you click on the photo above, you can go to my gallery and see many more detailed images of the tree.  I absolutely adore how it turned out!  Here is one more that shows the texture of the tree.

Welcome to our Home Birdhouse

The next project I made was the KaiserCraft Birdhouse.  I loved that it came unassembled because i was able to use each piece as my guide to trace onto my patterned paper.  I traced each piece and then painted the edges of those pieces with black Making Memories paint.  I will have to say that scrapbooking paint is more expensive than some acrylic paints you can get from a craft store.  But, it dried much quicker, I didn't need a second coat to achieve the color on the outside of the bottle, and the finish was much nicer.  Those are some factors to consider when picking your paint. 

While my edges were drying, I cut out the patterned paper pieces I traced earlier.  For my birdhouse, I chose to use the Pink Paislee Amber Road line of patterned papers because I liked the patterns, colors and that they were double sided.  I glued them onto the MDF pieces with Mod Podge Matte and let them dry.  I also added another layer of Mod Podge Matte on the top.  I hand cut the cherry blossoms from one of the sheets of PP Amber Rose and added them using pop dots.  It took a lot of time to hand cut them and add pop dots but I loved the finished look. 

It came with 4 hooks in the package.  In the sample on the packaging, it didn't really show how they were used.  I decided to add them below my birdhouse as hooks to hang keyrings.   I also wanted to mention that I used Elmer's Wood Glue to attach all of the pieces together. 

My Pets

This was a fun mini album I made for my sister as a birthday present using the KaiserCraft Beyond the Page Bracket Album. Kaisercraft offers several different styles of mini albums and they are all so cute.  She loves her furbabies and I wanted to make her an album with photos of them.  I chose the MME Abbey Road line of patterned papers because the colors and patterns were pretty and fun. 

Here is one more photo and if you click on either of the photos, you can see the rest of the album in my gallery:

Products Featured

About the author ...
Beth has been a member of the ACOT Creative Team since August 2007. She is currently a SAHM and lives with her dh, 6 year old dd, and 3 cats in Florida. She started scrapbooking over 3 1/2 years ago and has become completely obsessed with the hobby and loves the creative outlet it provides. She was a finalist in the KI Memories Celebrate Life with Color Contest and has been published in Memory Makers, the KI Memories Idea Planner, and Creating Keepsakes. In addition to being an avid scrapbooker, she loves reading, photography and baking.

Published on 09/21/2009. Submitted by Beth-W