My Crafty Retreat: Waiting For You

Well the time has come, I can now share with you the album I've created from the WOW MDF Teddy Bear Album for our much awaited baby and will also show you how easy, simple and fun it is to alter these albums to make the covers into fun little shaker boxes!!!

Firstly here is the album!!! I love how it has come together, and the fact I was able to use pink when I live in a household full of boys and 1 tomboy was a GREAT change!!! :)

So did you see the little shaker boxes on the feet of the Teddy Bear cover? Do you want to know how to make them? Well read on :)

HOW TO MAKE A SHAKER BOX
featuring WOW mdf Teddy Bear album

To start with choose your album. Any with a fully enclosed cut out part on the front cover works best. I have used the WOW MDF Teddy Bear Album that is illustrated HERE

The materials you will need other than general scrapping supplies are:

~ sheets of acetate
~ glitter or pretties to out inside your shaker box
~ glue that is suitable for acetate - or double sided tape

Before we really get started you will need to decide what part of the album you are going to turn into a shaker box. I've decided to use the large foot pads on the bear. The sections that are 'cut' are either loose or can be easily removed for this purpose. Once you have decided on what part will become a fun toy make a template of your cover. Make sure you mark in the holes that will become the shaker box - THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!!!! I didn't do it on mine and wasted HOURS getting the cover decorated which should have been an easy thing to do (trust me to miss something super simple!!!)

Step 1: Cover one side of the album with glue where you are going to adhere acetate. I have used a full sheet of acetate to cover the whole of the album as I wanted the eyes and 'hands' to be clear to allow the patterned paper on the 3rd page to show through.

Step 2: Carefully lay the acetate over the required areas

and smooth the glue underneath.

Don't worry too much if the glue 'bleeds out',
it can easily be cleaned up with a moistened cloth.

Allow to dry overnight. I recommend weighing the acetate and mdf to avoid any possibility of buckling.

** Not all glues adhere acetate successfully. You can use
Double Sided Tape if you prefer - make sure there are no gaps in the DST,
you don't want your pretties to escape!!!
(I had to change to DST as my glue didn't work)

Step 3: Once the glue has dried or you've adhered the acetate with DST trim around the OUTSIDE of the album to make sure there are no bits sticking out and to keep things nice and tidy.

Step 4: Flip your album over and it's time to add your 'pretties' Avoid anything too heavy as it can scratch the acetate or even worse make the seal between the acetate and MDF separate!!

Step 5: Trim up a piece of acetate to cover the back of your shaker box. Adhere using glue or DST, again making sure there are no gaps for your pretties to escape through!

VOILA!!!

Step 6: Time to Decorate. Remember the template you made? It's time for that to be used, choose what papers you wish to use to decorate and cover your MDF page with and using the template cut out the holes that will allow your shaker box to be revealed. Alternately you may wish to paint your page - as with the glue, not all paints will successfully cover acetate.