Whimsy Stamps and Chibitronics IG Hop ~ Magic Book

Hey crafty friends, I'm back to share a fun hop I'm taking part in, that is collaboration between Whimsy Stamps and the lovely folks at Chibitronics! They have been very generous with our team and provided us with some amazing light circuits to use in our cards and creations. I haven't actually created a card for this hop, but rather a little magic book. I think it's hilarious that this little magic book looks like it is levitating in the image below! The magic of this book happens of course when the book is opened and the light circuit part of this design kicks into play. For the full effect, you really need to see the IG reel I did showing this, but spoiler alert, the photos that will follow show how it all works, so visit the IG reel first if you can. 

I was heavily inspired by Tami Bastiaans to try my hand at making some 'leather' paper. She shared the most fabulous tutorial for this last year on her Halloweeners pirate project. Be sure to check it out here. Tami is such a great teacher. She explains her process so clearly and gives all the little tips and tricks. So I was excited to try this out this year and decided I'd turn my leather paper into this little book. I used Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks for my leather look. I smooshed them onto the paper and spritzed it with water to blend them. I didn't have the distress sprays Tami did, but this worked well for me. 

Let me introduce the circuitry I used. I have used the conductive ribbon tape seen in the roll on the left and a battery from that set. Then I've used one of the rainbow fade new light circuits from the pack on the right, with the little flower shaped circuits. These rainbow fade circuits cycle through an array of colours following a rainbow theme. This was perfect to light up the inside portion of my book, which I wanted to appear had a magical element to it and perhaps a protective spell associated with it. With the words chosen, a perhaps somewhat sinister magical element, though I'm not a big fan of spooky scary stuff, so take that with a grain of salt! All done in fun.

Here is a pic of the book opening but not yet engaging the light circuit, it's the moment as the book is opened wide enough to bridge the circuit that makes the magic happen. Hubby helped me to design the circuit bridge. He builds guitar pedals as a hobby, so he was absolutely the man to help me with this circuit bridge switch!

You can see above three light shades the cycle goes through once the switch is activated. I wasn't sure my little tab of acetate was going to be enough to make this work, but with hubby's help, we worked out how to add a small amount of the conductive tape to the bottom of the acetate slide, so that as the book cover opened it bridged the circuit and activates the lights. Held open, it will cycle through the full spectrum of lights and it's quite wonderful. Do check out the IG reel for the full effect. You can also pop up the images above for a bigger sized pic. 

Here's a shot in lower light, for a more impressive light effect. It is really quite fun viewing the light effects with lower light in the room. Far more dramatic! The box die set I used to create this little book is the fabulous ATC Box Die Set from Whimsy Stamps. It comes with all the cool embellishments you see, that I've used to add detail to the box. I didn't want to cover much of the leather look paper, because I was really happy with how that came out, so didn't add too many extra embellishments. But I did for a little surprise add a Whimsy cat to the inside cover of the book. He looks just as surprised when you see him, hehe. 

To achieve that cool copper/bronze effect finish on the little details of the book. I treated the corner embellishments, the base plate for the latch and the cute detail for the strap with Simon Hurley's Lunar Paste in Refined Copper. I used my finger to paint some of this onto white cardstock and then diecut these embellishments from this cardstock once it was dry. I think it made such lovely metallic like details for this little book and added to the olde world feel.

Here's a peek at my actual circuitry. It didn't need to be a big circuit and I wanted to get plenty more use out of this fabulous roll of circuit tape. It's a generous amount you get and I know I can make several more designs with the amount in this kit. So there was no need to make the circuit bigger than necessary. You can see the two little strips at the end of the acetate slider. These are on the underside of the acetate and this is the circuit bridge. As it slides into place when the book is opened, it bridges and completes the circuit, which makes the light glow. It was both fun and challenging working out how to make this function. But once hubby and I had worked the plan out, me explaining what I wanted, him actually figuring out the circuitry, it was all on! He helped me design the circuit, but I actually built it and it wasn't as scary as I thought! 

I really do love the aesthetic the leather like paper gave this little book, it was exactly what I wanted and I'm deeply grateful to Tami for her excellent tutorial on creating this. It helped me bring my vision for this piece to life! One step I've not mentioned it the 'front page' when you open the book. This little die set is of course meant to be a treat box, you open it up and the inside has a little box you can add treats into. You can see a previous design I've made here. What a needed to do to bring my idea to life for this design, was to somehow create a 'top' for the box, which I could diecut the words Foolish Mortals from. So what I did was diecut a second one of the box bases, but when putting it together, made it ever so slightly looser in fit than the first I created for the base, so that I could slip this one over the other as a lid. It worked a treat! So I deconstructed the box at this point, realising I needed it flat to do the diecutting of the words, then I glued the sides back together just as I had done in my test run. Tim Holtz tiny clips were magic for this gluing process. The only thing extra I did to the box lid, was to add a peice of vellum on the inside, to diffuse the light a little when the switch activated. This gives a lovely eerie diffuse light, rather than a focused light stream. Worked a treat! 

I really have had SO much fun creating this little light up papercraft piece. I'm so very happy with how it came together. I wondered about adding some sort of title to the spine of the box, and may yet do that, but was undecided what I wanted it to say, so that's an adventure for another day. What I did do which doesn't show particularly well in any of the pics above, is I used distress inks in Antique Linen, Old Paper and Tea Dye to age the paper. I smooshed the cardstock I was going to use for the bases in these inks before die-cutting them. I then used the edge of the old paper ink pad to run horizontal lines along all the sides of the top box which I used as the lid, so the sides would look like pages at a glance. It's such a little detail, but it's a nice finishing touch and that's how I did it.

I'd love to know what you thought of my little magic book and whether you'd be inclined to try something like this yourself? Perhaps not a magic book per se, but a light up card maybe? I've never made one before and I was pleasantly surprised that it was not anywhere as daunting as I thought it might be. I also found that Jessica Frost Ballas has some fabulous 'how to' videos on how to put together these circuits for cards. Well worth a watch if you're keen to have a go yourself and as I said, the circuit tape is SO generous. You have quite a number of circuits possible with that tape provided, so it's worth the price-point. 

If you'd like to hop along with us and be in for a chance to win the two fabulous prizes on offer, one from Chibitronics and one from Whimsy Stamps, you can click through to my stop on the hop via the banner above. I do hope you will join us. If you're sitting on the fence regarding getting an Instagram Account, can I encourage you, by saying, I delayed for many years but it's now one of my 'go to' spaces for inspiration and to follow friends. It's very easy to use and a lovely way to catalogue your makes. I won't give up my blog, this is still my favourite place to share all the extra details of my makes, but I have genuinely found Instagram a great place for crafty connections and easily keeping up to date with friends posts. That said, I wish you a beautiful day and a wonderful week filled with crafty adventures. If you do hop with us, thank you! We appreciate your support and hope you leave filled with more crafty inspiration.

We've just had our last Halloween focused release for 2024 at Whimsy Stamps and it's another fantastic release! The next one arrives on October 1st and this will be gearing us up for Autumn months and Christmas. You may spot my poem up in the top left of the banner above, this is still available as a free gift with orders over $50, so have that in mind when ordering. You must add it to your cart, but it will be automatically free once your order tips over $50. I am SO delighted to have had this poem made into a Halloween sentiment stamp, so let me know if you get it and if you use it in any of your makes! It's just a bit of Halloween fun, but was oh so special for me! 

Thank you friends for popping in to check out my latest crafty adventure today. I will be back again very soon but in the meantime, have an awesome and creative week. Hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

My Halloween Poem

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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