April's Review	Andrea's Review	Chris' Review	Penny's Review	Bethany's Review

Review by April

I adore anything and everything having to do with butterflies, and the new Tinkering Ink Butterfly Peekaboo Album was no different! Tinkering Ink's line of chipboard/acrylic peekaboo albums is growing steadily and each one is totally inspiring. One of their latest additions to the peekaboo line is the butterfly album and peekaboo pieces, and I was excited about the opportunity to review both of these for ScrapFriends!

For this review I received a butterfly peekaboo album, and a package of peekaboo pieces. The butterfly album consisted of 5 acrylic butterflies, two chipboard butterflies, and one silver book ring. The acrylic butterflies had a protective film on each side to keep them clean and it was very easy to peel off. One of the chipboard butterflies had die cut windows that popped out easily, and then the butterfly had a more intricate design and also provided openings to see through it which added an interesting dimension to the piece. The acrylic was just thick enough to provide a very sturdy work surface, and thin enough that I could punch through it with a hole punch. The package of peekaboo pieces contained 10 fun chipboard shapes, and 3 cute acrylic shapes with pre-punched holes. With the exception of 2 small curved arrows, each piece was unique. There was a square, a couple of different rectangles, and oval, a small circle, an octagon, a star, two larger arrows, a semi-circle, and another eight sided sign like shape. Both the butterfly album and the peekaboo pieces came in sealed plastic packaging with a colorful glossy cardstock back that gave a description of the product and included pictures of each individual piece.

As soon as I saw the butterfly pieces, I immediately thought about making a mobile to hang in my scraproom. I love butterflies and I thought they would be the perfect size to decorate and hang! I started by painting an oval shaped embroidery hoop and tying some invisible cord with a few decorative beads to the top so I could hang it on a hook. To decorate the base of the butterflies, I used a variety of metallic paints, glitter glues, some alcohol ink, acrylic paint, and ultra fine glitter. On most of the pieces, I decorated each side of the butterfly a little differently so I actually ended up with over 10 different butterfly creations. I applied a sticky rub on and burnished a pink foil onto three of the butterflies, and what was really cool, is that when you flipped the butterflies over, the foil showed through in silver...thus creating a different look! I added rub ons, flowers, and rhinestone brads as embellishments, and then punched holes in the bottom of half of them and added little black crystals that hung from jump rings. I tied an invisible nylon cord to each butterfly through the already existing holes, and hung them at different lengths from the embroidery hoop. Although I had a difficult time trying to photograph the whole mobile outside, I absolutely love, love, love, the way it looks hanging in the corner of my scrap room!

Title: Butterfly Mobile
Products used:
Chipboard & Acrylic Butterflies (Tinkering Ink Butterfly Peekaboo Album)
Paint (Jaquard Lumiere, Ranger Paint Dabbers)
Glitter (Ranger Stickles, Art Institute)
Rhinestone Brads (Heidi Swapp, Karen Foster)
Alcohol Ink (Ranger)
Foil & Foil Images (Creative Imaginations)
Rub ons (Autumn Leaves)
Flowers (Prima)
Rhinestones & Crystals (Heidi Swapp)
Embroidery Hoop (Michaels)
Nylon Cord (Champion)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

For my second project, I decided to use several of the peekaboo pieces to create a set of decorative magnets. They came in such cute shapes and were really easy to decorate. I used a mixture of metallic paints, colored pencils, acrylic paint, rub ons, glitter glue and stickers to dress up the chipboard pieces. Since they were heavy in weight they were very durable and easily accepted the paint and other mediums. I decorated the acrylic pieces with patterned paper, acrylic paint, rub ons, metallic paint, stamps, and a variety of other embellishments. After each piece was done, I flipped it over and adhered a strong magnet to the back. I loved having the variety in shapes and the whole project was relatively quick and easy!

Title: Decorative Magnet Set
Products used:
Chipboard & Acrylic Pieces (Tinkering Ink Peekaboo Pieces)
Paint (Jaquard Lumiere, Ranger Paint Dabbers)
Glitter (Ranger Stickles, Art Institute)
Rhinestone Brads (Heidi Swapp, Karen Foster)
Rub ons (Autumn Leaves, Fancy Pants)
Buttons (Autumn Leaves)
Stickers (Sandy Lion, Making Memories)
Patterned Paper (Scenic Route)
Colored Pencils (Staedtler)
Felt Heart (Fancy Pants)
Glitter Brad (Making Memories)
Ribbon (Personal Stash)
Stamp (Odd Bird Planet)
Ink Pad (Staz On)
Metal clip (Lil Davis)
Metal Snowflake (Making Memories)
Magnets (Hobby Lobby)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner, Zots, E600)

I thought the butterfly peekaboo album was adorable and I would like to get a couple more to use for future projects. I really liked the size of the butterflies because not only can use the pieces to create altered art projects, but they would also make wonderful page embellishments, stencils, and of course make a super-cute mini album. It's priced at $9.99, which is a great bargain for the mix of perfectly cut chipboard and acrylic pieces. The peekaboo pieces are only $5.99 per package, and are fabulous for creating extra layers in any of the other Peekaboo albums. Just like the butterfly album, you can use them as is for altered art projects, as page embellishments, stencils, or even make a mini album using just the pieces! I thought both of these kits were a lot of fun to create with and would highly recommend them!

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Review by Andrea

Tinkering Ink is having too much fun with the Peekaboo Album concept! I just love the creativity of the chipboard and acrylic page mix - lots of options for lots of memories. For this review, I had the opportunity to work with the Butterfly Peekaboo Album and Peekaboo Pieces. Both have the chipboard and acrylic mix of items offering options as pages or elements to a page. The chipboard and acrylic are thick to stand up well to any type of altering, just what I like! The chipboard is a natural brown color and the acrylic is crystal clear underneath the protective blue wrap.

The 5" x 3" Butterfly Album has 2 chipboard covers, one with cut-outs like a butterfly's wings and the other solid, acting as the back cover. The internal pages number 5 and are all acrylic. Each page has a hole for the 1 1/2" ring accompanying the package.

The Peekaboo Pieces package has 10 chipboard variety shapes and 3 acrylic tag shapes. These are great for using as a page embellishment or even as an additional page in a small album. The acrylic shapes are especially fun! Check out a suncatcher that I made for a different review using the large oval tag with some foil accents. Some of the pieces are 6" long, so you can definitely use that to your advantage.

Ali Edwards had a great mini album article in Creating Keepsakes recently, so I used that article as an idea for my Butterfly Album. Using recent random photos, I created an album of the things that I "See" in everyday life and what they mean to me. I loved the acrylic pages and used a mask with alcohol inks to create a background on every page. Since the alcohol inks are transparent, it worked wonderfully on the pages. The pictures were all trimmed to an oval shape and placed over the center of the butterfly shaped page with the pictures back to back. Flower shaped rhinestones were all the added decoration that the pages needed. For the covers, I heat embossed them for color, sparkle and texture. Three letters and ribbon on the ring made the album complete! Once I had the idea for the album, it came together quickly.

Title: "See" Butterfly Peekaboo Album
Products used: Butterfly Peekaboo Album (Tinkering Ink)
Chipboard Arrow (Tinkering Ink, Peekaboo Piece)
Ink (Clearsnap Embossing Ink)
Embossing Powder (PK Glitz)
Letters (American Crafts Thickers)
Mask (Heidi Swapp)
Alcohol Inks (Jacquard Pinata)
Ribbon (Tie One On)
Bling (Target)
White Pen (Ranger)
Black Pen (Sharpie)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

At first I was surprised at the small size of the album and wondered how to make it work! There are LOTS of options and I would like to mix this album shape with the other Peekaboo albums available to really get a great mixture of page shapes and sizes. With the smaller size of the album, I liked the transparent characteristic of the inner pages which is different than the mixed chipboard and acrylic pages in other Peekaboo Albums. The chipboard covers offer good protection for the acrylic pages. I have to say that my initial surprise turned into appreciation of the size and shape to this album.

This is a terrific size for gift-giving and putting together memories of a single event. The butterfly shape is easily identifiable, immediately bringing the word "cute" to mind! Let your ideas take flight right into the pages of this latest album from Tinkering Ink!

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Review by Chris

Peekaboo was always a favorite game of mine as a child and I again enjoyed playing it with my own son when he was young. Now "Peekaboo" has a totally new meaning for me, in the form of albums developed by Tinkering Ink. These albums, available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, all have one thing in common – they are a combination of chipboard and acrylic pages, with openings in the chipboard that allow peeking from one page through to another. What fun!

I had the chance to create an album in a very fun butterfly shape, using Tinkering Ink's Peekaboo Butterfly album. The chipboard cover has several "windows" placed in the butterfly's wings. The five inside pages are clear acrylic and the back cover is solid chipboard. I covered the chipboard pieces with papers from Tinkering Ink's Al Fresco collection. Instead of keeping the acrylic pages see-through, I covered them with photographs printed on transparency, backed with Al Fresco papers and used quotes to create an inspirational album with a nature theme. Although small, this album is still large enough to include photos and embellishments, as well as quotes and word art. The large binding ring included with the album is big enough to allow for very bulky pages or even for the addition of extra pages.

 

 

 
Words to Live By album
Products used: Album (Tinkering Ink, Peekaboo Butterfly)
Patterned paper (Tinkering Ink, Al Fresco, luna, pano di tavola, terrazzo, grigette)
Transfers (Tinkering Ink)
Rhinestones (Hero Arts, Prima, Kaiser)
Ink(Clearsnap, ColorBox)
Stamps (Inkadinkado, StampinUp!)
Flowers (Prima)
Pens (Sakura, gelly roll)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Dot Glue Runner; Ranger, Glossy Accents; Glue Dots)

I also received a package of Tinkering Ink's Peekaboo Pieces. This pack contains a variety of chipboard and acrylic shapes. I thought it would be fun to create a mini album using the larger shapes. I covered the chipboard pieces with patterned paper and stamped the acrylic pieces with various designs using StazOn ink. I have left the album unfinished, as I plan to give it as a gift to someone to complete as they wish. This is a totally fun album and a great use of the assortment of pieces provided in the pack!

Pieces mini album
Products used: Chipboard and acrylic shapes (Tinkering Ink, Peekaboo Pieces)
Patterned paper (InqueBoutique, Cabana)
Stamps (Inque Boutique)
Ink (Tsukineko, StazOn)
Ribbon (Inque Boutique)
Adhesive (Ad Tech, Dot Glue Runner)

The concept of Peekaboo albums and the selection of Peekaboo Pieces marketed by Tinkering Ink is so ingenious. I love the whole idea of creating projects where you can catch a glimpse of upcoming pages and elements. Framing past and future photos or special embellishments through the "windows" is such a clever idea. Kudos to Tinkering Ink for developing products unique to the papercrafting market. With the proliferation of product that we have experienced in the past few years, that is not an easy thing to accomplish!

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Review by Penny

It's hard to resist a beautiful butterfly. That's certainly true with Tinkering Ink's cute little Peek-a-boo Butterfly Album ($9.99 retail).

The album measures approximately 3 1/2" x 5" at its widest points and comes with two chipboard covers and five crystal clear acrylic pages. The front cover has six little peek-a-boo cutouts in the butterfly's wings so that you can get a glimpse at what's inside. A binder ring is also included to hold it all together.

Decorating the album opens up a new level of creativity with multiple layers that blend with each other and with elements being visible from both front and back of each page.

Title: Butterfly Album
Supplies: Chipboard & Acrylic Album (Tinkering Ink)
Patterned Paper, Rub Ons (Tinkering Ink)
Patterned Paper-pink strip (Paper Salon)
Rub Ons (Cosmo Cricket)
Cardstock (Prism)
Die Cut Frame, Epoxy Buttons (Making Memories)
Stickles (Ranger)
Ink (VersaColor)
Dew Drop Gem (Robin's Nest)
Vinyl Accents (American Crafts)
Buttons, Vintage Butterfly Die Cuts (Scarlet Lime)
Other: Flower Die Cut, Ribbon

I also received a package of Peek-a-boo Pieces (set 2). This package retails for $5.99 and contains 10 chipboard pieces in arrow, star, circle and other shapes. There's also three clear acrylic pieces in square, rectangle and oval shapes. You can use these pieces as a page in an album or any other way you can think of. While the three acrylic shapes include a hole for binding, the chipboard does not. I believe this only increases the flexibility that you have with the chipboard. If you do wish to have them bound, however, you will need to have a tool to punch the holes.

I used three of the pieces on my next project - two arrows and one rectangle shape. I covered the pieces with patterned paper and layered them to achieve three layers of chipboard on my page title.

Title: Spin
Supplies: Cardstock (Prism)
Patterned Paper (Sandylion)
Chipboard (Tinkering Ink Peek a Boo Pieces)
Chipboard Letters (Pressed Petals) Pen (Souffle)
Adhesive (Ad Tech Glue Runner)
Other: ribbon, punch

The chipboard in Tinkering Ink's Peek-a-boo line is thick and sturdy and the acrylic is clear and smooth. They are wonderful to work with! If you haven't tried them yet you must give them a try!

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Review by Bethany

Tinkering Ink took the scrapbooking world by storm when they released their big bold patterned paper and they continue to captivate with their innovative products. They certainly captured my heart the first time I used one of their flower papers last year. Ever since that day, I've loved every one of their high-quality products and paper collections. Their Peekaboo albums and Peekaboo pieces packs are no exception. They are a perfect blend of chipboard and acrylic and really push the artist to new levels of craftsmanship.

For my review, I was given a package of Tinkering Ink's Peekaboo pieces and Tinkering Ink's Butterfly Peekaboo album. Prior to this review, I was unaware of the possibilities of the Peekaboo pieces. Each pack consists of 13 different chipboard and acrylic shapes from rectangles to arrows to ovals. They are the perfect way to personalize both mini-albums as well as scrapbook pages. The Butterfly album consists of an unassembled chipboard cover and back, 5 acrylic pages and a metal ring. It is 5x3 inches and is in the shape of a butterfly. The chipboard pages are thick and can take paint and other mediums without buckling and the acrylic comes coated in a blue film that protects them from scratching. Yet, I did not find the blue film difficult to remove, a major plus.

This is my second experience working with Tinkering Ink's Peekaboo albums. Because of my prior experience and the small size, I wasn't as intimidated by this project. I found that it came together quickly and I greatly enjoyed the process. What I decided to do is an album of quotations for my sister who is a freshman in college this fall. I entitled it, What I Wish I'd Known. I wanted this album to be very girly-girl so I used pink, aqua, lime green, purple and yellow as my colors and I added sparkle to the edge of each page. I decided to experiment with my new alcohol inks and with my paints and I found that both the chipboard and the acrylic pages took to the mediums beautifully. In fact, I may just use alcohol inks on everything acrylic. It was so easy and I love the results. I outlined each page with silver Stickles and it really makes the album special.

I added the Peekaboo arrow pieces (using PVA glue) to the cover of my album to give me a little bit more room for my title. I considered adding the Peekaboo pieces to the inside, but decided that I preferred that my butterfly shape remain just that, a true butterfly. I loved being able to personalize the album in this manner. The added versatility is really exciting!

 
 
 

Title: What I Wish I'd Known
Supplies:
Tinkering Ink Butterfly Peekaboo Album and Peekaboo shapes;
Stickles; Heidi Swapp ghost letters;
Ranger alcohol inks;
Jacquard inks;
various ribbons;
Heidi Swapp masks;
Prima flowers;
Fashion jewels bling;
American crafts chipboard birds;
acrylic paint;
Creative Imaginations foil kit and glue;
micron pen; printer and paper

Once again, I am impressed by Tinkering Ink's innovation and quality. I would highly suggest the Butterfly Peekaboo album and the Peekaboo pieces to anyone either looking to experiment in the acrylic album arena or for anyone looking for a low-key versatile project that will still provide a fun challenge.

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