The gift of love

Hi everyone!

      I had made a lot of photo albums for my mother-in-law over the years...special occasions were celebrated with yet another little hand made book filled with photos of her grandchildren to show to her friends. This time I made one for my best friend who had her first child on the 3rd February...a beautiful little boy. I had already made a gift with her in mind (I had a hunch that she might be expecting back in late May when I made the Baby Steps creation for Our Creative Corner)....but I wanted to make something for her and her husband that featured the new arrival....

Luckily, like all proud parents my friend and her husband had loaded lots of gorgeous photos on FB, so I could take my pick and leave them unaware! I did some alterations on Paint Shop....I find colour distracting in some albums and my preference for a mini album like this is to keep the colours muted. I had an idea to keep the colours obviously pale baby blue but add some vintage-ness with some greys and browns. So making the photos a muted grey/brown sepia seemed the best thing.

       I constructed the book by folding a strip of card accordian style, and cutting two strong pieces of cardboard to form the front and back. Both sides of the accordian book were filled with photos.

     I began by stencilling some Antique Linen DP - Harlequin, Art is and Swirly Q's. Then I covered the pages with Weathered Wood, Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo DI. I used a flourish stamp using a Colourbox dye ink in Raw Silk. I stamped some letters and numbers in Antique Linen DP and added some splatters and spray with white acrylic paint. A hedgerow stamp was stamped in Coffee Archival ink and then I randomly stamped my favourite script stamp everywhere using Coffee Archival ink. I kept the cover of the book deliberately plain as I wanted the focus to be on the photos - So the cover was just decorated with some of the same flourishes, numbers and letters and paint splatter - the front of the cover had a film strip stamp and the back had a flock of birds....

A little bit of Walnut Stain DI was dabbed around the edges to add a vintage look and then I was ready to add the photos.

After the photos were stuck into the album I stamped some quotes on tissue paper and stuck them into the book with Matte Multi-Medium. I also added some chit chat stickers that had been dabbed with Weathered Wood and edged with Walnut Stain.

Then I decorated the book with various embellishments...I used a lot of metal items, buttons and lace to keep a theme flowing throughout.

A glittery ribbon in gorgeous blue tones was wrapped around a page and attached to a pendant in which I had placed a photo of the sleeping little one and covered the picture with Glossy Accents glue.

 I found a crystal bead in my craft stash and attached it to the pendant along with a silver heart that says the word 'Love'

The album was secured by a ribbon that was glued to the front of the album with a piece of velcro...the rest of the ribbon was left unattached to the book. This ribbon was looped through a metal decoration at the other end with the connecting velcro piece.

Thanks so much for being here and I hope you like this little book that contains a LOT of love!