The making of an album ...

Earlier this year, my elderly father moved from Adelaide to Canberra, to be nearer to family. He has the family albums, so my Aunt, who remains in Adelaide did not have access to them any longer. As part of my "therapy" to overcome the major depression I had, my psychologist suggested that I take up a few projects. So I thought an album for my Aunt with pictures of my self, my two sisters and our respective families and grandchildren would be nice for her.

Above is the Cover of the album I made for her. I made if from a single fat quarter of fabric as the album is for 22cm x 22cm (8" x 8") pages. It is not overly large. The flower was originally a white fabric flower which I have coloured using my Versacolour mini and the red spots using Red Stazon after the yellow ink has dried.

I used a grommet (eyelet) in one corner (with my u-beaut cropadile) and threaded through for the tags. I like the effect without it being over arty farty.

For the inside cover I have used a neutral cardstock, bookmaker's glue and all on a base of archival quality chipboard.

This is the side view to show you how 43 pages of scramping look. It took almost six weeks to complete. I have used "Wonder under" on the spine and ironed it to a same size piece of calico. This will give it expansion and make it last so much longer than a cardstock or paper one if you purchased a commercial album this size.

I will share some of the photos from the album to give you a feel for how the work was done and some of the detail that has gone into each page and it's opposite journal page.

ARTIST TRADING CARD:

This is the page of The Daughter and Grandsons 1 & 2. I wanted a sort of ATC feel to it. I printed off Lorum Ipsum in fancy but very tiny font, then applied four shades of brown ink around the edges with the Versacolor ink minis and then a final hop around with the black one. I have used a yin yang stamp for the circular drops attached to brown ribbon. The Eiffel tower was stamped and embossed. I cut round the top of the tower to slot in the photo behind it.

A few other stamps, were used to add a bit of abstract feel to it. I printed off the words onto some scrap cardstock and ran them through the Xyron sticker machine. There are a row of gold brads down the RH corner and along the bottom which were cut off in the photo.

The page opposite this one is rather a scaled down version, and instead of the picture I have journalled about the photograph and the people in it.

LIZARD LOVE:

Grandson2 loves lizards, so it was only natural I did a page that had lizards on it. But putting it into perspective with the picture wasn't all that easy. This photograph makes it look as though there are several kinds of lavender but in fact the matt stock is bright pink - his favourite colour at the moment (don't ask - he wont say). Unlike most of the other pages for the journalling where I have made them just either the same as each other or reflection of each other, I have made this one a continuation picture.

I tore a sheet of printer paper to make the shape of the creek for the lizards, and using my Versacolor mini stamp pads applied various greens, then blues and brown and green again for the banks and creek. I then used blender pens (SU!) to blend the colours. I stamped on the dragonflies. Then used the white gel pen for the waves on the water. I used the thin end of double brush marker pens to make the grass. for the weeds I used a skinny plant stamp.

The trees in the back ground were stamped in green, then used a maroon pen to colour the trunks and branches. The lizards I had downloaded onto cardstock several years ago. I just cut them out and using foam dots to raise them made them look like they were drinking at the stream.

Below is a closer look at each side of the picture.

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

This last page is for my Arabian mare, Stephanique. She is a dear old horse and I wanted somthing fitting for "the Queen of Sheba" (lol).

I used a background egyptian themed stamp I have had for a few years with Versamark. I stamped the versamark onto the page, then sprinkled clear embossing powder over it. Tapped it off and heat embossed it. I had to use the stamp four times around the page to cover it.

I then used the Versamark again for the Eye of Ra and the Ankh, then sprinkled on some hologram gold embossing powder. When heated, the hologram gold is really sparkly and looks like real gold. The three little date palms were stamped in back ink and clear powder used on them. One didn't take so well so I fixed it with a black marker. Shhh ...

So the entire album has gone along in this manner, using colours from the phot0graphs. Stamps and use of brads, stick on crystals, punches and so forth.

My Aunt was pretty happy with the album, so that made me extremely happy.

Enter a dragon ...

I received some new stamps this week that I had ordered from the USA. The dragon was one and the Asian writing was another. They are unmounted. The writing was on a sheet with two other blocks of writing - one old English and the other handwriting. They are considered background stamps. I couldn't resist putting the Asian writing with the dragon and adhering it all to a background sheet downloaded from the Canon website. Four gold brads just seem to set it off. The dragon is stamped in Versamark onto red cardstock and then holographic gold embossing powder melted onto the versamark.

I have been wanting to make my father a nice card that was not the usual "Thinking of you" flowers or other usuals of these types of cards. I think this fulfills my desire perfectly. Here is the inside. If I wanted to, I could add a few pages as everyone wants to send a message to Granpa.

the card measures 14.5cm square.

I apologise for the quality of the photos. I took them on my phone camera. Usually it is a pretty reliable instrument but I think the lens must need a good cleaning.

Another day goes by ...

I am preparing another nice frame, but the old person is here. He needs attention and gets very "upset" when he doesn't get it. So rather than showing you what I am doing, I am here updating the blog and thinking about the frame rather than doing it ...

I received some wonderfuls stamps yesterday from the USA. I will be using some of them on the frame, but I will try to photograph them later and post them.

Click into my favourite places and be taken away to a crafter's fantasy ...

A padded picture ...

I am sharing these photos for my non-Facebook friends. Interesting concept and one I would like to expand on at a later date ...

This is the actual picture, stamped and inked. Then the designer paper padded frame is applied.

In this picture you can see the dimensional effect of the padded frame.

I stamped a dragonfly onto a small scrap of clear acrylic sheet and when dry I cut it out and glued it into the corner after folding the wings.

And then for the back I used a sheet of chipboard to give it stability. I then used some scraps of the chipboard and designer paper to make the stand.

Displaying Cross Stitch

I have been doing cross stitches like forever. I think I did my first one in my teens and have been stitching on and off ever since. As a result, I have a pile of Aida with neat little designs on each piece that just sits in my cross stitch box wait and hoping one day to be "used".

So having recently become enamoured of Paper arts I thought that I could combine the two and make a display for some of my pieces. This is the result for six of my pieces. I wll put photos up of close ups of each piece so you can see it in greater detail.

Each piece was mounted into or on top of a piece of card stock and some of the cardstock was stamped, some of it was glued and others had things glued to them. Then I put eyelets into each corner of the cardstock and tied it to a twig with beading leather.

I haven't decided if I should add dangling things to the tops of the twigs or not. But I do like the kind of book effect I get from this.

Facebook

I have just networked this blog with Facebook, so I will keep it updated as much as possible. I will try to fix the cat photograph so that it is not so big! In the next few days I will post some pictures of my latest makings and go from there. Thanks for following me.

Updates

Wow, almost a year since I was here. Alot has happened since then, but the main news is that the studio will be opening in about two weeks. We have done so much to it to make it ready. There are still bits and pieces still to be done - it will probably be an ongoing project for quite a while.

I have been doing some art, but at the moment I have been dedicating much time to scanning and cataloguing some very old photographs from my family. Some of these are over 150 years old and there is even an old tin type print which is, to me, most valuable of all.

The garden has been neglected almost to the point of non existence, but that is being recified over the next few days. It should be quite pretty if you come to visit.

I have joined the ranks of Stampin'Up demonstrators, but mostly as a hobbyist as I like to use other stamps and inks in my work. However, should you find yourself needing any Stampin'Up products feel free to PM me through my e-mail in my profile. I will put up photos very soon and update this blog as frequently as I can. So hope to see you soon ...