Mini Album using Kaisercraft Papers

Hello sweet friends and welcome to my blog.

My oldest grandson celebrated his 18th Birthday not long ago and, instead of a Birthday Card, I decided to make a Mini Album so he would have somewhere to keep the photos taken at his Birthday party.

Here is the front cover.  

Some of you may recognise the centre piece.  I did a post on my first attempt at Mixed Media and this is the actual piece from that project.  

Yes, I chopped it up and re-used the main piece here.  I wanted cogs in the middle of this cover and could not get any in the size I wanted.  Then I realized the centrepiece from my Mixed Media Collage would fit beautifully.  I didn't even cry when I cut it apart.  Hey!! It's for my Grandson, right?  Anyway, I really like it here.  The little hinges are wooden embellishments also from Kaisercraft.

Page 1 &2

The papers I used for this album is a mixture from Kaisercraft.  I used some from their 75 cent Collection and some also from their Timeless Classics paper pad, plus an odd piece or two from other collections as well.

The pocket on the inside front cover holds the tag  I made for his Birthday Greeting.  The embellies on this tag follow the theme from the album cover.  The idea for this tag came from a You Tube Video by Rach0113.  You can find it HERE.  I used a piece of kraft cardstock and cut out the tag shape and then used black cardstock for the corner pieces.  I embossed the black with the Tim Holz Cogs Folder and then lightly rubbed over the raised sections with Versa Color Stamp Pads in Bronze, Silver and Gold.  The cogs were colored the same way.  The little clock  was fussy cut from another set of papers, glued onto one of the cogs and then covered with glossy accents.  His Birthday message is actually on the back of the tag.

 The right hand page opens up to reveal ...

... there are quite a few pockets and tags in this album.  I wanted to give him plenty of spaces for his photos.

Pages 3 & 4

 The right hand page here opens one way to reveal ...

 ... and then opens the other way as well.  ( A sheet of Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings paper found its way in here too. )

Pages 5 & 6

 

 Again, the right hand page opens to reveal ...

... I've only used two styles of pages in this book.  One opens once like this page, and the other style opens twice.

Pages 7 & 8

All of the left hand pages are void of pockets to give him space for large photos if he wants.

 This is the style that opens twice.  One way it opens out from the book ...

 ... and the other way it opens into the book.

Pages 9 & 10

The inside back cover has a single pocket just like the inside front cover.

I love making mini albums.  It's a lot of fun deciding how to construct it and what style pages to use and then to decide which papers are the most suitable.  I don't use a lot of embellishments in my albums, mainly because it does inhibit the placement of photos, etc. but I do love a lot of tags for journalling.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.  I hope you've enjoyed it and will decide to come again.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

 

 

 

My First Mixed Media Collage.

Hello everyone.  Welcome to my blog.

I thought I would share with you my first attempt at a Mixed Media Collage.

 It didn't quite turn out how I envisaged it.  I originally made this for my Grandson's 18th Birthday Card.  His favourite colours are green and black.  I actually wanted the black to start in the lower left hand corner and then to  blend in with the green and gold across the page.  As you can see, that's not how it ended.  You would be amazed, I think, if you knew how many times I gessoed this and then started again.  I think it must have at least 5 or 6 coats of paint on it.  LOL.  I started off with tissue paper and once that was glued down and dried, I added some gauze for extra texture. I then coated it all with gesso for the first time.

I then added some bits of string before attaching the cogs and small screws.

I also glued on some beads and spacers.

Here is a close-up view of the main cluster of cogs.

Again, I added a few beads and spacers and some more screws.

After painting and gessoing and painting and gessoing a few times (I didn't actually count how many) I decided it needed more texture so I hit it randomly with some texture paste.  Gessoed it AGAIN and painted it AGAIN.  (Sigh) ... (Deeper Sigh) LOL

You can see more of the texture in this corner here.

I've allowed some of the metal to show through the paint as well, as you can see above.

The black paint I used is my Acrylic Paint Dabber which I actually brushed on.  The final green coat is Viva Precious Metal in Olive and the Gold is also Viva Precious Metal in Orange Yellow.  I also put a little of the green in a sprayer mixed with a little water and dribbled it onto the page.

In reality, the piece is not quite as dark as it appears in these photos. 

Not sure what I'm going to do with this now as I have actually decided to make a mini album for my Grandson's Birthday so he'll have somewhere to keep all the photos he'll get from his party. 

I have to say though, even if it didn't turn out quite how I wanted it, and even though I've whinged about how often I had to re-do it, I actually had a great deal of fun making this.  I just hope I haven't put anyone else off from giving it a go.  I'll probably hang on to this just as a show and tell piece, and I'm definitely going to try it again, but this time with pretty colours and lots of flowers. YES!!!!

Thank you so much for visiting.  Take care, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

God Bless.

oxox Marg