Beautiful Christmas mini-album

Hi all! not sure what inspired this one, you know how ideas and images suddenly pop into the creative mind. But it came out BEAUTIFUL! You might remember the other mini-album I did using the Wendy Vecchi Art Parts; the package comes with enough pieces for 2 albums.

I coated the cover with Versa Mark and dusted it with Stampendous Gold embossing powder. For the straps, that is grunge board, also with embossing powder (although I used too much). I punched holes in that and slipped through long fasteners (Tim Holtz) and pounded the heck out of them with my Tim Holtz textured hammer

Like the other album, this one also has a binder ring in the middle.

On the embossed element, that is a combinations of 2 techniques I learned a while ago. The first part is to emboss, then cover with acrylic paint, dry, and sand the raised parts. Then go over with distress ink. Only this time I was careful on the robin where I was coloring and how much since I had 3 inks I wanted to use in very specific places. After I got the ink colors where I wanted (using my ink blending tool) I covered it with Versa Mark, and dusted with clear embossing powder (UTEE). Really great looking effect!

Next, I created a pocket on the front and back cover and adhered my new embossed elements to the front of the pockets; created tags (for photos) and stuck in the pocket.

As for the pages, I trimmed one end of 12x12 cardstock to 10" on one side. Next, I scored in half on one side, turned 45 degrees, scored in the middle again. Fold and punch my holes. I had to use a hand punch since my Cinch didn't quite have the holes spaced apart perfectly for this project. Anyway, the reason why I folded the cardstock like this was so I could have built in pockets for more photos. There are 4 sheets of cardstock in the center and between the pages and all the pockets (including the ones on the front and back covers, there are 18 places for photos. I would NOT have more than 4 sheets of cardstock; it seems to be the magic number without making the album too thick.

On the front is a Tim Holtz watch; I stamped an image of Santa and inked it so it looks old. Beacon 3 in 1 glue works great for this project too, both the grungeboard straps and the watch. Strip die for the raffle tickets which are also inked to 1. look old, and 2. to tone down the original bright green color of the cardstock I used.

Ribbon is from personal stock.

I am not affiliated with any of the companies and products mentioned above (other than selling them online).

 

I did not have in my acrylic dabbers a color I wanted. However, since it's all acrylic paint, I used a color of my choice by Folk Art for one of my embossed pieces.