6 x 6 Accordion Album

Whew, I finally have a day off! I can't believe that it has been so long since I posted. My new job has really had me running. I did manage to get a small album done....some how, some way! I wanted to make a Baby Scrapbook. Me, baby??? No, No, but I thought I needed something "baby" in my portfolio.

There are many 6 x 6 albums available on the market. Close To My Heart makes an accordion album in this size that is just perfect for display on a shelf or to tote around as a "brag book." These accordion albums contain a total of 8 pages including the chipboard front and back covers. The pages are all connected, open outward to display your photos and fold neatly into a flat square.

To make my baby album, I used the Caboodle Paper Packet. That was a great packet for a "neutral" theme. The cardstock colors include: Sorbet, Sweet Leaf, Buttercup, Vanilla Cream and Colonial White.

The album was really fun to make. As I have mentioned before, I believe that your embellishments should enhance, not overwhelm the photos. To complete the album, I used some fun techniques to make the embellishments.



I had these little metal tags from a CTMH Colonial White embellishment kit. Stickease work perfectly on the little tags, but I didn't have any that matched the album. Hummmm, I didn't want to heat emboss directly on the metal. Caution, I learned the head way...heat embossing on metal can be hard on the fingers. The metal gets so hot, your fingers get burned. To get around this hazard, I heat embossed the little heart in cranberry powder, cut it out and glued it down.

This element is completed by repeat stamping the little tiny man, lady and baby carriage. I heavily edge distressed the bottom edge of the paper and sponged Sweet Leaf ink so that the images were "grounded." A note here, don't be afraid to use stamps from sets that aren't necessarily tagged or titled in the subject that you are making. Sometimes stamp sets include images that will unexpectedly work with a totally different that designed theme. For example, the images used here are from a set called "Neighborhood" and the set has absolutely nothing to do with babies!

There are 3 fun techniques right here on this little picture. The "shhh..." was done using a stamp set called "Tiny Typewriter." What a great My Acrylix set! It contains 173 images and letters! Any time I don't own the right sentiment I pull out this set. I was able to perfectly do the slight bend in the letters using a fun tool called "Block Buddy." The Block Buddy system is a set of clear "clings" that have shapes and lines on them. Because CTMH stamps are clear, you can very easily align your stamps to the lines on the block buddy and stamp any shape you want! Lastly, my little lamb is from a set called "Howdy." (Another example of using an unrelated stamp set.) I stamped the cute little lamb in Cocoa and watercolored his face and legs. I used a product called Liquid Applique to add the texture. Liquid Applique is a thick almost paste like liquid that you spread on your project. When heated with a craft heater, it puffs up! What fun....

Well, time to head off and begin to work on my next project. BTW, I will be participating again in a wonderful Blog Hop this Memorial Day weekend....Operation Write Home is a great organization that collects handmade cards and forwards them to our troops overseas in order for them to have cards to mail home to their loved ones. What a great cause and what a great organization. Check out what they do here and I will give more details later! For Now, Happy Crafting!