Design Diary

My daughter's best friends birthday was a chance to create this little design diary. Her friend enjoys sketching clothes and accessories and I thought this way she could save her design with style! I really enjoyed creating this little book and I hope she'll love it too.

18th birthday mini album

I hope you have a few minutes to spare as I am afraid this is a bit of a large post, mostly due to the considerable amount of photos! I worked on this album for a full 6 days as I was commissioned for an 18th birthday. I did have to scan and re-print virtually all the photos which took quite a bit of time. 

   

For this album I have used papers called Lime Twist from My Mind's eye collection.  I love their stuff and since I only just acquired this pad it was a perfect opportunity to put the papers to good use.  Actually saying that the front cover and back cover papers are from the same designer but from the 29thStreet Market pad.

You will have recognised the Tim Holtz Hardware Finding die cuts which were heat embossed first with silver powder then gold. I sanded them to make them look old and rustic and inked with crushed olive and walnut distressed inks.
The numbers are wooden which I tinted with walnut distress ink and then added ModPodge for shine. The metal letters for the name are from Making Memories - I think - but the label is no longer present so I can't be sure.
The wired word "Happy" is my own creation and the metal coggs, chains, keys and pin are charms which I had in my jewellery stash!

There are a lot of tags added for the owner to put their own comments so some of them were left blank or with little decoration. The boys' mother wanted some places were she could write dates etc and I think I gave her plenty of that.

 

This booklet actually opens up and  has a pocket which contains tags left blank.

 

 

The lad is crazy on apple computers so I created his own mini Macbook which closes with velcro and has a picture of him when he was small.

  

These last two pages were left blank so he could add photos from his 18th birthday party. His mother loved the album so much that she made me add two further pages as she hadn't given me pictures of herself with the baby and she felt left out!

Unfortunately I forgot to photograph them...

I did have a major nightmare when it came to binding because with all these pages I didn't have a bind it all wire big enough! Luckily I had those metal rings left over from another project and since they were quite large they fitted perfectly. The added advantage is that they open so when the mum wanted to add pages it wasn't a problem!

Anyway that's all folks so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Thanks to all of you who gave me ideas for the embellishments which in the end I kept fairly minimal since the papers were so vibrant.

Baby album

This project took me a couple of weeks to complete as I could only work a few hours in the evening after everyone finally went to bed! The photographs do not do it justice but you get the idea.... I very much enjoyed this project although the cover wasn't exactly what I had in mind but since I don't plan in advance and tend to just start when the inspiration takes me I didn't have any baby papers and this one was the closest to the colours I used inside.

The hinges, the keyhole and the closure straps are all cut out of grunge board which was stamped in "walnut" distressed ink and embossed first with thick embossing powder and then embossed a second time with holographic powder. The keys are from a job lot I ordered from china some weeks ago. The book plate is from the Tim Holtz range.

The papers below are called "Daytime Digits" from the range of "My Mind's Eye" an american company.  The baby die cut is from the sizzix range. 

 

For the first page I printed "a smile is the key that unlock everyone's heart" on acetate.  I wanted to use white but found out that my printer doesn't print white (never thought of it before!) so I went for black instead.

 

 

The word die cut is another sizzix die. I love their bigz dies as they cut throught so many different medias.  I cut it out of white card and inked it to match the background colours.

  

For this one I matted the photo on light blue polka dot paper and then on brown card. I cut the edges with my "hearts" Fiskars border punch. i stamped "moments magiques" in light blue and applied glossy accents to the cut out.

The large tag was cut out with the Sizzix bigz L die "tag and bookplates" from the movers ans shapers range.  I then stuck a lunch money envelop on it and decorated it with papers and a stamped image which says "simply magical". The stamp is from Artemio. I purchased it during my last trip to France.

 

This is the flip side of the tag. This tome I made a mini envelop in light blue card and added a small tag inside. This can be used as another photo mat.

  

I love this photo and I didn't want to do to much to the page to dsitract from it so I just inked a doillie in blue and added tha lace trim under another stamped image. Again I think this stamp is from the Artemio range. 

 

 For this page I matted the photo on blue card which I had punched around the edge with my Fiskars punch (as above) . I added a stamped label and gloss it with glossy accents. For the embellishments I chose a small blue acrylic flower and a small bow to which I attached a small plastic dummy.

 

Another large tag, this one was left blank for my friend to add a photo or journalling. On the reverse side I included a mini envelop where more detailing can be added.

 

 

Again the photomat for this page was punched with a Fiskars border punch.  I drew the onesie and added miniature buttons from my stash. The bow at the top is a market buy to which I attached a dummy metal charm. I also stuck a baby bottle on the page with pva glue.

 

 The shoe charm is from my jewellery making stash, the waffle is made out of polymer clay as detailed in a previous post, the wooden flower was bought from a local shop and the letter tag is from Making Memories.

On the back of this tag I added a little file folder cut from the Sizzix die of the same name. I inked the edges in a rust colour stamp and fixed the polka dot closure to stop the folder from falling open.

For this page I made a bead charm and attached it with a baby's foot (Woodware) shaped brad. The lace is from a market find.

This envelop is a piece of card folded in three and opens up to give more journaling space.

This page is like an envelop and inside is this punched tag where a photo could be added or again just journalling.

Well that's it so if you're still here thanks for being so patient and I hope you enjoyed taking a peek! Let me know if you like it!