I have a ‘bought for the purpose’ scrapbook which, although it has a (sort of) ‘padded’ binder (cover) – in the centre of the cover it has a little cut out section where you’re supposed to slide a photograph into the ‘hole’ (from a little slit on the inside cover) so that it shows you what the scrapbook is about. Problem was that even though I loved the cover of the scrapbook, I felt that the ‘photograph’ section on the front was, well, a little too twee. A bit (kind of) predictable. I didn’t want a photograph on the front, I wanted something better than just a photo.
So I cut out that bit on the inside cover, and so got a ‘hole’ right through the front cover. (Think of a serving hatch into the dining room from the kitchen). I then cut up a scrapbook page saver, (one of those plastic page holders which you put your ‘made’ pages into to protect them) and carefully glued a square of that soft, pliable plastic to the front of the cover and then hid the glue with some pretty pleated ribbon.
Then … I made something which I was far happier with which would show through that window. I made … Page One of my scrapbook.
Such a simple idea. I kept the page white, but draped bakers twine across the page and attached it to little gold brads, which were to be the ‘drawing pins’ (thumb tacks) which held the bakers twine in place. Once I was happy with where the bakers twine was place on the page, I then glued it in place with some Anita’s crafting glue. (It’s white when you put it on, but dries clear).
I then cut out some little white ‘flags’ – from some thin cotton sheeting – basically the same weight as light weight shirt cotton, – which I then glued to the bakers twine and made Bunting!
I glued a little white doily to the centre of the page and while that was drying I made a little dream ‘diorama’ out of an old tin which I’d got when I purchased some ink powder. I’d saved the tin, not knowing what for, but knowing that it would come in useful one day. (I am SUCH a ‘crafter’). 😀
A couple of years ago I’d seen a picture of a little tin which was a tree ornament. It looked so pretty that it had stuck in my memory. When I decided what I wanted to use to fill that central space on page one – but something which would also ‘begin’ my scrapbook and give a taste of what was to come – the word ‘dream’ came to mind and so did the ornament. And that’s where the basic idea began.
The cover of the album is basically a mix of greens with a contrast of pink and white polka dot all put together in a (kind of) patchwork, – and with butterflies flying in various places on top of it all.
So the tin had to be complimentary to the cover, and since butterflies were going to be putting in an appearance further into the scrapbook then it was natural that they should be on the first page too! So I began with a scrap of pink polka dot paper, which I hand cut into a round to fit into the base of the tin. I then used some white glue, and glued some flower soft, in a mix of pink, green and white, into the bottom quarter of the tin. I wrote ‘dream’ on some paper and distressed it a little, then cut it into a banner and back it with some green card.
Thankfully I have a selection of butterfly stamps, some of them are really teeny tiny – so they worked perfectly with the tin and it’s lid. Just the right size in fact. The one inside the tin I stamped in an emerald green colour, but then coloured it in with a lovely fresh spring green.
But the butterflies which are outside of the tin, flying free (so to speak) I stamped using a grey memento ink (I think I used ‘silver’ actually) – and didn’t colour those, because I wanted them to look delicate, and pale to match the white of the whole page. I added some glue ‘squiggles’ and sprinkled some ultra fine glitter onto it – to sort of represent the flight path of the butterflies as they flew.
I glued down the lid using a little hot glue, and covering two of the pale butterflies, so that they looked liked they’d flown under the lid.
But I did have one slight worry. If the album, at some point in the future, had something heavy put on top of it, then I worried that the metal rim of the open tin might just puncture the plastic cover I’d put on the front of the album. If it didn’t puncture it – it might mark it permanently and it would then spoil the look. So I had to come up with an idea to solve that problem – just in case it ever did happen! (That’s me. I have to have a plan for everything in case something bad happens. If it does, then I have a plan. If it doesn’t then that’s great – but at least I had a plan! lol).
I got out the trusty hot glue gun again, and sorted through my white buttons to find some which had a vintage feel about them. I knew I needed to be careful about choosing the right ones – because the wrong buttons could spoil the whole thing.
Buttons found – I squidged a generous (but not a huge glob!) amount of glue onto the back of a button and carefully placed it on the rim on the tin, holding it there for a few seconds while the glue began to set. Then I did the next one. Then the next. Then … and so on until I’d glue four buttons, in descending sizes, on one side, and one further button on the opposite side of the rim of the tin. I left them over-night to see if they would do what I wanted them to do.
The following day I put my hand flat palm down, on top of the rim to see if, when I pressed, they stayed in place. They did. I then knew that these buttons would spread the weight of anything pressing down on the top of the album and so wouldn’t damage the plastic on the cover. Yay! I love it when a plan comes together!
I wrapped some rayon seam binding around the outside of the tin, in a fabulous warm olive-green colour, and then finally added a little rich, royal purple polka-dot bow to one side. The finishing touch. I loved the scrapbook already – and I’d only just began!
Page One was ‘finished’. I stood back and looked at it. It was perfect. It looked vintage. It had a friendly feel about it. It spoke of a promise which I knew was to follow in the pages, so far unmade, but I knew the plans I had for those pages.
Yes, this was going to be a scrapbook I loved. I could feel it.
I know that Scrapbooking is a fairly new type of photograph/memory saving way of doing things to the UK. Here in the UK we’re more used to photograph albums which we buy and pop our photographs into. But in the last few years Scrapbooking has taken off and it’s becoming more popular.
So .. do you scrapbook? And if you do … do you blog about your pages? If so, please leave me a comment and put a link to your scrapbooking page or to your blog in general, because I’d love to come and see your scrapbooks, and I’ve no doubt that others who visit this page would love to visit your blog too!
Have a truly lovely rest of your day!
The Art of Cobwebs 