Scrapbook – The Art of Cobwebs

Now we are 5 no2

It was my much adored Grandsons 5th Birthday a few weeks ago. We weren’t able to go to his special Birthday party on the day of his Birthday so we (Grandad and I) decided we would surprise him with ‘Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘ at our home the day after his Birthday. (Why have I never had two Birthday party’s? I obviously just wasn’t cute enough).

Now we are 5 no1 — The ‘spine’ of the mini album, and the Spiderman tag (made using two Tim Holtz charms (thick, plastic, shaped pieces, much like you find Keyrings made from. I chose 2 rounds from an assortment).

We took tons of party photographs and I decided that I would make a Mini Scrapbook album to put all the photographs in.

I made him an album just before he started big school, all about the things he did with Grammy and Grandad in the summer before his first day at school. He absolutely LOVES the album. He loves to look through the photographs, pull out the tags and gets me to read them to him, and basically enjoy all the moments or occasions, which are pictured in the album, all over again. So it was a no brainer that I would have to make him another mini to house all the photos of his ‘5th Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘.

The ‘plan’ was that I wanted to make the mini album as if he’d actually been sat there with me as I made it, choosing everything that went inside himself. So this meant that I had to think like a 5-year-old boy. Those of you who are followers or have read my blog posts before, know that I’d have no trouble thinking like a 5 year old. (I admit it. I never really grew up).

The following photographs are of the pages and tags, photo books, magnetic bits, openings, fun stuff … etc… and, I have to warn you, this post is VERY photograph heavy. Because of this I’ll keep the talking to a minimum so that you’re not here all day reading my yammering on!

Now we are 5 no2

The name of the Birthday Boy is all jumbled up on the front there …. he really wasn’t christened with a gobbledygook name.

Now we are 5 pages 1 and 2 — *Tags from pages one and two*

Now we are 5 pages 3 and 4 — *pages 3 and 4*

Now we are 5 pages 3 and 4 open — *Magnetic ‘book’ on page 3, … a hidden tag from page 4, … and a photograph ‘frame’ with a sliding out photo mat and room for notes on the back of it.*

Now we are 5 page 4 — Close up of page 4 so that you can read everything. One of the ‘presents’ we bought for his Birthday was a Spiderman costume – hence the speech bubble which says: “Like the Suit? It comes with the job”. I’ll pop a photograph of Mr. Birthday Boy wearing his Spiderman Costume into that sliding out photo frame so it will make sense.

The long shiny black bit to the far right of the photographs is where the Birthday Boys name is. I die cut all the letter of his name – twice. Once in blue and once in red (Super Hero colours) and fixed them in place so that his name read ‘down’ that black bit. But for the purposes of sharing this mini album on the internet, I blacked out his name. (I’m a protective Grammy)

Now we are 5 pages 5 and 6 — *pages 5 and 6*

Now we are 5 pages 5 tags — *Tags from the pocket on page 5*

Now we are 5 pages 6a tags — *Tags & photo mats from the pocket on page 6.*

Now we are 5 pages 6b tags — *the other side of the tags from page 6. All the tags and photo-mats in the album are all doubled sided.*

Now we are 5 pages 7 and 8 — *pages 7 and 8 of the **‘Now We are 5’** mini album.*

Now we are 5 pages 7 tags — *tags and photo-mats from page 7*

Now we are 5 pages 7 tags close up of embossing — *I love to emboss the edges of some of the tags with this ‘deckled’ twinkly style of embossing. It kind of adds a dimension to them.*

Now we are 5 pages 8 — *close up of page 8. That ‘POW’ is a magnetic fold out book for photos*

Now we are 5 pages 8 open magnetic book — *page 8 with the magnetic book opened.*

Now we are 5 pages 8 front of tag — *A hidden tag.*

The poem written on this tag (above) holds such a special meaning to me. My Grandson has Cerebral Palsy. It affects different children in different ways, and for my Grandson it affects his speech to some degree, educationally to a degree, and his walking. He can walk, but he falls over a lot and has trouble walking very far. He suffers dreadful pain in his legs – and has to have injections into his calf muscles to try to help with this and also to relax the muscles in his legs so that walking is made a little easier. He has some other problems too, because of this condition. This is the reason why this poem means so much to me, and why it catches me in my throat whenever I read it.

Now we are 5 pages 8 back of tag — *the back of the poem tag*

Now we are 5 pages 9 and 10 — *pages 9 and 10*

That big spiders web you can see on page 10, is one I drew on, using an embossing pen. I then embossed it with Tonic Silver embossing powders (because their silver is the best I’ve ever found), and try as I might I couldn’t seem to get a photo to show up how much that spiders web shines!

Now we are 5 pages 9 tags — *tags and photo mats from the pockets on page 9*

Now we are 5 pages 10 a — *page 10 has a magnetic fold out booklet, for photos and journaling.*

Now we are 5 pages 10 b — *page 10 – the booklet folded out fully.*

Now we are 5 pages 11 and 12 — *pages 11 and 12.*

Now we are 5 pages 11 and tags — *the tags and photo-mats from the pocket on page 11, – and … the finger you see pointing to the Happy Birthday – is to point out that it’s magnetic and will hold a tag or note under it.*

Now we are 5 pages 12 — *page 12. The ‘Heroes’ is embossed all around it in Tonic Silver embossing powders. This is a book which folds out to hold photos and bits of journaling.*

Now we are 5 pages 12 open — *it folds out like this … and it’s double sided, so there are photo mats on the back too!*

Now we are 5 pages 12 under the photo book — *.. and when you look under it, there’s a little message for the young man himself.*

If you’ve got this far and are still with me …. keep going .. the end is in sight!

Now we are 5 pages 13 and 14 — *pages 13 and 14*

Page 13 holds a poem which says it all ….

Now we are 5 pages 13. The Poem — I love this poem. *There’s a space right next to it waiting for a photo of my little rascal.*

Now we are 5 pages 14. The large Pocket — *page 14 which has a deep, deep pocket for special things ...*

Now we are 5 pages 14. The large Pocket tags — … his official SUPERHERO certificate; a postcard waiting for something special to be put on it. A very colourful tag/photo mat; some spare balloons from his Birthday Party; and there’s other stuff to go into this pocket.

And finally .... the back….

Now we are 5 Back Cover — I found a fabulous picture on the net, *used by someone else for their child’s birthday party*, and I thought it might make a fun picture for my Grandson … *only* I removed Superman’s features and replaced it with my Grandsons face. *(blurred out here because I’m a protective Grammy)*. It works so well and tickles the heck out of me when I look at it.

Now we are 5 Back Cover 2 — … the bit down the side reads: *you will always be my favourite Super Hero*

There actually is a little bit more which I wanted to share with you, not of this album but of something else I made for his ‘Birthday Party’, but I think you’ve suffered enough for one day so I’ll post a little blog post about it another day.

Thank you SO much for coming and taking a look at my Mini Scrapbook Album. I had so much fun making it – although it did take me rather too many days to actually get it finished. I’m such a slow worker! tsk tsk. I know that my little rascal is going to love it. I just have to get all the photos into it now.

If there’s anything you want to know – glues, papers, bits, pieces etc, please just ask away in a comment. I’m more than happy to share information.

Before I sign off, may I just take this opportunity to say a very warm hello to a couple of new followers. Welcome, it’s lovely to have you on-board, please make yourself at home here, and feel free to ask questions, make comments or just grab a coffee and settle down for a bit of a read.

Thank you everyone, for visiting me. I love you coming. I really do. It’s like having a stream of friends popping round for coffee and a chat. Fabulous. Absolutely, totally Fabulous with a capital F.

Have a wonderful day out there, and what ever you’re planning to do today, remember to stop, smile, and make a memory.

Have a blessed day all,

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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!