Hi crafty friends! Welcome to my blog post for the month of June! It seems as though the months are just passing me by as I have been preparing for the arrival of my 2nd grandchild, a baby girl! I have been busy making small decor projects for her room and making keepsake projects that she will be able to cherish when she is a grown up young lady! That moments seems very far away so we will just begin with her entrance to the world on May 24th 2018. I am excited that I was able to be there for the birth of my granddaughter, she came pretty quick I must say. I had no time to panic, just an overwhelming feeling of extreme happiness. I took alot of photos of her coming into the world and my beautiful daughter holding her for the very 1st time. These memories can all be kept in this very special DIY baby book that I have created.
I began by taking this Recollections brand album that I had purchased at Michaels Craft supply store . At the time I purchased it I had no idea this is what I would be creating! As I began created projects for my grand daughter I had remembered I had this album and since I had received some amazingly beautiful paper collections from Prima Marketing, this would be the perfect album for a baby book. Plenty of room for a variety of sized photos and journaling area.
I started by painting the album with some DecoArt Americana acrylic paint in a White Wash Color. I had began by painting the entire front as I still wasn't sure how I would be applying the paper on it, then ended up just painting all along the edges as I would do when creating my chipboard mini albums. This provides a cleaner edge to your book and you won't be able to see the kraft color chipboard underneath your design paper.
Once it was thoroughly dry I began selecting my design papers. I decided on combining some of the beautiful new floral papers from Prima Love Story along with some of the two Prima Heaven Sent I & II collections
I picked this beautiful floral shabby chic design paper from the 12X12 Love Story paper pad for the outside cover, front, back & sides. I really wanted this paper to last on here for years to come to decided on adhering the paper onto the chipboard album using one of my favorite adhesives from Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive. I applied it in small sections at a time and then used my brayer to evenly distribute the glue evenly throughout the area.
Once I adhered the floral paper on the entire album, I had previously measured the open spaced windows on front of the album where photos can be added. I then wanted to add a small thin lace or trim around these spaces so I found this pink thin cotton trim purchased from Crafty Me facebook group. I used the same Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive . This time I added a fine tipped applicator to the bottle so that the adhesive would be as thin or just as thin as the trim that I was adding. (The center photo I originally was going to use white seam binding as my closure but then cut it out once I decided on something else).
Once I had finished applying the trim on the edges of the spaces I decided I would add some of the finishing sprays from Helmar. So I decided I would go with Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Spray. Although it didn't produce a glossy finish on my paper but I was wanting to provide it more as a kind of sealer. Basically for longevity purposes and to help it stay free of dusts and fading as this should last her well above her childhood years. Before spraying it I did cover the spaces where I had added the trim, only as a precaution.
I allowed for this to dry, it actually dried pretty fast so I didn't have to wait very long to resume creating this. I was very excited to add on the closure to this as noted before I originally had added some white seam binding but was able to trim it off at the edge of the paper. It isn't visible at all since I had remembered that I had purchased this stunning pink bling from the same facebook group I had purchased the cotton trim. It came as a whole piece but I measured and was able to cut it where I the covers open up. I'm not worried about it not locking into place to shut because the album same with a magnetic closure. I again used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere it, & although I don't like used hot glue on paper, I just added a couple of small dabs on each piece just to hold it in place till the glue dried and adding a little more reinforcement.
Once I was finished with the outside I began on the inside sleeves. These plastic sleeves are able to be taken of from the screwed on hinges. On these pages I was able to use some of the papers from the 8X8 Prima Heaven Sent I paper pad. This was super easy and each one of these pages was like making a small layout! I won't go thru the entire album of pages but here are some of the pages that I put together. I also will be looking into checking to see if I can find the plastic sleeve refills for this album or something similar to be able to store more memories.
On these 8X8 pages I decided to not go crazy using the Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive since its my favorite ! So I used another favorite Helmar Premium Craft Glue which is just as good! I used this for my paper as well as a variety of embellishments on these pages which was were very limited and not too dimensional as I wanted the pages to be flat not bulky.
I truly hope that you like this project I have shared with you today and I hope you will also feel inspired to create something as special as this for your newest member of your family. I believe that homemade gifts are 100% more special than that of something store bought because they are made with so much love! So thank you for looking at my blog post today and please look out for another one of my posts which will be this month as well featuring a "Favorite Product Spotlight"! Below I have posted a very short video sharing the album with a few of the pages I had made thus far as it will still be a work in progress as my granddaughter goes thru her special milestones and changes as she grows. So now I go back to enjoying her and my grandson as well all while helping my daughter during this wonderful time! Thanks again for stopping in and I'll be back soon!!
~Hugs~ Jeanne
