Mini Photo Album

My Mum had boxes and boxes of family photos that needed organizing. My sister and I were visiting her one year and offered to go through them and make her an album. My sister Zoe lives in England, I live in California and at the time our Mum lived in Virginia. So this was a rare treat for us, not only were we all together, but Zoe and I got to scrapbook together for the first time. We went on a shopping spree for papers, tools and embellishments then spent several days crafting, taking over the dining room. I wish I had taken pictures of the album we made, who knows where it is now...

There were so many photos left, so I brought a stack home to make myself a mini. I'm always making gifts for other people and rarely keep or display anything at home, except this one. 

I love all things vintage; lots of browns, metals, lovely trims and jewels. 

Here are a few pictures:

My Grandparents. They were both in the RAF. I think these photos were taken not long after their wedding, before Grandad was sent off to Africa for the first time.

My Dad and his brother, with their grandparents. My Dad is on the right. Note the happy face ;)

My Mum was also in the RAF. This was taken after enlisting.

My favorite photo of Zoe and me. She was 3 and already pouring cocktails.

Our school photos. I loved the ribbons I used in this album. I wish I'd bought it in bulk.

Mixed Media Canvas

I made these for my husband and was shocked that he wanted to proudly display them at work, and still does. 

I started by painting the canvas in a dark brown, mixed with various paints that I had in my stash. It wasn't my intent, but the effect ended up giving the canvas a sort of leathery look. 

I rouged up and inked the edges of the three papers I picked. It's a bit hard to tell in this photo, but I chose papers to blend with the wall in the background of the photograph. We were at a wedding in a courtyard. The wall must have been painted blue at one point, most of it had peeled away. I loved the vintage blue.

The photo corner, brad in the center of the flower and metal label on the right side were embossed using Ranger's Copper Embossing Powder. I think they discontinued this product, which is a shame. I stamped the top and right edge of the first paper using Distress Ink and the same Copper Embossing Powder, but didn't use the heating gun. I didn't want everything covered in rust. 

I made this in 2010 and it's still holding up nicely, minus the two coffee stains on my clavicle, which I suppose adds to the vintage/grunge look!?

This one I made for him for Father's Day, of our lovely son Ollie. I didn't want to take the focus away from his sweet face, so I used a soft color palette. 

I painted the canvas in a light cream, then glued down a sheet of Core'dinations embossed pattern paper. I used one of my favorite stamps, which is about to fall apart from over-use, it's a large detailed butterfly. Instead of having huge butterflies everywhere, I used the edges of the stamp for a slight detail on the paper.

I love the ribbon and decorative butterfly. I think the ribbon is from Prima and the butterfly came from a pack of 6 from Recollections. I found a cute metal frame with a little butterfly on the corner. 

I usually grunge things up, but I kept this relatively clean.

The 'Cherish' title used to sit centered on top of the cream cardstock that frames the photo, but apparently it's become unglued and I wasn't about to ask my husband to fix it before taking a picture of the canvas.