Oh Baby!

Today I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady.   Since this has been a long bleak winter, and I am getting tired of the grey dark skies, I thought I would make my post today bright and cheery.  Today I am going to show you how to make a star photo album.  This type of album has been around for a long time, and I had always wanted to try one.  If you google it on youtube, you can find videos of it.

I started with cardstock cut to the following sizes:

6 @ 12x4 of one color
6@ 12x4 of a coordinating color to the above
6 @ 10x4
6 @ 10x4 of a coordinating color to the above
6 @ 8 x 4
6 @ 8x4 of a coordinating color to the above

So when you are done cutting cardstock you will have 12 @ 12x4, 12 @ 10x4, and 12 @ 8x4.  Glue all of the above back to back.  So 6 of the 12" long adhered to the other 6.  6 of the 10" long adhered to the other 6, and 6 of the 8" long adhered the other 6.  You will then have 18 sets of cardstock.  Score these in the middle.

Next cut stiff chipboard(I used the back of a note pad that I got from work).  Cut 2 pieces 6.25 x 4.25 

Cover these with cardstock that coordinates with the pages you just made. 

These become the front and back cover of the album.

Glue ribbon on the inside of the  covers on the bare chipboard.  Cut 2 pieces of  cardstock, 6x4 and glue on top of the ribbon.  This is shown as the green cardstock below.  The ribbon holds the album open or closed.

Take the scored pages you created and glue them together layering the longest, the next to the longest and the shortest.  Only glue the outer edges of the album, making the edges even. 

After you have created 6 sets of glued packets, start gluing all of the longest ones together, outside back to outside front, and then glue the front covers on so when you are done it looks like this. 

Here is the outside decorated.  I used the carts Bloom, Home Accents, and Picturesque.  I did weld the bird from Picturesque to the branch from Bloom with my Gypsy.  I also created a welded shadow with the bird and the branch.  The flower is from Bloom cut in 3 different sizes.  All cuts were inked and the flower has stickles applied.

The reason I titled this post "Oh Baby" is because I pulled out 12 pictures of my daughter when she was anywhere from 1 to 3 and put them in the album.

Here she is prior to 15 month's old.  I had a cupboard that was full of tupperware lids and she would spend everyday pulling them out and I would spend everyday putting them back in.  She couldn't hurt herself, and she had so much fun, I thought what harm is this. She would crawl so far in that only her diapered butt was sticking out.  10 minutes later she would get bored and move on to something else, leaving me with lids to put away. 

 This pic was on her 2nd birthday.

She had a head of hair from the day she was born. 

Here is the album finished, it can be displayed open on a library shelf or coffee table.

Well, I hope you can understand my garbled directions, and like I said, if you need help with the instructions you can find them on youtube under Star Album.

Thanks Sheila for allowing my to be a guest designer today, it always challenges me.

Beth....