60th Birthday Album

Hello all, and a happy Sunday to you...  So glad you've found the time to stop by.

I'd like to share some pictures with you of an album I made for my uncle for his 60th birthday.  You've already seen the card, made on mountboard, to be framed and hung.  There's also a Configuration Box which was a joint gift for my uncle and aunt together (she'll also turn 60 this year), and which I'll share some time soon.

This album I made over the summer, with pocket pages which could be filled with stories, memories, pictures and memorabilia... Last week we, as a family, gathered those bits and pieces, copying, printing, and then I did some distressing to all of it, so that the whole thing could be handed over on Bank Holiday Monday at the party.

So here it is...

It's handmade completely from scratch, using the BoBunny Weekend Market papers.  They're lovely strong cardstock, so I was able to use just the papers themselves, folded and adhered, to make the pocket pages.  

I folded a half page of card into zigzags to provide the structure onto which to glue the folded pages - I hope that you can see what I mean in this photo on the right. I then also used glue tape along the bottom edge of the folded papers, et voilà - pocket pages!

For the covers, I stuck the paper to some mediumweight chipboard, for added sturdiness.  I've used Weekend Market for a masculine album before - I think it works really well.

I made the spine using a faux-leather technique which I first came across in this video by JAnnB Designs.  I love the texture.


I kept the 'leather' quite loose as I glued it, so that there'd be plenty of leeway for opening the album up.


Let's take a quick spin through the pages.



Each pocket uses a different paper from the collection, and there's additional stamping on some.  For each of them I made a co-ordinating tag, decorated front and back, and either the page or the tag - or sometimes both - has a sentiment stamped, and usually embossed, onto it.  (As well as that, on each tag I then handwrote a quotation we'd specially selected for my uncle on his 60th - but those are not there in these photos.)  I'll leave you in peace to take a look...

Oh, sorry, just one thing... I wanted a nice neat finish to the album, so rather than put ribbons or tabs on the tags themselves, and onto everything else I knew would be going in the pockets - which could have ended up looking a bit messy -  I cut a little triangle opening into the top of each pocket so that you can pull out what's inside easily.














































































































I'm back!  Hope you managed to navigate your way through the album pages. 

Most of you will have recognised that most of the stamps are Tim Holtz, with a sprinkling of Pink Paislee and 7 Gypsies ones thrown in, also my favourite Autumn Leaves silhouettes.




There's a good tag example here at the end: the perched birds, here on the left, are on the reverse of the Journey tag, and - once flipped over - there they are in flight in the picture to the right, with the embossed Journey sentiment.






And in this final photograph you can see the pockets with all their extra stuffings, though I haven't shown you those here, because it's mainly very personal and therefore private.

This album was such fun to make, as the papers are a real pleasure to work with, besides being very gorgeous to look at.  

Thank you for spending some time here today, it's an absolute pleasure to have your company. I hope the rest of your day is filled with joy and peace.  See you again soon, I hope! 

I'm entering this for the following:
Top Tip Tuesday are celebrating their second birthday with a Birthday Gift challenge, and I'm offering a tip: when making pocket pages, make sure you can get hold of what you put inside - either by putting tabs or ribbons on the inserts, or by cutting an 'access dip' in the pocket itself.
Anything But a Card, a brand spanking new challenge blog, are kicking off with an Anything Goes
Another brand spanking new blog, Heck of a Challenge, are also running Anything Goes to get us started
Creavil are asking us to Make It For A Man - done!
Simon Says Stamp are also having an Anything Goes challenge

And for the quotes today, I'll share a couple of the ones I wrote onto the tags for my uncle.  
60? ... who's counting?!  Happy Birthday!

Old wood to burn, old books to read, old wine to drink and old friends to converse with.

Alphonso of Castile

When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch’s statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek.  I am amazed no longer.  Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

W. Somerset Maugham

Praise they that will times past, I joy to see

My self now live: this age best pleaseth me.

Robert Herrick