Working on Dad’s Album Again

After a long break while we moved house, I have at last started working again on the album about my dad’s life. All I had done before was the first page, on his ancestry. I have a lot of material about his father’s side of the family, but since sorting through all his stuff, I have found further material relating to his mother, my Scottish grandmother, so I have decided to do a second ancestry page, this time with a slightly more feminine flavour, to reflect this remarkable lady.

The first step was to cut a piece of card to create a large pocket on the page. I used a piece from one of the Tim Holtz paper stacks, using the back of a piece whose front I didn’t like. I cut a template from a piece of scrap paper, and you can see that the curve at the bottom, marked with a cross, was rejected, in favour of the one at the top.

After cutting the curve, I distressed the edges of the piece with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

I then cut a piece from another Tim Holtz sheet (sorry, can’t tell you exactly which stacks these come from because the sheets are all mixed up in the box, but I know I’ve got Lost and Found, and Crowded Attic, and I think most of them are from the former). This piece was for the flap to cover the opening in the pocket.

In this picture, I have applied Scotch Quick Dry adhesive to the back of the strip – too much glue, I’m afraid, and it all oozed out making rather a mess!!

After wiping up the excess, I ran my brayer over it to make sure it was firmly stuck down.

I cut the flap in a curve, and ran my Black Soot Distress Ink pad along the cut edge.

To make the closure, I am using two brads and a length of thread. However, these brads are hollow metal ones and I thought the thread might catch, or wear on the metal edges, so I filled the brads from behind with Polyfilla One Fill (or joint compound for my US readers).

Selecting the thread for the closure. I chose a natural coloured linen thread which I waxed by running it through a lump of beeswax. This strengthens the thread and smooths the surface.

I made a hole for each brad, and before placing the brad in the flap, I threaded the linen thread through and tied a knot, and then fastened it, and the back of the brad, with Scotch Quick Dry adhesive.

I punched two small circles from scrap card and glued these down over the backs of the brads.

I gathered up a few vintage spools and an old tobacco tin I found amongst Dad’s things and photographed them. Once printed, these will be cut out, embossed and applied as embellishments.

This thimble will receive similar treatment.

Finally for today, I painted the inside of the flap with black acrylic paint which covers up the circle of card over the back of the brad and the knot in the thread.

I have also been working on scanning various papers and documents, and also some 3-D items – these will be printed out and used to embellish the album.

I have enjoyed beginning work on this project again. I have so much material that it is going to end up as a very thick book indeed, and will probably take me years to complete at this rate!