Recycled Mini-Album Pages–The Great Outdoors

The second of two posts today.

The section of the album that I am now working on will be mostly photographs, which will take up most of the page (or they’d be too small to see). There won’t be much room for background decoration but I am continuing with the black and white borders that have been a feature of the album throughout.

Dad wasn’t exactly a fan of the great outdoors but went along with Mum who is a great fresh-air-fiend! Once he was out, he enjoyed it. His taste in sport was somewhat eccentric (like most of his other tastes, actually!) and included fencing in his early days, tennis and table tennis in his prime, and throughout his life and particularly during his retirement, croquet – this game would turn this mild-mannered gentle man into a perfect fiend!!

When out walking, he always wore a deerstalker and used a walking stick, and of course had his inevitable pipe. When on holiday with me in Iceland, an American lady was highly delighted with these accoutrements so typical of her idea of an English gentleman that she had to take a photo of him!

I decided to add a bit of stencilling on the page, using Polyfilla (joint compound to our US cousins), and a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencil (6x6 Cornflowers).

Here is the stencilling after adding clear gesso and black acrylic paint.

I then dry-brushed the stencilling with acrylic paint and added a little gold gilding wax.

The page with the photos added. They were adhered with regular matt gel medium.

Stamping the title text. I used the small alphabet from the Darkroom Door Alphabet Medley set, stamping the letters with Walnut Stain distress ink onto a scrap of cream card that I’d already brushed with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

The Great Outdoors page complete.

The picture on the top left shows my dad punting on the River Cam. He always threw himself wholeheartedly into everything he did.

A detail showing the title text, stencilling and the leafy border I drew with my white marker pen and filled with white acrylic paint, adding the veining with a waterproof black pen at the end.

I hope I have captured a nice outdoor feel with the stencilled flowers and the leafy border.