His death, very suddenly from a heart tumour, left us reeling so I have made this little album for my husband.
Instructions:
Begin by cutting two sheets of patterned paper for the front and back outer covers, enough to provide a ˝” border on all sides for turning inwards. Glue the first piece to the front cover, making sure there is a sufficiently even border on all sides. Turn the album over and trim away the excess paper from the two outer corners (this makes things easier and neater when you glue the paper down). Run your glue stick around all the borders, fold inwards and press down firmly until the paper sticks to the album. Repeat this process for the back outer cover. Cut a piece of black cardstock the exact width of the spine, plus 2 inches longer than the spine. Cover this card with glue and place over the spine with 1” extra at each end. Open up the album so that the spine bends inwards, then push the excess card inside, pressing down to make sure it glues into place.
For the inside, first work on all the right hand side pages. Cut patterned and striped papers exactly the size of the page, plus 2” extra at one side. Glue the paper carefully to the page, allowing a 1” overlap on the left, plus a 1” overlap on the right which is folded over the page and glued down on the back of the page. Both these overlaps will be hidden when you come to cover the left hand sides. Work your way through, covering all the pages in the same way. I used a variety of papers in shades of brown and tan as Ludo had a coat of all these shades, and more.
The album I used had a window on the front cover so I cut out a small gap in the middle of this area, turned the album over and cut diagonally towards each corner of the window so that I had four nice little triangles of paper to glue, fold back and press down, revealing the open window for the first photograph.
I added some large paper brads throughout the album to resemble Ludo’s big black nose. The brads were a dark brown and easily changed to black with a black marker. If you add brads, now is the time to make holes with a piercing tool on the pages desired so that when you add the papers to the left hand side you will cover the brad fastenings, thereby protecting the photographs.
Next, insert the photograph which will appear on the front cover. I glued it into position with a mini glue dot at each corner and began covering the left hand sides of the album. Cut mushroom brown velvet papers to the exact size of the pages and glue down – a nice tactile paper resembling the soft feel of Ludo’s coat. Glue one to each left side page then run a black marker around every page edge.
Computer generate your own phrases for the photograph captions or use alphabet stamps to customize captions. I used an Artistamp font and left enough space between each phrase so that I could then cut each one out in a “bone” shape which I edged with the black marker. Select a photograph for each page and attach them with black photo mounts then add a “bone” caption to each page. These were simply glued to the page with a glue stick. On the pages that did not have a large black brad I added a few copper paw print charms – I cut away the charm loop and adhered them to the pages with mini glue dots.
We had saved all of Ludo’s different sized collars as he grew bigger and bigger. One in particular was just the right length to feed through the spine and buckle up on the outside – a slightly different way to add a finishing touch.
Finally, I added one more “bone” to the back outer cover and hand wrote Ludo’s dates, his pedigree name and our name for him.
Supplies:
• Adhesive: Mini Glue Dots (Glue Dots International), glue stick (Tombow)
• Album: kraft colored album (7Gypsies)
• Brads: large brown (Bazzill Basics)
• Cardstock: light tan and black
• Charms: copper paw print (Frost Creek Charms)
• Collar: puppy dog collar Ludo had used when smaller
• Computer generated phrases: Artistamp font
• Craft knife or scalpel
• Cutting mat
• Marker: black permanent (Deco Color)
• Patterned paper: Me & my BiG ideas, K & C Company, velvet paper
• Photo mounts: black self adhesive corner mounts (Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L)
• Piercing tool: Paper & Ribbon Slot Punch Tool (Making Memories)
• Ruler
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