Diary of a wedding album

WARNING contains lots of photos and may be slow to load.

I have been commissioned to make a wedding mini album for a civil partnership.  In my eyes this is a wedding so that's what I will be calling it.  I haven't been given a budget, but I know the person who ordered it doesn't have much in the way of spare cash, so I won't be getting too extravagant with what I put in it.

I have decided that I will keep a diary in words and pictures of what I make.  The album is for Nick and Richard and the colours they have gone for are pink and lilac.  My first reaction "PANIC"  how do I make an album in those colours with out it turning out girly.  Then I started thinking.  I only do grunge these days.  I have nothing romantic or weddingy.  Time to go shopping.

I lucked out with the shopping.  There was a major craft show (lots of retailers) at Glow, Bluewater so off I trotted with my deposit clutched in my hand and a couple of friends to help with their opinions.

This is what I bought.  20 sheets of printer or embossed A4 cardstock, 20 sheets of lilac crush lightly textured cardsock and 10 sheets of liquid silver cardstock.  I also bought silver corner peel offs, lots of flat backed pearls and gems, 3 silver filigree hears and a few other silver charms.  I also bought 6 reels of red tape (hope that's enough), some stamps and some pink ribbon.

I have been asked to make an 8x8 inch album with 10 pages (sides) not including the front and back covers.

Step 1.
Have a cup of coffee while planning out the pages.  I actually did this before I went shopping so that I would have an idea of what I needed to buy.  That all went out of the window when I got to the show and couldn't find suitable 12x12 cardstock which I had used in my plans.   End result was 20 sheets of A4 in the hope that that will cover it.

Step 2
Lightly sand the edges of the chipboard if they are a bit rough.  I find that sometimes there are Little bits that need sanding off where the chipboard has been cut.

Step 3
Paint the edges and an inch or so around the rim of the chipboard.  I use ordinary emulsion for this or acrylic.

Having spent time getting everything coordinated and looking good, the last thing you need is bits of grey chipboard around the edges of your pages making it look bad.  Normally I do this using black paint, but today I have gone with candy pink to match the colours in the album.

That is a far as I have gotten so far.  I will be editing this post as I go along rather than adding new ones for continuity.

Back again.

I have realised that this is reading more like a tutorial than a diary so I will keep going in that style telling you if anything went wrong along the way.

Step 4
Measure .75 inches from the edge and lightly pencil a line.  This will be your guide when you are doing your binding.  You will need to do it on both sides of the chipboard being careful to make sure that you stick to one edge.  Do this on all of your pages.

Step 5
Next you will need to put Double sided sticky tape in the area between the line and the edge of the page.  I am using 9mm red tape  so I have used 2 strips per side.  Red tape is the strongest DS tape I have found to date.  Don't bother using a cheap tape for this bit or your binding will fall apart.  Believe me, I found this out the hard way and hot glue just didn't work.

Step 6
Now you need to make your binding.  I used 1 sheet of A4 lilac textured card for this as it will match with what I am using in the album.  I have cut my A4 sheet to just shy of 8inches wide.  This was a mistake.  It needed to be 8inches exactly, so I will have to see how it turns out at the end.  Next you need to cut your card so that you have 5 strips of 8x2 inch wide strips.  I have 6 pieces of chipboard to bind so 5 pieces of binding are needed.  Adjust the number to your requirements.

Because I am expecting my album to be bulky I will be making  a gusset so that it sits nicely when it is finished.  To do this I have scored at 0.75 inches and again at 1.25 inches and then folded.  See the picture below for how this will look

Step 7
Now for the tricky part.  Carefully line up your binding strip with the edge of your first page, firmly pressing down when you are happy with the positioning.   Carefully line up the second page and stick down so that you end up with 2 bound pages as you can see below.

As you can see from the next picture, you will have plenty of room to add embellishments and photos.

Step 8
Keep adding pages and binding until your whole album has been bound together.

Now it is time to make your pages and decorate with your embellies.  I always do my outer cover last.  this prevents it getting dirty or damaged while I do the rest.  One of the last things that will be done is the outer binding to cover up the spine.

Box card called Love

I love learning new techniques and my most favourite blog is keeping me supplied with loads to try.  If you haven't taken a look yet, head on over to Mariannes papirverden.  She is so talented.

There are tutorials for most of her cards and if she hasn't made the tutorial herself, she links to one that you can use.  I am learning so much :o)

This one was made from two complete A4 sheets of paper (inner and outer shell) plus most of an A4 sheet of silver mirri board and most of an A4 sheet of thin white card.

Die Cut Dreams and Totally Paper Crafts, both asked us to make wedding cards for this weeks challenges and Fab n Funky said "Here comes the bride".  So guess what my theme is :o)

It's actually quite simple to make, but it does have that wow factor.  I have a heart shaped charm dangling from a chain attached to the front, center crease.

I like the little details that I see on cards, so I have added some silver and white ribbon to tie this card closed.

I will also be entering this card for this weeks challenge at JUGS who asked us to use a 3D template with a spring or summer theme.  I've gone with a spring wedding theme and I used the template from the tutorial to make this and I think you will agree that it is definitely a 3D project :o)

Last of the wedding stuff

My brother got married last week and the whole event was beautiful. There was a lot of mad rushing about in the background, but it was all worth it.


The seating plan was finalised less than 24 hours before the ceremony. This is the finished plan.


As I have said before, the colour scheme was white with touches of red and silver. I have put the bride and grooms names on the red ribbon to the right in silver lettering. It has been made to match with the post box I made earlier.


I didn't have enough of the round red gems to do the seating plan so I had to switch to square ones, but I think it worked out well.


I also had to make a last minute card for my Mum. Sorry the picture quality is so naff. The flowers on the cake have been coloured in a very delicate pink.

More wedded bliss

I've finished the post box. These are the pictures of the finished item with the lid. I kept the top fairly simple and used Making memories glitter lettering for the "Thank you". I studded around the lid with red gems to hide the glue dots that are keeping the ribbon in place.