smithy joe handmade

My Mum and Dad recently built a new house on a five acre block in a beautiful spot overlooking the water. I made this mini album for them, as a Christmas present, featuring photo's of their new home.

The chipboard house binder album is Maya Road, the papers and embellishments were from my stash, I used a little bit of everything! The cute house paper on the outside is

My Minds Eye.

I searched for verses and sayings about a house/home and added these to every other page. The photos were printed to fit into polaroid type frames which I picked up at a stationary store (Warehouse Stationary, NZ) each one is about 3 x 4 inches and fits perfectly on the house shaped pages.

On the first page and the last, I printed photos big enough to cover the whole page, and cut around them ... unlike some I have no issues cutting photos!!

I love how this little album has come out!!

I used a gem brad (MME) as a fastener with some linen thread and a few wooden beads on the end to fasten the album up. The brad goes right through the chipboard cover so I punched a circle of matching paper and glued it over the 'arms' of the brad to cover it up. This also stops it catching on anything.

Each page is covered with paper and then the chipboard is inked around the edges to finish it off. I do this on anything that has a chipboard base to cover the

raw (usually grey) edges.

I love this wee 'made with love' charm.

The first page features a Simple Stories transparent overlay with mum and dads initials on it using AC Foam Thickers. I've had these overlays for ages and was always a bit unsure what to use them for, I've used several in this album, I think they look great.

Another overlay with a cute 'Home Sweet Home' sticker.

I typed up the verses and printed them onto cream paper, I then cut them to fit the pages. Once they were in the book I decided they needed a little something else so used a decorative roller stamp (Stampin' Up) and a sand coloured ink to add some pattern

to the pages.