Make it with me

[Lauren]

I am about to start the process of putting together a scrapbook for my best friends wedding. And I had started the process a couple of weeks ago. But the thought just occurred to me that some on here might like to come on the journey with me from start to finish (faces blurred in photos of course).

To start with I always remind myself that this is for someone else so it should be as close to their tastes and interests as possible not mine.

The amazing bride to be has a couple of themes for her wedding.

Eggplant and Ivory are the colours with touches of grey. Her favourite colour is light blue though so I am going to incorporate that in.

Her wedding is also puzzle piece themed. The little save the date arrived and it is a puzzle piece so I am going to include that. Other puzzle piece themed items are hard to come by so I get a little creative here. I actually found these two ninja turtle puzzles on sale totaling 72 pieces.

You may wonder why so may pieces and its because I want to use these to tie all the pages together. I want to paint some eggplant and some ivory. I also want to stick photos to some and stick material from the dresses and other items to others.

To make sure the paint and glue sticks without chipping and revealing ninja turtles, I am going to coat all of them in one of my favourite primers.

So they are drying and will be ready for all of my plans.

Her husband to be also has two young sons and I know she would like them included so there will be a special section just for them. I am thinking that is where I will incorporate the blue so it is a stand out but still part of the whole album.

Next I am looking through all the card stock and random bits and pieces I already have in my scrapbook collection to see if anything would suit what I am looking at in my head.

These are the sheets that really caught my eye. These aren’t in any order but I wanted to see how they work as a group and I have a mini pad which I can use to border, crinkle and mask added to the mix. There also probably aren’t enough here to cover the boys, the couple, the engagement and the wedding so over the next few months I will have my eye out. As you can see, they are not all matching, but they all have elements that work together and once differently styled puzzle pieces are applied to each they will link.

I also have some decorations on hand to match the theme but I will need quite a bit more.

I am going to go with sticky dots and double sided tape for most of this project as well as some hot glue for the fabrics.

That is where I am up to. I have printed some photos. I am currently on the hunt for the right album to put this in as I haven’t quite found what I want. You want the album cover to be a dark colour because light colours look dirtier over time due to hand oils from people touching them to look. You also need a good box to store it in. I am hoping for either an eggplant pleather or a dark fabric that I can glue onto.

I am now off to scroll the internet for other useful bits and pieces.

[Lauren]

Sorry I already forgot one more step, I already painted the puzzle pieces for the pages for the boys and the couple dating.

Now we are all caught up

[Lauren]

Something that I will be doing in the album is making 3d pop up pictures. These don’t translate well to photographs but in person they are quite good.

I will show you step by step so you can see what I am talking about. I will use a picture of my lovely partner and I to demonstrate. You can see here, I am in the foreground, he is in the middle and then there is the ocean in the back.

I print 3 copies of the photo, leave one as is. Using a scalpel I cut out both of us from one and just me from the third.

I then take adhesive foam squares.

I stick them to the back of the two cut outs as close to the same spots as I can. This is important for strength when sticking on each layer.

I then take the first cut out and stick it to the main picture matching the picture edges.

I do the same with the third layer on top of the second layer and now I have a 3d looking image for my project.

[Lauren]

Dont worry about the photo, I put it to good use.

[Lauren]

So I started work on the page for the boys.

I chose a piece of paper and got started. I found a layout I quite liked. But the paper and the photos seemed to clash.

I tried seeing if a light border breaking it up helped tone down the background, but it didn’t quite work with the layout I wanted.

I decided to change the paper to a simpler design. I am much happer. Now I need to find some lego themed decorations.

Sometimes things don’t work out the way you thought it might.

[Lauren]

Today I have tweaked and finally stuck down items on the boys page. I have also ordered some flat lego blocks to stick in the gaps.

I decided to work on the engagement page next. I had a small collection of things I definitely wanted on it. 3 specific pictures, the save the date and a locket. The locket is openable. It is currently filled with appropriately coloured paper but eventually it will be where the bride can store a small keepsake.

The photos are small so I bordered them to give them each their own space. I used precut lace paper. Everything is light enough to use just double sided tape.

I had several pages that were contenders for the background.

I layed all the items out on each page to see how they would sit. I settled on a winner that looked just the way I wanted. The background can enhance a page or just disappear behind other things.

I’m working on the couples dating page. It will be loaded wit photos so I want the background to just be that.

[Lauren]

I had to cull some photos but I am happy with the whirwind result on the dating page.

In December i will be working in sydney for a week so I will be collecting pieces from her engagement party to create the next few pages. I also need to work out what to do as a cover page. Pages 8 onwards will be bridal shower, hens, wedding and reception all gradually happening over the next year.

[EmmaHunt7]

Hey Lauren. Hope you’ve had a good week!

I’m loving seeing your thought process, especially with all the details about balancing the bride’s preferences with your own ideas.

I would never have thought to incorporate puzzle pieces like that.

Can’t wait to see how you’ll tie in the boys’ page with those Lego blocks. That’s going to look adorable!

[Michael7]

The amount of thought going into each page is so impressive. You take these things for granted or assume that people are just naturals and don’t put much thought into it.

[Lauren]

There are some pages that just feel easy to put together. There are others that take a lot of thought. Right now I’m stuck on what I want the front page of the album to be. She did an engagement photo shoot so I am thinking one of those.

[Aurora_Artist]

I’m just blown away by the creativity in everything you do. Crafts, cooking and the amazing articles you write for us. You’d be one of the most creative people I’ve ever come across. I can only imagine how spoilt your clients are.

The color palettes are beautiful

You’re right. Sometimes you lay things out and it just doesn’t work the way you imagined, but seeing you adapt to that is inspiring. The engagement page looks gorgeous with that lace paper! Can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

[Lauren]

Sometimes the creativity runs away with me and things get over done.

I would 100% prefer taking a creative approach with just about everything, including problem solving. Although this sometimes causes problems for my team

[Lauren]

The boys page is now finished. The engagement page is as well. I added some ivory ribbon, pearls and dimantes

I started on the engagement pages. In wedding albums I always like to have a couple of black and white pages with touches of colour.

I have placed these out.

After adding lace borders to the colour photos I want to choose a different background. Back to the drawing board.

The black and white page blends a bit. So I am going to add a black border to the photos. I am going to paint a puzzle piece eggplant purple with gold splashed to add and add eggplant ribbon and pearls to it as well.

[Ella95]

Smart to consider using a darker album cover so it doesn’t show wear over time. Also, love the idea of the 3D effect with foam squares.

[Lauren]

Like i said, it doesn’t translate well in phots but in person it looks good. You can also put things in between the layers to get interesting overlap on the images.

[Lauren]

So I have placed the final touches on the engagement page. I wanted to tie in ivory on this one.

On the black and white page, I added the border. I decided for the puzzle piece I would paint the piece black and stick snow lace to it.

I cut the lace to the shape. I sprayed it, then used tweezers to place the lace so the paint would hold it on. I did a border for the puzzle piece as well.

I raised the main picture up with foam stickers to help it stand out.

I added eggplant coloured ribbon and some crystals and pearls, which is going to go well with wedding photos later.

I re-did the colour page on a new background. I haven’t stuck anything down yet. I also can’t decide if I want the puzzle piece to be ivory or eggplant but I am leaning towards ivory to balance the page.

The black and white page is the current contender for front page of the album but it is still early days. I might find something I love more.

[Lauren]

I decided to use some rainbow scratch paper to make something cute and colourful to eventually add to the album on a blander page. I picked a bunch of these up from the timezone prize shop.

I am using an embossing board and template to create the design.

Eventually you end up with something cute and easy. But you need to protect it after it is done because any grazes or scratches will create more random rainbow marks.

Turning it over you can see what the embossing tool is supposed to do, more effectively if you push harder. Can be quite handy for card making.

I am still tweaking that other page.

[Lauren]

Today I had a new washi tape delivery.

For those who don’t know what I am talking about, washi tape is decorative sticky tape you can use in scrapbooking and journaling. It can tape things down, create borders and also be used to protect edges.

You can get them in many styles. These are the 2 sets I received today.

[Lauren]

Some set backs. Haven’t found the folder i want or eggplant spray paint yet.

Progress has been made though. I found a cute card that I have cut up and want to eventually use for the last page.

I found ivory paint and painted a handful of puzzle pieces. The ivory came out flat though, so I sprayed a coat of marbling paint over them.

I have completed one more page with all of the pieces.

I am going to stall on progress until the bride and groom have more activities and events, so I will be working on decorations and the final page for a bit.

[Lauren]

So many options. But I think I have narrowed it down to a few. Not sure if I want an ivory paint puzzle piece or to do a material one to soften the page more.