Wings Mini Album

When the GIBBS3 swap started I knew I wanted to make a mini album and I knew I wanted to make it for Tammy's daughter who graduated high school this spring.  I decided to fit it into the item with the inspirational phrase Put Your Big Girl Panties On.  It's a big stretch I know, but my thought track was that now that Tammy's daughter has graduated and turned 18, it is time for her to "put on her big girl panties" and face the real world.  I thought that a mini album filled with family pictures would be a perfect thing to take along.  If Tammy has already done something like this for her then she could use the album for another theme since I didn't personalize it.

I love this paper pack by K&Co - it's by Susan Winget and is probably my favorite of all the collections so far.  The colors are just beautiful and the prints are tone on tone so they work great as a background when you don't want something too busy but you want just a little something.

I intended on using my Silhouette to cut fancy mats and flourishes and flowers, but we had a three night stretch of thunderstorms when I was working on this so I went back to 'old school tools' and used my distressing tool from CTMH (I love this so much that I've almost worn it out from use and it's only 3 months old!!) and I added some pretty flowers that I recently picked up from Michael's.

The cover is my favorite part of the album.  I was able to finally use my Silhouette the last night and cut out the doily background - ohgosh how I love that machine when I am able to make a cut like this!!  I pleated and stitched the lace border and then glued a strand of pearls and added some flowers and brads.  I cut out a butterfly from one of the sheets and layered it with some dimensional tape and crackled the top layer, then I added a twisted wire to create the antennae and used some rhinestones for the body.  The charm on the spine was also a clearance find at Michael's and it opens up like a locket to hold a tiny picture or note.

The album itself was a tag sale find and it is my first layered fancy edge book that I've done.  I used spray glue to cover the pages with paper and then used my craft knife to roughly cut the holes and shaped edges.  A sanding block did the rest of the detail trimming and I liked how it revealed the white core of the paper and the pages so I decided to leave it as it was instead of inking like I normally do.

This is indeed my favorite item of the swap, for both the appearance and the underlying meaning.  Having an almost 19 year old myself, I understand how hard it is to let go when they become old enough to fly away.  Like butterflies returning to the flowers...  giving wings to your children with the reassurance that their family is always there for them is really the best you can hope to accomplish. 

Thanks for visiting!