Photo Album with a twist

Hi everyone (or my one follower),
It has been a LONG time since I posted and that is for many reasons including but not limited to: I ran out of photo memory available on my blog. I had to delete a bunch of pictures and didn't do it until now. So I made the decision to finally delete the photos I had in memory from my first trip to Israel. I deleted them because 1)I wasn't posting them on this blog and 2)I will be going back to Israel and taking a ton more pictures!
Now on to the photo album with a twist:

It looks normal, I understand, but it's not. You know those "photo albums" that you buy at any store for a couple of dollars and it holds 24 to 36 photos. I cut the covers (front and back) off, made my own cover (see above) and sewed the photo sleeves into the book. Here's some more pictures to give you a better idea of what I did:

First, on my craft sheet, I rubbed six different colors of Tim Holtz Distressed Ink (colors were, left to right, Vintage Photo, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Stormy Sky, and Bard Door), then I sprayed the ink with water. (Before doing this, I cut water color paper to the desired size and stray with water.) Next, I played the slightly wet water color paper face down on the row of color and let it sit for a few seconds. When I pulled it up, it looked like this: 

Once it dried, I cut chip board in three pieces to make the front, spine, and back of the album and glued it on the "wrong" side of the water color paper. (For the inspiration and directions on how to make a book cover like I did, you can check out Tricia Morris of Club Scrap video.) 

I didn't take pictures of the cover I made before sewing in the pages so here is a picture of the spine with the stitches. If you notice, the cover is shiny rather than dull. I coated it with Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze. I used it first when I painted mason jars and wanted to be able to use the glass jar without the paint scratching off. I think I sprayed the book with three or four layers of the glaze, letting it dry each time between layers. 

Now on to the cool cut-out on the cover (seen in the next picture on the lower right side of the picture), it is from Paper Smooches I heart art stamp set. I used heat embossing and Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen Big Brush markers to color it in. 

This is what the inside pages look like. I used waxed linen thread and I like how it looks on the spine.

So there you have it, a post of a photo album I made. I have done several of them in the last year and those who have received them as presents really liked them. I made one for my grandparents for Christmas and said "When it is full, let me know and I will make another one for you." and they took it to heart! I have made two for them and will probably have to make another by the fall. I don't mind. They are super fun to make and quite easy.
Thanks for stopping by.

Emma #1