Safari Photo Album

I swear that I have been busy in all this time I have been neglecting to communicate with the wider world! I will be proving it in the next couple of months by showing you some of the lovely things that I have been making.
This wee photo album was made for a friend of mine who once went on Safari in Africa and has never forgotten the experience, I swear she almost tried to smuggle a baby elephant home in her hand luggage...

 I up-cycled a rejected old photo-album found in a charity shop to create the basic interior because it was made of lovely handmade paper with rustic looking raffia as photo-holders. I decided that I would stick with the side stab-binding because that meant embelishments and beautiful external stitching (which I love!). I had a lovely patined flat metal-looking bead which was a perfect match for the earthy colour pallete that I was using and the wholw project came together so fast I was amazed.

I covered a couple of board strips to accentuate the side binding and ensure that the bead and the pattern of the stitching would stand out well. These had to be pressed and I was a little worried that the raised pattern on the paper would be obliterated bt they came out just fine, happy days. I left the ends of the side binding threads visible and put several colour-coordinated beads onto each end as finishing touches.

I wanted to be sure that the closure didn't hide any of the detail of the side binding (and the album did need some form of fastening as it was an unlined leather cover) so I gave the front cover an interesting scoop cover with plaited ties leading from each corner round to the back of the book.

This is the back fastening. I put a double loop of leather in place on the back; one part round some of the side binding stitching and the second part left open so that the ties could be threaded through it and then tied in a bow. I actually thought that this was all a bit complicated but my friend sussed it immediately and was quite happy so I guess I stand corrected on that one!

End result, one very happy friend who tells me that she now thinks of Africa and smiles every time she sees this. That's the kind of ending I like! (Although my other friend, who has appointed herself my business mentor, scolded me for giving books away when she thinks that I 'should be selling them and escaping the rat race'. I can't say I disagree with that part but the smile on my friend's face was more than payment enough this time :))