Angel Album - Part 1

My niece, Melissa, has just had a baby girl, Paige Taylah, last week. Like all Great Aunties, especially those who are scrappers and crafters I wanted to give her a little gift to commemorate her birth.
I tossed up what to create until I found a KaiserCraft Wings Album at Spotlight on sale (always a bonus).
I know a lot of people have created albums like this and you probably all have your own method for doing it, which may or may not be the same as mine, but I know I love to see the creative process step by step, so I'm going to share with you how I created this little album.
Part 1 - shows you the steps to creating the basic album ready to add any photos and embellishments. Part 2 will show the finished album after all the extras have been added.


Decorating the album base.
1. Start by painting the outer edge of each page with your coordinating paint. Then add a thin line of paint tracing the edge of the album. This is to give a nice tidy edge underneath your patterned paper, especially if the paper does not fit the edge of the album perfectly.

2. Lightly sand the edges to give the album pages an aged look. I like this as it immediately gives the album a homely, used look, rather than being brand new. It also means that as the album is used and looked it, any knocks or slight damage it receives, just adds to the already aged look instead of detracting from the brand new look. 
The great thing about sanding is that you can sand as little or as much as you like and it doesn't need to be perfectly symmetrical either, instead it just adds to the character if the sanding is a little heavier in some patches compared to others.

3. Create a template by tracing around one of the album pages onto scrap paper. Then trace this template onto the back side of your selected patterned paper. I chose to use eight different pieces of patterned paper from different manufacturers, all from my scrap pile. (Rather than using brand new paper, this is a great way to use up some of your scraps.) I also chose to make my template about .5 cm smaller on all sides than the actual album. You can chose to make your patterned paper the same size as your album pages for a different look.
NOTE: Be careful when laying out your patterned paper to make sure you cut shapes for both sides of the album page and not all facing the same way. (I.e. I cut 4 facing left and 4 facing right).

4. I wanted each of the patterned papers to stand out against the painted edge, so I inked each edge with my favourite ink VersaColour "Pinecone". The colour just matches even though not every piece of patterned paper had brown on it somewhere. It's just that perfect natural colour, that seems to go with everything.

5. Adhere the patterned paper to the page. Before doing this you may like to take a moment to plan which patterned papers are going to back on to each other and which patterned pages are going to face each other. It may make all the difference to the look of the finished album.
I used Elmer's Glue which I spread over the patterned paper with an old credit card - so the easiest way to evenly disperse the glue over any large piece of paper. I then gingerly placed the patterned paper onto the album pages trying to leave even edges all around the album page. Using a tissue I dabbed the pages into place and soaked up any excess glue that squirted out from under the patterned paper before ensuring the patterned paper was well stuck down by rolling with a ink roller/brayer.

6. Finally I linked all the pages of the album together using 25mm binder rings, making sure I had the albums in the order that I wanted. In the picture below, the top most pair of pages are the back and front (left to right). The pages below are in order as they appear in the album.

I have to now get the photos printed for the album from Paige's first few days with us, so you should get to see the finished album in a couple of days.