This Father’s Day was my son’s first.  Since he’s so far away, and hasn’t been able to see his little one very much, I made him this special album as a gift.

I hope he has as much fun looking at it as I had putting it together!

I was looking for something small that my son could easily carry and found this Tim Holtz Ruler Book kit, which is just the perfect size. The pages are each about 4″ x 4″.

(These books are no longer being produced, but you can still find a few floating around.  Of course, you can easily make your own at any size you want by cutting up a ruler, some chipboard for the covers and trimming cardstock for pages.)

In his video, The Journey Continues with Tim Holtz, he gives step-by-step instructions on how to apply distressed papers to the cover of the book.  He has a lot of great tips and helpful hints which could be applied to any project.

To begin, I applied distress inks directly from the pad to each of the pages, distressed the edges of each page with a thread cutter, applied Vintage Photo Tim Holtz Distress Ink  to the edges and then stamped each page with a background image.  I wasn’t really thrilled with the dark green vine below, it’s a little harsh, but oh well, the rest of the pages look good.

The sugar and spice saying was printed from my inkjet printer onto a transparency (Computer Grafix Ink Jet Film, Clear.)  Then I painted Scattered Straw Distress Crackle Paint on the back.  (After seeing this terrible writing inside the front cover, one of my dear friends gave me a calligraphy set for my birthday.  Hmmmmm . . . .)

The saying above is, “My finger may be small, but I can still wrap my Daddy around it!”  This was also printed on a transparency, but this time I wiped alcohol inks across the back. (I used Cranberry and Raisin)

If you plan to make a small book like this, you’ll find it useful to get your photos printed in wallet size.  I liked that I had four copies of each pic, so when I messed up, I had three more to go.

The moon and stars above were done with a brass stencil and Dreamweaver Embossing Paste.  (You have to let this paste air dry, don’t try to hit it with a heat gun, it will bubble. )  After it dries, put the stencil back over as a mask and apply a little ink to color the shapes. The blue stars and dots were done by making the shapes with Glossy Accents and then sprinkling on micro glass beads.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of the album! 

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