Twinkling, Sparkling, Shimmering Luminarte

If you stopped by my blog last Wednesday for the weekly WOYWW you will have seen I am 'wrapped' with the Luminarte products from Oyster stamps.  What I didn't say last week was that I had not only been using my envelope punch board but I had also been doing something else - a present for my friend Jo of Jozart.  It was her special birthday and when it was mine she made me a lovely runner for my chair. Knowing she is not that much into papercrafting at the moment and me being unable to come close to her with fabric I decided to make her a photo album in the style of Finnabair.  (Jo had said she would quite like to do a Finn workshop so it seemed the answer.)

I took an A4 piece of greyboard and cut it in half and then decorated it back and front to make covers.

a close up of the decoration

and  below - the front of the whole album

The back was decorated just like the front but without the embellishments.  I find that with the ones I have done previously you cannot put them flat down on a table, and a polished one I would be afraid of scratching, so I didn't use them on Jo's album.

Then I went through all the photographs I have of Jo's grandees and made some pages inside with a couple at the end blank for her to fill with photos of her own.

This one was a splat job with my Dabbers but the page was lightly spritzed with my Twinklers first.  It also used my two favourite stamps from the Finn collection.

 This one went away from Jo's favourite purples and I used browns and oranges

This is a favourite of mine as I used lace on it plus I like the photograph of her grandee chasing bubbles in the garden.

One with the new addition to the family in Germany, hence the number "4"

A Christmas one, obviously, the new addition is growing

The 'Playhouse' and 'Admit One' tape fit in perfectly with these photos of a dressing up session or two (or three!)

Now only a Princess can wear a crown and this little grandee got one.

So there you have a selection of some of the pages in the book.

It was yesterday, Saturday, that we met up with Jo and her husband Dave, at Boundary Mill, Nelson. After a little mooch around for a basket for Jo's new bathroom we went across to Banny's for their famous Fish and Chips.  That's when Jo got her little "goody bag" with one small gift for each decade or her life (bet she didn't realise that!).

Here she is just starting on her rummage.

Afterwards, "full to bustin' " we set off on a hunt for some fabric for Jo ..... but that will have to be another story.