Birthday Album to Ola

Hello everyone,

Today I'm showing an album. It's made for my love Ola and his 50th Birthday. I also want to join in the challenge at Simon Says Stamp Blog The theme this week is Recycle something.

Ola has a lot of hobbies and I've tried to get them all, more or less, in this album. I've photographed old (paper)photos and newspaper clippings of Ola when he was a child and teenager and printed them out on my photo printer. Of course I've also used some newer digital photos from our life together. We've been together for almost 25 years so it was difficult to choose among all photos. Ola has agreed to let me show parts of this album on my blog and I will also show them on my instagram account @lisaanderssonart 

To create the album cover and the inside pages I've used two scoreboard XL dies from Sizzix designed by Eileen Hull: wrapped journal die and passport die. The size of this album is approx. 13x9,5x4 cm or 5x3,5x1,5 inches and there are 16 decorated pages besides the cover. I will show some of them here.

First I made the wrap journal cover: I cut it out in chipboard and then I used a movers & shapers die from the Tim Holtz/sizzix set 'mini old glory' to cut out a star shaped hole on the front. I then used acrylic paint from DecoArt Media (prussian blue hue) to colour it. I sanded all surfaces. I mixed distress paint barn door and black soot to get the red colour that I wanted and used it with different stencils from Tim Holtz and then stamped with Archival Ink in black using mostly stamps from Tim Holtz but also some unknown background stamps from stash. I then sanded all surfaces again. I've colored some metal decorations and die cuts to use as decorations. I've also used crackel paint from DecoArt Media and distress crayons on some decorations to get an even more distressed look. To close the album I wrapped metal wire around it.

The back side

The inside pages are made using the passport die. I cut out the passport cover in chipboard and the inside pages in watercolor paper. I used the same colours as for the wrap journal, some stencils and stamps. Sanded all surfaces and then started to decorated the pages with my photos and newspapers clippings of Ola. I've used paper die cuts, metal decorations and I've also used my sewing machine which doesn't happen very often. I then put it all together and glued the passport back to the inside of the wrap journal cover. The pages are not removable.

This is how it looks when I open it

One of Olas hobbies is building radio controlled model airplanes and I found one of his blueprints and photographed it and printed it out on my photo printer and made this frame of small pieces of balsa wood found in Olas hobby room, left overs from building his airplane. I've colored it with distress oxides and then a layer of clear crackel paint. The screw, the contact and the washer at the bottom are recycled from the car garage at Olas work. The mechanics there are very kind so instead of throwing this junk away they save it for me as they know I sometimes need some for my projects

The two metal washers at the left hand side are also recycled from the same car garage. Other metal decorations from Prima except the arrow from Tim Holtz

This page show Olas other big hobby, radio controlled cars. 

The photo at the top is his car in action and I'm the photographer. 

It's from the Swedish national championship some years ago

Ola, the cat- and chocolate lover...

Ola, the fisherman...

Ola when doing his military service, 18 years young.

The name sign is from his work in the Swedish Hemvärnet, also recycled

The big heart is cut out in chipboard using a Tim Holtz/sizzix die. I covered the surface with black gesso and then used crackel paste from DecoArt Media and let dry. I then colored it with acrylic paint from DecoArt Media and used some black gesso on top. The small heart is from the same set of dies and also covered in black gesso and then stamped with a love background stamp from Magnolia using white gesso...hard to see in this photo though

Our cat Astrid. The metal washer at the bottom is recycled form the car garage too. The 'love' metal decoration at the top is from Tim Holtz....and I've used my sewing machine again

As Ola works with cars both at work and as a hobby, I made this page. The metal washer to the right at the bottom are recycled from the car garage and the gear shift stick "top" I found last summer at a parking lot. The old car in the frame are fussy cut from a Tim Holtz design paper

Ola have been a soccer fan all his life and started playing when he was 5 years young. These pages are dedicated to his soccer interest and he playing for our local soccer club when he was young. The photo at the left page are from a newspaper clipping, Ola in action. I photographed the clipping and printed it out on my printer. I did the same with all the clippings on the right page too and made a collage using distress collage medium, stamps and distress paint

I will try my luck in the following challenge

Simon Says Stamp Blog, recycle something

I've recycled the following things: balsa wood, screw, contact, washers, gear shift stick "top" and name sign

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY

Hugs

Lisa