Creating an Album with Unibind

Welcome back! I love it that you're here, and that you're checking out my page!

In September of 2010 I won a Unibind Photobook Creator (http://www.facebook.com/#!/PhotobookCreator ) in an on-line contest.  I was so excited! First to win something and then realizing that I won a real quality product!  After I won it I had to finish a challenge, which I did, and post it on-line for the world to vote in, which they did.  I didn't win more but that was ok.  Winning once was too cool anyway!  The thing is, I had the product but it sat.  And sat.  I was worried about what to do with it.  Would I mess it up?  I had received three books to bind with the Creator and I didn't want to mess it up.

And then inspiration hit!  I was in an old office that was being ripped apart.  There was some old, er... vintage, wall paper on the wall, and whala! the light bulb in my head went off.  I ripped off a good sized chunk, rolled it up, and brought it home.  There it sat, for a month at least, until I decided to see what I had.  It wasn't in the greatest shape, but I cleaned it up- both sides and layed it out to dry.

Once it was dry I measured out what I needed and then tried to find the areas that weren't ripped or faded out.  Once that was done I cut what I needed and set the rest of the paper aside.  At this point I have to say that I received some great advice from my friend Ken Oliver at http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/ .  I wasn't sure how to put the paper on and Ken suggested I use a wash made of Aleene's Tacky Glue and water and to use material for the spine.  He suggested using material because eventually the wallpaper would crack and give out.  It was a great idea!

After gluing on the wallpaper it was time for a trip to Joann Fabrics.  I brought my book with me to test out the materials against the colors.  I brought home two cotton quilting squares. 

At this point I want to ask you a question - have you ever been in the material section of a store and just about coughed your lungs out?  I'm not allergic to anything that I know of but I thought I was going to die!  As soon as I got to the scrapping stuff I was fine!

Once I finally made my fabric choice I decided I had better sew the edges so it looked finished.  I did a spine and two squares for the inside of the album.  I used my grandmother's sewing machine.  Isn't it beautiful?  She picked it up at a yard sale and sewed everything with it, including pillow cases, which I still have a few of.  She never taught me to sew and you can definitely see that in these photos!

Once all the material was ready I started gluing it into the album.  I used the Aleene's Tacky Glue full strength and tacked it on.  It worked beautifully! 

Once everything was dry I cut some heritage paper that will hold some great old photos when I'm done.

So what do you think?  Pretty good for a first time, right?  I have to say it came out really good and very much like I had visualized.  As always, your comments are welcome and I love them so comment a lot!  

Oh yeah, what happened to the leftover wallpaper, you might ask.  Well, I kept it all.  Some of the pictures on the wallpaper I cut out and some of the paper I might use to make some vintage flowers and maybe an embellishment for the front of this baby.

Happy Scrapping friends!  Thanks for dropping by!

If you like crafting don't forget to take a visit to see Ken's projects at http://kensworldinprogress.blogspot.com/ !