A weekend with family

This weekend, my aunt and uncle celebrated 50 years of marriage with a great party Saturday night. My brother flew in from Florida and it was wonderful to spend some time together. My little one didn't want her uncle to go home. Except for a few obligations, I put the computer down, and just enjoyed my family.

Anyway ~ 50 years is a big deal, so I wanted to make them something special. I had received the most beautiful swap from my friend Gretchen, who was inspired by someone else... :) Who made this mini album using two envelopes and I decided to give my own version a try. It was a labor of love and took me hours to make but I really wanted to share it. So the above version is how you look at the "purse" style album before opening it. It has a piece of ribbon on the back, so if my aunt wants to use it like a brag book it looks like a pocketbook. The v on the front comes from the scallop square die, and I layered bridesmaid paper over soft suede and sponged using circle motions to color the tip.

Now I think I'll start at the end. This is the box I made for it. I used gold and bridesmaid paper and made a simple box.
This view shows how nice and snug my envelope album fits in the box. Now when you open the album (it's held together with a velcro dot, I put at the top "book of memories". In the card I also gave her directions on what to do with the book. Add photos, write about the awesome party and so on... Here are two photos so you can see what it looks like opened up. this is the top and bottom of the album, and cards slide out from behind the white panels.
I embossed the medallion gold on gold. (isnt that gorgeous??) Then I used my new punches to punch out some shapes so that's why my punched shapes on the below cards, (which fit inside) look so detailed and vintage.
This shows the card sliding out of the envelope (which is stuck to the back of the gold middle piece.
And here's a photo of the other side of the slide out. Isn't that flower gorgeous with the gold on gold embossed medallion!?!
On the bottom, I embossed a handwritten signed note.
I'm not sure if you can see from my photos how it was actually put together, but I can tell you it was certainly a labor of love. Happy Tuesday!!

Selene Kempton