Stab Album: Wedding Anniversary Red & Gold

 A client wanted something simple to put her wedding pictures in a nice album as an anniversary gift for her husband, and she chose the theme of red and gold to match her wedding outfit.

At first I thought I'll do a mainly red album with gold accent, after looking at pictures of her wedding outfit I felt it was better to have gold with red accents to balance the red out and to complement the pictures.

I had this really nice design paper where first time ever glitter looked really grand in my stash which I picked up from my travels earlier in the year. I thought it would look great for the album, and the sheets where the photo will be placed have a watermark of roses and daisies if one looks closely. It's getting harder and harder to find these type of paper now, they work so well for wedding themes and special occasions.

The end sheet has a faint print of roses in gold. Used a red satin ribbon to bind the album with a bow in the middle, and peridont yellow crystals with red gem flowers as accents on the cover.

I have plans to make smaller stab books using the same materials, I should've bought more, I only bought one sheet of this design and making this album already took up half. Nevermind, that's the nature of how I work, if it's all used up, that's it.

Concertina Album: With Love, Bluebear

I was hoping I could get through this pregnancy without falling sick, and there I was, almost the home stretch with 7 weeks to go, I got sick! A cold, but it was still annoying enough that made me short tempered and cranky like hell. The worst is over, I hope, I'm just dealing with a stuffy nose, phlegmy, occasional cough and unexpected sneezes when it gets too cold.

Despite being sick, I managed to start and finish making this album. Made me feel better too.

This was a commission from a friend in Australia, who used to catsit her next door neighbour late cat who passed away at 17 years of age and very much missed by his human parents. As a parting gift for her neighbours as she's moving away, she asked me to make an album in memory of the cat, who was named Bluebear.

I chose a stripy material to remember the joy Bluebear brought to them, and used red as the joint for the spine and the ribbon closure for the album, and holding the photos down are red skinny ribbons at the corners.

I used the same material throughout the whole album and a handmade red woody paper for the end sheet. I like this shot, you got the zig zag of the concertina and the vertical stripes of the pattern of the material.

I used red for the spine joints and it echoes beautifully here with the pattern of the material, and then you get the diagonals of the skinny red in the corners. The album was about 9 by 7 by 1 and a quarter inches, and the photos were 5 by 7 inches.

This was the bit that almost made me cry, I'm a cat person so I could relate... and also this pregnancy is making me very sentimental, things just trigger me off...

When the photos were passed to me included was this button, a blue bear, I sewed on the lower part of the spine with binding thread so it will stay on nice and tight as the spine was slightly curved. On a whim I decided to put a red heart on top of it, thinking love... and that was when it hit me, this album was like Bluebear's last 'letter' to his human parents, a memory of him for them, his love for them and their love for him. I was floored, and added on two hearts to represent his human mom and dad.

When my Aussie friend came to pick it up, she was really happy. Now I wait to hear what Bluebear's parents have to say when she gift it to them...

More pictures of album and content can be viewed here.

Work In Progress: Long Overdue... Part 4

Aaaaannnndddd they're complete! Ok, 99% because I still have the single folder left which I finished earlier but now when compared to these I'm not too happy with and I might just take that one apart... maybe...

The concertina portrait

The pictures given were a mix of both portrait and landscape, and to make that as one album I didn't like the idea of the dead space the framing will have. It's a construction that I'll leave for another time, right now it was a matter of finishing and be done with it.

All stretched out, more or less...

There were three portrait pictures and five landscape pictures. They are quite big as each framed picture is 11 inches by 13 inches, when you start pulling them out you can imagine how much space they take.

A back view

These shots were taken on my king size bed as I needed a large flat uncluttered surface. My usual set up was just too small...

The landscape version

So you can imagine when I pull out the landscape concertina it stretched across the length of the bed.

Back view of landscape album, notice the different ribbon placement

Due to their size, I couldn't figure out how to photograph them interestingly enough. The client and her family are away for two weeks, leave me with enough time and daylight to experiment with the photo composition at least...

More pictures of the albums can be seen here.

Work In Progress: Long Overdue... Part 3

The home stretch is almost near, if only I could remember where the heck I place the rest of the material so I could do the covers... In mean time, cut boards to make covers... One is landscape and the other is portrait, can't wait for them to be finished. Dare I say by end of the week?

Images From Intermediate/Advance Album Classes

Now pay attention folks, this part is critical...

Drawing diagrams for better referencing for later.

Black pages are the way to go for old school albums.

Some of the many covers selection to choose from, all coordinated with matching ribbons and end sheets, rolled up in a basket.

Mini pin cushions waiting to be completed for students to choose from made by Wina.

Fiance in baby sitting mode, his mac is loaded with cartoons.

Our kitten Shazam! (yes, her name is spelt with an exclamation mark) taking a nap in one of the students bag.

A completed album by Kat, she did the basic class in the morning and stayed to do the album class in the afternoon.

My maxed out group, fortunately they enjoyed every bit of it.

The album that almost never was. You can't tell what happened can you, especially after extensive surgery was done to it. Mental note, be careful when using chiffon material as covers when there is a drill involved.

So, those were just a few shots of the happenings in album classes. I'm thinking of putting together the images of the foods that I've been serving up in classes. That's alot of pictures to shift through...

Old School Album Class & Notes On Upcoming Classes

Proud faces from left: Suzy, Fizah, Siti, Kay, Shao Ling and little Oscar.

Well, my second class for albums. I had a basic class that morning and the last students finally left at half one, and 15 minutes later Shao Ling turned up with Oscar!  She wanted to get the good seats, ie nearest to me and came early. Funny incidents really that sunday afternoon. My soon-to-be was entertaining Oscar with Batman cartoons and chocolate. Our new kitten Shazam was streaking in and out of the living and dining room, and fell asleep on Kay's bag. Everybody was looking at Suzy's notes because they forgotten some of the steps and she was the one with the complete notes she took from beginners class. Siti, I still remember, from being a none arty person made her album with a flurrish, complete with twirled ribbon and I quite like how she attached the hearts, told her I'm borrowing that idea. Shao Ling worked really fast, and finished before everyone else. Somewhere in the middle, Lian and Nonah turned up with little Ern Ern and maid in tow, a plate of yummy yam cake, the album she made in class last week and the skeleton cover she just made that afternoon. She was having challenges with it and wanted my opinion immediately, hence why she came over. Problem was solved and they went home happy. Nonah made me proud, within a week she had made three books and two albums since the intermediate/advance class last week!

The albums everybody had done all came out beautifully. Beautiful covers of silk and satin with complimentary bows and ribbon ties. They were really excited with the final outcome. The particular stitching method we used was what I dubbed as the corset binding.

I shall post up detailed shots of the kind of album made for this class as soon as I remember to take the pictures.

The last intermediate/advance class for this month for stab binding, aka old school albums, is this sunday. Then I'm taking a couple of weekends off to have some me time and make a date with the sea. I'll post up dates for classes beginning April, some of the previous students have already reserved spots for the long stitch, I'll just have to work out which day it's going to be held.

So next month schedule I'm planning on one beginners stab binding class, one intermediate/advance class and two long stitch classes. Possibly the same goes for May, maybe. No classes for June that's for sure, am going to be pretty occupied *grin*

At Work & All That White and Red

This is me, at god knows what time in the morning. There I am trying to figure out a placement for all those red roses and ribbons. I moved into the living room and took over the dining table. I needed alot of space for this. I lost sleep doing this order but well worth it.

And after no sleep and working straight into the night and back into day, I came out with two 16 inches by 12 inches album books and I made the smaller book as a present for the client.

To be continued in the next post...

Pink & Purple Custom Album

More pink and purple, I'm trying to finish off the material...


This is a custom order, a mini album. It has a surface of 8 inches by 5 inches, so it can comfortably fit a 4 inches by 6 inches photo (that's a 4R right?) per page and extra space to write on. The album can hold 24 of those photos, against black with pink sheet protectors between the pages so the photos wouldn't stick.


The order for this was simple, girly, flowers, butterflies, ribbons. Leave the rest up to me....


The end paper I used here is down to the last bits now. Possibly enough for a mini book. It's a lovely paper. I can't wait to use it up!

I said my books are going to travel around the world, this one is going to be shipped off to Australia!