Thursday, July 9, 2015

viva las vegas!

last week you saw the cover of the vegas-themed book i made for my friend barb's birthday, but somehow i never got back here with pics of the insides. wanna see them now? cool! but first, here's the cover again... this time it's actually attached to the pages, lol!


i wanted to do something that had lots of vegas-based "content"... but still had plenty of room for pictures and souvenirs from barb's 60th birthday celebration.


my #1 strategy for including vintage paper-- which can be thin and/or fragile-- in projects is to back it with modern-day patterned paper. i use my 9" xyron machine to apply dry adhesive to the patterned paper (NOT the vintage paper... trust me... that'll just peel a layer off!) then i carefully lay the vintage paper on top and smooth it down. this makes a sort of "super page" that is vintage on one side, modern on the other, and most importantly: strong enough to be bound into a book or made into... well, anything you'd use patterned paper for!


i should probably add that i start out with both elements (the vintage and new) being slightly larger than i'd like my finished "super page" to be. i've found you get the neatest-looking results if you trim to size after they've been fused together. also, it avoids the slightly sticky edge you sometimes get from the xyron machine.


throughout the book i varied whether the "vintage" bit was on the right or left; i also included some "extra" pages composed of double-sided, cardstock-weight patterned paper.


for my cover structure i used a pair of zutter's 9" clear acrylic panels. i thought that'd make for a nice big book that could accommodate standard 4x6" photos in either direction, so that you could still see the fun pages underneath. i had "vegasy" stuff from a number sources, and found it easy to make everything 9" tall... but not everything was 9" wide. rather than leave out quite a few things i really liked, i decided it' be fun to have some pages be wider than others, so you get a neat layery effect. it took a bit longer to arrange everything so it coordinated, but i feel like it was TOTALLY worth it!


i wanted to include lots of space for journaling, but let's face it, that prospect can be intimidating, especially to non-papercrafters! since barbara happens to be a librarian, i thought it'd be fun to use library pockets. the problem was that i only have a few vintage ones... and the manufactured ones i had didn't really match the book. so i c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y disassembled one and used it as a template on double-sided papers, so each one would be two-toned AND still coordinate with the design. the cards are from a packet of multi-colored repro-but-cool ones that i got on etsy.


i debated quite a bit over whether to attach photo mats and/or embellishments to the blank pages. on the one hand, it'd give barb a clear cue of where to attach her pics... but it'd also tie her in to *my* ideas of where they should go. in the end, i decided to add some fun transparencies that'd double as extra pages and another layer of color and texture; plus i added in some strips of washi tape throughout the book. another advantage is that this makes for nice flat pages! i did put this fun washi banner towards the back, though... a girl's gotta have some fun, right?


i'm really happy with how this came out, and i can't wait to see it again when it's full of birthday party goodness! ♥♥♥

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