Unlock 'Our' Story

I haven't posted on here in almost two years! But I wanted to share pics of my 'Unlock Your Story' mini-album, created as part of Elizabeth Kartchner's online class. I loved, loved, loved the class!!!

When I decided to take the class/order the kit, I didn't really know what pictures I was going to use. But as soon as I saw the first video I knew I had to use some of my wedding photos. We were married over two years ago and, aside from one layout, I've yet to scrap any of our photos. This album was the perfect way to finally tell the story of that day - especially now that we're expecting our first baby!

I did have to add a few of my own pages to fit in all the photos I wanted to include, which also meant bigger binder rings. Fortunately, between the kit and a few of the Dear Lizzy items I had in my own stash, I was able to tie those additional pages into the rest of the album. Hope you enjoy :)

This is the album cover. I changed the title slightly from 'your story' to 'our story', which I thought was a little more suited our wedding photos.

On the inside cover, I decided to add a photo and some extra embellishments along with the journaling sticker. It helped me fit in more pics and set the theme of the album up front!

This page I added in. My husband proposed with a message in a bottle and I`d placed the message on our bedroom dresser for a while, until I realized the sun was fading the ink! I`d been waiting to do the wedding album so I`d have somewhere more permanent (and safer!) to store it. So, I trimmed down a clear sleeve, stapled and covered one edge in fabric tape and put the message inside.

I then put the story of the proposal on the reverse side (and typed the words from the actual proposal on the back just in case the ink continues to fade over time).

The next few pages (canvas page, acrylic page and vellum envelope) pretty much follow the class instructions, with just a few minor adjustments.

I still have to include the journaling inside the envelope.

The next few pages are ones I added in myself. I had a couple of leftover acrylic album pages from another project that fit in nicely, both size and style-wise. For the first one, I took the paper we used as a mask on the canvas page and adhered it to one side, which of course you can see through on both sides. I used some of the fabric paper and added a ruffle, along with some ribbon and a button on this side:

On the reverse side, I mounted the photo on the floral patterned paper from the kit and added a little bling:

I placed the tag we did in the class in between this and my next additional acrylic page, with a word/quote sticker on the flip-side:

On my next acrylic page, I painted the edges white, used some of the cardstock from the kit to mount the photo and added a few embellishments, including the sticker and bling from the kit and a cork bird, brad and flower from my stash.

On the reverse, I mixed some ribbon (love that pink floral ruffle ribbon btw!) and bling from the kit with some from my own stash:

Then there's the second vellum envelope and 5x7 photo page, both from the class instructions:

After that I decided to add in another tag, which is actually a Starbucks gift card holder. I sprayed it with the shimmerz ink and added some of the brown ruffle ribbon from the kit, along with a flower, pearls, and word sticker from my supplies:

But my favourite part about this add-on is how perfect it suits the photo I wanted to include! My hubby and I spend a lot of time at Starbucks (we go almost every Sunday afternoon!). So, when we stopped in there after our photo shoot on our way to the reception to get something to warm up with (we were a bit chilly!) it was only too fitting that our photographer took a few snaps. I wanted to include one of those in this album, so when you open up the Starbucks gift card holder, I've placed a small photo of us on one side and used the pocket-side to hold a journaling note:

Cute hey? I then added another chipboard page I had on hand. I covered one side with the chevron patterned paper, some rub-ons, bling and a journaling sticker and used the teal plaid patterned paper, ruffle ribbon, a flower, word sticker and more bling on the other. I also painted the edges white like we did with the album covers:

And last, but not least, the inside back cover as per the class instructions. Again, I changed the word from 'home' to 'love' to better reflect my album content!

This album was so much fun to do. I loved making it so much and I've decided to give it to my husband as one of his Christmas gifts. I've no doubt he'll love it too.

Thanks for looking!