Nancy's Birthday Album

Carla here today, with a special project for a special friend! 

I met Nancy though my running club, and we immediately hit it off. As it turns out, pretty much everyone who meets her feels that way; one of our other friends from the club calls Nancy "everybody's best friend."  So when Nancy turned 50, I knew I had to give her something out of the ordinary.  I decided to create a theme album, with input from our group of friends:  “50 things we love about Nancy.”  

I was inspired by Graphic 45’s Olde Curiosity Shoppe line, because its vintage look and amusing icons suit Nancy’s quirky nature.  I decided on an 8 x 8" album, with two “things we love” per page, for a total of 25 pages -- plus a cover page and a few additional pages at the end for her friends to sign the book.

To number the "50 things," I wanted to use my Tim Holtz Idea-ology wooden game pieces, because Nancy likes to play bingo.  But I couldn’t include 50 thick wooden pieces that way, because they'd create way too much bulk. So instead, I found an image of the numbered pieces online, and printed it on cardstock.  I punched out the circles in sequence as I created the album, and I used thin 1/16” foam dots to give them just a little dimension without making the book too thick.  I varied the paper from page to page, but tried to keep the layouts simple for faster assembly, and to allow the photos and journaling to take center stage.

I was pleased with the finished album -- and Nancy clearly was, too!  I had a lot of fun with the cover, but I still need to photograph it (if Nancy lets me borrow it back!), so that will be a separate post for another time!  Here are a few pages from inside the book, starting with the title page.

It was a real joy to make this album, because I knew Nancy would appreciate it.  Have you done a theme album like this for someone? Tell us about it, and/or link us to it!

Paper:  Graphic 45, K&Company, ephemera & paper scraps from my stash

Stickers:  7 Gypsies, Martha Stewart Crafts, Echo Park, EK Success

Circle Punch and Circle Cutter:  EK Success

p.s.  Edited 10/26/13 to add the cover: