Canvas album

We've restocked the beautiful canvas albums from Prima so if you didn't get one the first time, now is your chance! These 8x8" albums feature a plain canvas cover with 5 canvas inner pages and 5 transparent page protector-like pages. This is one of those albums where you can really let your creativity go crazy! Here's one we did, and wanted to share some techniques you might like to try.

For the cover, a liquid adhesive was used to attach a crocheted doily. The flowers are some new flower sprays we just got in, also made by Prima. The larger pink Prima roses come in a package of five, and were originally white. We sprayed dark pink Glimmer Mist on a paper towel, then lightly colored the outer rose petals for a subtle look. The title was stamped directly onto fabric and a Melissa Frances key was added for a vintage look.

Here's a look at some of the inside pages.

This page used alphabet masks (cardstock letters or letter stickers would work too) that were sprayed over with alternating pink and blue Glimmer Mists. Once the letters were pulled up to reveal the white canvas, each letter outline was hand stitched. The canvas pages are actually two thicknesses of canvas stitched together with a cotton sheet between them. This allows you to stitch through a single thickness without the stitches showing on the backside.

Another technique we tried was to print the journaling and a favorite photo onto inkjet t-shirt transfer paper and iron it onto the canvas! Outlining the journaling with a permanent marker gives it a more handmade look. Then we added more Prima flowers... and you might recognize the butterflies as ones cut out of our favorite Graphic 45 papers!

The technique used on the canvas page above was to paint directly on the canvas with a Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabber. (On the Prima website, they recommend painting Artist Gesso medium on the canvas to assure the paint doesn't soak through to the other side. It works like a charm. If you want more details on Gesso, email me here.) We also used a cute section of one of our new papers from Cosmo Cricket.

The transparent page protector pages were just as much fun as the canvas ones! We tore doublesided Graphic 45 paper so it would be smaller than the page protector to allow the canvas page next to it to show through. We also decided to put goodies both inside and OUTSIDE of the page protector to give the album a textured feel. On the layout below, the paper and a swatch of lace are inside the page protector. The photo, green photo mat and the Prima flower are all attached to the outside of the vinyl page protector.

The page below features a vintage handerchief placed inside one of the page protectors. A button sewed to the top keeps the page protector closed and prevents the handkerchief from falling out. The photo is adhered to the outside of the page protector.

My personal favorite page of the album is the one below. Since this book features pictures of my mother's childhood, I sewed some found "little girl treasures" that belonged to her into the page protector. If you don't have a sewing machine, you could easily hand stitch or staple in a similar fashion. If you don't like how staples would look, they could be easily covered by gluing ribbon over the top of them. This album works wonderfully for showcasing memorabilia other than photos!

(The charm in the very center says "Forget Me Not")

Hope you'll give one of these canvas books a try! This one has a sewing/vintage theme so it features more stitching and fabric notions, but the possibilities are truly endless. We'd love to see what you create with this album. Just email us a photo and we'd love to share it on the Bloomin' Blog as an inpsiration to others!