Happy Canadian Mother’s Day. Thirty seven years ago today I became a mother for the first time with the birth of my son. Then a few years later I was blessed with a daughter. Sadly my son passed away at the age of 31 following complications stemming from Type 1 diabetes he developed in his early twenties. One of the things about losing someone you love is realising that there’ll never be any new photos. For that reason I cherish every one I do have, and think a physical album is a wonderful place to keep them.

WONDERFUL THOUGHTS

Some time ago I found some mini pocket photo albums in the Dollar Store. These have plastic pockets designed to hold 4″ x 6″ photos. Of course the covers weren’t great, but as a papercrafter I knew that was an easy fix.

For today’s project I started by removing the original covers from the front and back pockets and measured them. Then I cut two pieces of Pretty Peacock Card exactly the same size (in this case 4-5/8″ x 6-1/8″). I slid one piece into the back pocket of the album and kept the other out to decorate.

For the main layer I chose a printed panel from the Fresh As A Daisy 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack. I cut the panel from the sheet and then mounted it onto a 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ piece of Wild Wheat Card using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow). With that done I glued the assembled layers onto the Pretty Peacock Card.

For the sentiment I turned to the Wonderful Thoughts Stamp Set. As the name implies it’s full of great sentiments but “My heart will always be tied to yours” seemed particularly appropriate. So next I cut a 1-3/4″ x 1-7/8″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. Then I shaped the bottom corners using the fancy option on the Very Best Trio Punch. Finally I stamped the sentiment in the space left near the fancy corners using Wild Wheat ink.

With that done I wrapped some Very Vanilla & Gold Satin Edged Ribbon around the top of the sentiment piece, and secured it on the back with Tear & Tape Adhesive. Finally I added the sentiment to the top right edge of the layered DSP with Stampin’ Dimensionals, before sliding the completed layers into the front cover of the album.

The album is definitely much nicer now. All I have to do is fill it with the wonderful memories we made while we could.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – The Wonderful Thoughts Stamp Set is available by itself, or with coordinating dies as part of the Wonderful Thoughts Bundle. What’s interesting is that 14 of the dies are designed to cut around the 14 sentiments in the stamp set. In addition to those there’s also five other decorative dies. The reason mention this is that if you want both items you’ll save 10% by ordering them together using the single ‘bundle’ item number. I’ve included links to both options below so you can compare these if you wish.