I spent all day yesterday and today working on the album and it is finally FINISHED!!!  I know you are probably thinking, “This thing better be a masterpiece,” and frankly it isn’t, but I did the best I could with the issues I had.  My first issue was not knowing the color of the bricks on the house I was trying to replicate.  I relied on Rich, who said that they were “brick colored.”  That lead me down a horrible path that included red bricks and red paper, neither of which I liked.  In the end, I found out the colors of the bricks were beige and gray.  So back to the drawing board.  I used texture paste and made a horrible mess, everywhere but on the album, the album came out relatively unscathed.  My clothes on the other hand, did not.
Humidity played a role in the problems I faced.  For some reason, weeks after finishing the pockets of the album, the paper inside kept getting adhered to the pocket, and it didn’t make me happy, I’ll tell you that.

Today was just finishing work, and it was bad.  I lost a key element for the front of the album and ended up actually cleaning my craft room to find it.  It took over two hours and I was just about to give up, when I found it on the floor.  These things happen.  I wanted the front cover to have a wrap-around the binding.  You’ll have to see it to understand what I mean.  I couldn’t find anything that I really liked, so tried dying burlap with Tim Holtz stains.  What a horrible mess..I didn’t try it once, no, I kept going, and cut three separate pieces of burlap to ruin.  My nails that were white when I started the day, now have a weird dark outline.  It looks like dirt, but trust me, it’s stain.

I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that the album is finished.  I really hope our friends like it and take the time to fill it with photos of their new home.  I’ll be OK if they don’t do anything with it, because after all, it’s the thought that counts.

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