Recycled Photo Album

 While I was shopping for some new pieces to update my wardrobe I noticed the store was offering a free gift with a qualifying purchase. The store manager informed me that I qualified for the free gift. She offered me a choice of photo albums. I didn’t want or need them but the manager was so happy that I qualified for the gift that I didn’t want to make her feel bad by refusing it. I accepted the album and headed home. 

Original freebie albums. 

The photo album was fairly nice quality although the cover was an ugly shade of dark green with large embossed flowers. I felt bad throwing a perfectly good album in the trash and offered it to family members but no one wanted the album in its current state.  I had wanted to do a makeover project and this seemed like a good candidate. The only problem was that deeply embossed flowers covered most of the front cover.  I covered the entire album with gesso. The gesso soaked into the embossed areas but didn’t cover them up. Next I tried modeling paste.  I built up two thick layers of modeling paste but the embossing could still be seen. 

      

         Album covered with gesso and modeling paste. 

I painted the entire album with blue acrylic paint. Then I mixed blue and white acrylic paint with modeling paste to make a slightly lighter shade of blue. Using a foam brush I dabbed the paint mixture on the front cover to produce a textured surface and set it aside to dry.  Once it was dry I applied another layer over the embossed area and let it dry. 

                  Mixture of modeling paste and paint.

                       Close up of textured surface. 

 Next I applied a thin layer of craft varnish over the cover and set it aside to dry.  To finish the album I added a thin layer of clear glue to adhesive pearl flourishes and centered them at the lowered part of the album. Then I  glued a butterfly in the center of the pearl flourish and added another butterfly to the upper right. Finally I tied a piece of sheer white ribbon under the front cover and tied a bow. 

Now that it’s finished, I’m happy with the results. Just a little paint and a couple of embellishments transformed an ugly album and kept it out of the trash.