It is time to finish up this project! 2009 is knocking, and 2008 needs to get put to bed at my house.

Here it is all together! I bound mine with a Bind-it-All and a 3/4th inch brown o-wire. Then I tied a few yards of ribbon, twine and embroidery floss around the rings to give it some flair. When I put my pages onto the wire I layered them as I thought they would look good. Some pages that clearly ran together because of certain design elements I kept on the same level. I staggered things where I thought it would look good and tried to keep a balance between up and down. Just play with it and see what works with your pictures best.

I just tied them on at random, trying to mix and match colors and textures.

Here is how it all turned out.

When completing the album I added three things: photos, journaling/titles & photo mats.

Adding in photos is pretty simple. Find the shot you like that fits and go with it. If you are having trouble with colors being off, you can always convert to black and white or sepia. You will noticed that when I chose my photos I sometimes put two vertical wallet sized photos where you would expect one horizontal 4x6- it turns out I took a lot of vertical shots this year, and I could include more this way.

Other pages I off set the photo and opted not to fill the entire mat, this just happened to work with my photos and how they were cropped. You can mix and match and make the space work with your photos.

Journaling was important to me, as I enjoy that part of the process and like to tell the story. I used several photo mats as journaling spaces, writing in the little memories and adding details of who did what. You could use different photo mats, or you could put photos where I put writing. No biggie. Whatever works best with your memories.

You can also squeeze a little extra verbiage in by writing around the photo, along side of a photo, or even by making a pull out tag or flap behind a photo.

You may also want to add a few small, stamped titles overlapping your photos.

I did this on several pages. When you add in these stamped titles remember to add the little details to them. For example:

There it is just stamped and tossed on the page. It works.

And then there it is with inked edges- better. The next shot it has the faux stitching added- even better!

Here it is all gussied up- AND adhered with a dimensional adhesive to really let it pop. The process takes a little longer, but I think it is worth it. Another bonus?

It ties in with the tiny photo mat on the opposite page of the spread. Same faux stitching, same color cardstock, etc. A little more detail and a little more balance, and the spread looks good.

Photo Mats:

Most of the pages have rather obvious spots for photos, but your photos may not fit these spaces perfectly. They may also look too busy against a playful background, or the photo itself may be a bit dark and look better with a lighter mat helping it to pop. I matted many of my shots, mostly using a light green or cream.

I don’t have an exact measurement for these. I think most of my little mats ended up being about 2 millimeters, just big enough to be seen and inked. On some, I made them big enough to add a little faux stitching as well.

I also used a dimensional adhesive when adding many of my photos. It helps them draw attention and not get lost in the business of the album.

Before you print your photos, try cropping them to size on your computer first. This will save you a few dollars in photo processing and make the cropping process very quick when you go to add them in.

I am excited to pack this book away with Christmas decorations and discover it again next year!

I hope you enjoyed creating along with me and seeing a little bit of my process. Merry Christmas, everybody, and have a very Happy New Year!

P.S. We’re down to the last day or two to enter the Cosmo Cricket contest! I’m very excited to find out who the winner is with so many, many entries!

Hello! These are the last pages in the album! You’ve made it! Tonight I will post the whole entire book with advice for adding your own pics and journaling.

To begin trim yourself a piece of Wrapping Paper to 6 x 5 1/2. This will be your base.

Add a 5 x 6 pice of Merry & Bright over it, running the full length. You should only see the back of Wrapping Paper about a quarter inch on each side. Now cut a piece of Yuletide 4 1/2 by 5 inches, and adhere it with pop dots. You will want to add some faux stitching around the edges of this mat. The bird is our Merry & Bright bird from the bird tutorial. You can put him anywhere that works with you and your photos or journaling.

Next page! This is your biggest page as it is the base of the entire book. It is 7 x 8 inches out the reverse of Reindeer Games.

You will want to trim yourself a piece of Merry & Bright to 6 1/4th by 7 1/2. I admit I fussy cut this paper to ensure that I had pretty red snowflakes on my edge where I planned to do my scallops. The easiest way to do this is to take the entire sheet of paper, scallop up the side making the snowflakes extra pretty, and then trim the rest to fit the page. I’m persnickety like that.

After your scallops are perfect, trim up a sheet of Yuletide to 5 1/2 x 7 inches. Adhere this to your page with a dimensional adhesive. At this point, you will want to punch your holes. Once you have punched those holes, you will need to add some faux stitching around the Yuletide, only do the stitching on the outside of the holes, not the inside.

Now trim up 4 red Wrapping Paper squares at 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. Make a 4 square pattern to the right side of your Yuletide paper.

Now, when I added my photos, I trimmed them to 2 x 2 and then added a very small cream mat around the edges to make them pop. My photos are a bit dark, and really needed a little extra lightening. Yours may not need this. I also turned one square into a journaling space, rather than adding a fourth photo. We’ll discuss adding pictures more in the last class.

I used my letter stamps to add the word “gift” three times down the center. I adhered them in the center with a dimensional adhesive so my photos slip right underneath. Make sure that you add the faux stitching! I don’t have an exact measurement for these- I stamped, then trimmed around the stamping, so each word square is a millimeter or two different, depending on how straight I stamped the word that time. I matted each word with a little gold paper.

Coming VERY SOON: The whole kit and caboodle, from front to back, with pictures and some wrapping it up commentary to get you on your way!