The Hunt for the Perfect Album

One of our perennially popular products at Crack of Dawn Crafts is a handmade photo album. I think this is particularly interesting given that we are in a digital of age of storing only electronic photos. Printing photos has become so rare that presenting someone an exquisite handmade album filled with meaningful photos has become a fabulous gift solution. And fortunately we at Crack of Dawn Crafts are in the right place at the right time because we make a LOT of exquisite, handmade albums!!

We recently received a query from a client who wanted a couple of albums to collect pictures for memories. The most popular designs were shared - the rose bordered Precious Memories Albums usually hit the spot. These are available in almost any colour combination, the most popular being Red and White and Cream and White. As with all our albums, they come with 10 pages, 20 sides, 4 tags and a keepsake box.

 

Surprisingly the client was not totally satisfied. She wanted to see more designs. So we shared with her pictures of the Princess Diaries album which is also a fabulous option for young girls, best friends or sisters. Each page is decorated with a princess element making it very girly.

This too did not seem to work. We were quite stumped so we started discussing more. What is the purpose of the album? She wanted it for herself. What is her style aesthetic? She loves Shabby Chic or Vintage colours. Unfortunately we didn't have anything else to share in the album category but we had a couple of options in the scrapbook category.

One was the Diary of a Doting Mom scrapbook which is just perfect to present to a loving mother. It chronicles the life of a mom from motherhood to grand-motherhood. A tear came to the eyes of many a mom thanks to this spectacular gift.

The other option was the Lavender and Pink Baby Scrapbook. Truly muted and extremely gentle, the soft pastel combination of lavender and pink combined with all the baby features in the book, make it a perfect keepsake for a precious little baby. Originally commissioned by a grandmother for her first grandchild, it has since become a popular choice for moms of newborn baby girls.

Our client LOVED these scrapbooks. It seemed to be just what she was looking for. We were thrilled! No worries we said - we can customise your albums to look like these scrapbooks! And here is the final result.

And that's how two of the prettiest albums we have made became part of the fabulous range of Crack of Dawn Crafts albums. We have called them The Pearly Lavender Album and The English Garden Album. The designs are so versatile that they can be used as a romantic gift, a gift for a friend, a gift for a sister/ mother or even teacher perhaps! And as a designer, I must acknowledge that some of my best designs come from my fabulous clients!

Do you like the new albums that we designed? Drop a line, we would love to know what you think.

A Golf and Grandkids Calendar

My father has 2 great loves - and coincidentally they both begin with the letter "G". They are Golf and his Grandkids. He never misses a chance to spend time with either. So when his birthday rolled around a few days ago, I figured the best gift would be to make him something dedicated to his 2 favourite things. So the photos are of his grandkids (my kids) and the design is a golf theme. All the materials are from Itsy Bitsy, they had some awesome Golf themed stickers and design is taken from Juhi's desktop flip album, a GD post that she did for the Itsy Bitsy blog. I started the calendar from May as this is the month I gave it to him. He can keep using it till next April.

I'm entering this into Lulupu's Challenge - My First Love My Dad.

If you would like to know the supplies used for this or any of my projects, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

An Album of Precious Memories - Part 2

I am back with the second and concluding installment of my Vintage/ Shabby Chic Mini Album series. If you want to see the first part, click here. So without delay, let's get to it!

The picture above is page four. Isn't it a gorgeous photograph! A photo like this needed a beautiful but somewhat understated page, so that was I was trying to go for. The roses are all made from this kind of beige paper which I distressed using Wild Honey Distress ink. I also added a rose cutout background  which is a freebie from Birdscards.com over the pattern paper page to give an ornate feel to section.

Another lovely family photograph and for this page I kept it simple. An off centre doily, a big organza bow and a daisy in the middle. Again a few sporadic pearls to make it a little dainty.

The page above is the first page I did. The background as a plain beige so I added a touch of pale pink in the form of pearls, tiny roses and some pink cut outs. The spotted pink organza ribbon also added a nice touch I think. 

If you remember from my previous post, Anita Chechi was in touch to visit her ailing grandmother who  is pictured with her in the photograph above. That's why it was of particular importance that I did justice to the page. I chose a Vintage frame from the Silhouette online store and cut it out on some coffee brown punch paper. Once again pearls and organza ribbon added the appropriate accents. 

I've just added a couple of close ups of the some of the work I did to give you a better view. Once again I must apologise for the photographs. I didn't get the chance to take them during the day so it had to be night shots and we all know how they come out.  Anita Chechi was really touched by the album. Her eyes filled up a little as she found all her favorite photographs put together in one little book.

Thanks so much for stopping by and would love to hear your comments. Also if you want to know any of the supplies used in this project, please write to me at craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com

An Album of Precious Memories - Part 1

My husband's cousin Anita Chechi who leaves in the US, is one of those extremely generous and loving people who is frequently presenting my kids and me so many presents whenever she comes to town. So 2 weeks ago when she came to visit her ailing grandmother, I wanted to thank her with something really special and I felt a card just wouldn't do it. It was time for my first Mini Album.

The picture above is the cover of the album. The entire theme is vintage/ shabby chic and I have to give a great BIG SHOUT of thanks to the Gossip Girls over at Swap Central. Saumya did this awesome post on 'What is Vintage" a couple of weeks ago and it not only opened my eyes but inspired me to use these colours. I went with the Luxury Stack from DCVW which had just the right backdrop for the album.

This is the first page of the album and that's Anita Chechi in the photograph with her husband. I wanted to really dress up the page because this photograph is so fantastic. Hussena's bird cage card was posted at just about the same time and I thought - BIRD CAGE! YES! The cage, the leaves and the flowers are all cameo cut and the same layout exists on the other side of the page. Thanks Hussena! Again!

This is the next page of Anita Chechi's daughter when she was a little girl. I should mention that I wanted this album to be a complete surprise so I got all the photographs from Anita's facebook or her family's Facebook. I didn't ask her for any photographs. That's the great thing about Facebook - we only upload our best photos so I found some amazing snaps. Entering this page in Dream Valley Challenges 53 - Pearls and Lace

The next page is all about butterflies! The background page had some grey tinges so I made my butterflies grey. I distressed the edges and centre of each butterfly with some grey ink and that added really an aged look to them. Love it! Added some pearls following the swirls on the page - you can never go wrong with pearls right! Entering this page in Creative Creations Challenge 6 - The letter B (for the Butterflies!)

I've added some closeups of the detailing to give you a better look. And did you notice how all the photographs were tinted sepia? I did that because I wanted the photos to coordinate with the album theme. I personally feel that even the most beautiful album can lose its appeal when photos are added because the album is one theme and the photos don't complement it. So since I was going vintage with each page, I made the photos vintage too. It actually made each picture better I think. 

There are a few more pages to show which I will display in my next post. My only regret about this album is that I didn't get to take nice photographs of it since I was so so so pleased with the result. I spent three days and sleepless nights on it and it was ready just before we all met for dinner. So the photographs were taken after I presented it at night time - with my brother in law's couch as the backdrop.

Thanks so much for dropping by and would love to hear what you think of this creation. If you would like to know the supplies used or how I made anything specifically please write in to craftingtillthecrackofdawn@gmail.com. I am more than happy to share!