Camera mini album cuteness!

This album was inspired by my free chocolates box from the M&S dine in Valentine meal

and this picture of an album, I noticed on Pinterest, (via Laura) by Merdrey Chew. I made up my own version of a camera album, to hold lots of heritage photo's from family tree research a while ago, into MIL's family.
First of all I strengthened the two shorter ends of the box on the inside and the front and back of the box on the outside, with chipboard, leaving the elastic closure intact.

 The camera was going to be horizontal and I wanted it to be open along the top edge, so I snipped and folded this edge down to the inside for extra strength too. I then covered the blank chipboard front and back with patterned paper. 

I made the bellows at the front of the old fashioned camera from some tiny money envelopes, glued with double sided tape strips to form a concertina album.

I cut cards for each envelope and tucked the flap inside each one, so the card slid in and out easily. This tiny mini album closes with a brad and loop of cord.
To decorate the box to make it look more like a camera, I added a few embellishments.

Two chipboard discs sprayed with a bronze Maya mist, and a very large brad, inverted, with the stem broken off. A chipboard cog, sprayed bronze and two chipboard frames inked with Shabby Tote chalk ink. I also used a metal strip embellishment and a photo turn.

I trapped the photo turn between the two chipboard discs using silicone glue and then added the inverted brad on the top. Small pieces of patterned paper were placed behind the chipboard frames and then they were glued down. The viewfinder chipboard frame and the large brad for the lens were both filled with Glossy accents to make them look like glass. I added a few more sticker here and there for realism!!

The strap was made from ribbon, threaded through holes in each side, punched with my Cropadile. I made some camera charms using my Studio Calico stamps on shrink plastic.

The photographs were all put on mats of Bazzil card stock in three colours to tone with the sepia photographs.

Tabs were punched using a Jenni Bowlin tab punch.

I stamped some journaling blocks using some SC journaling stamps, for the back of some cards and did some photo's back to back. The photos are all loose leaf in tabbed sections.
I also printed off the relevant blog posts from 2010, about my discoveries and made 6 x 12 mini concertina albums with a slip over closure.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result and the vintage look. Hope you like it too. TFLx