Photo Album in a box

I admit, I love to smoosh. I love to smoosh ink, paint..whatever will smoosh and add fabulous color to something. This is a result of some smooshing.

I have been wanting to make a photo album for my oldest son. He moved 850 miles away to a big city to start his own life, leaving life out in the country behind. Before he left he had taken an afternoon to take pictures of the badlands we live in, but didn't get them unloaded from my camera before he left. So, the album is going to be a HOME album, including the pictures he took of the area.

I found this album in a box kit that I had purchased from Oriental Trading a while back, and decided to use that for the album. This is the box. The bottom was a smooshing good time to make!! I used burnt umber acrylic paint from two different companies...one was much darker, and lighter brown color (brown oxide, I think) I gave a good squirt of each on my nonstick craft sheet and I started smooshing the ink around with an inch wide paint brush. The colors blended and the more I worked it, the more texture it would seem to get. When I was done it almost had the look of rusted metal or worn leather. I fell in love with the way it looked!

The cover was painted with a beige acrylic paint, but I dipped my brush into the brown mess I had left from painting the bottom to give it more color and depth. I then used the burnt umber to go around the edges of the cover...then black...then stamped swirls with black Staz On and then added some water to the black paint blob on my nonstick sheet and flicked my brush around to add the splatters. I really love how this turned out, I sure hope my 20 year old big boy will love it a little, too.