The Meerkats family album

Rounding up my posts after the Katzelkraft show on Hochanda the previous week, my last project is a mini album made from a piece of cardstock folded in accordion with greyboard covers.  I kept my favourite project for last... Don't you love it when things actually work out as planned? It doesn't happen often for me, but this time my vision and execution went without a hitch and I am pleased with the result.

It's fairly simple to make but does take a bit of time, mainly in the colouring and fussy cutting!

Inside pages:

I cut a piece of cardstock to be at least 4 times the width of my chosen covers from the That's Crafty! Surfaces Greyboard #5 Tags Pack and scored 4 times, leaving the excess to be cut later as it helps to hold the cardstock while working. 

I applied Distress inks all over, stamped with water and with blue ink on top using the StudioLight Grunge Collection Clear Stamp - 337

I stamped all the Meerkats (Katzelkraft Suricates KTZ216) on these panels and also on a separate piece of smooth cardstock to be coloured (I used coloured pencils) and fussy cut.

The fun Meerkats' expressions immediately suggested some words to me... I printed them on vellum and backed it with adhesive sheet. Vellum hates wet glue and unless the the adhesive is edge to edge it shows.

I did the same on the reverse of the cardstock but only on the 2 middle panels as the outside panels will be glued the covers:

Covers:

I prepared the greyboard tags with Gesso first and applied Distress inks on top. Some water splatters add a bit of interest.

To the back cover I added the Bunny (mini 114) , which I simply stamped directly on the board and coloured with pencils.

For the front cover I first created masks with circles, keeping both "innies" and "outies", as both come into play.

With removable adhesive I affixed the circles before inking the background. When all splatters had dried I removed the circles and placed the "outies", traced the outline with a pen and stamped the heads inside the white circles. Again, I used pencils to colour the Meerkats.

Finally I folded and creased the pages in the accordion shape and stuck first and last pages to the covers.

As the accordion won't lay flat I added a humble rubber band to keep it closed when not on view. A fancy elastic of some sort would have been better but sadly, it's rarer than hens' teeth since makers of face masks have bought all of the stock!

Some photos of the opened book after assembly:

You can catch up the Hochanda shows here and here and you can also find the Katzelkraft stamps at That's Crafty.

And if you want another look at all my samples for the shows (or even a first look) here's a quick slide show: 

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the We Love Chocolate Baroque challenge (I love stamping and I love when it all works out!).