Rubber Stamped Wedding Album, by Melissa Baldwin
This is an 8x8 inch album that has this wonderful "view through" window.  The first photo is the cover of album to which I added a black satin ribbon.  I think this gives the book a more elegant feel.

 This is what you would call a "theme" album.  As you can see the "theme" is of a wedding shower.  I attended a wedding shower, and took photographs of the event.  My gift to the bride-to-be, is this handmade album.  I hope she likes it! 

I wanted the scrapbook to have a simple elegant look, and also wanted to complete it in one day.  So I chose two colors, one flower and leaf image, and used them through out the whole album. I learned that the main color for the bride-to-be's wedding was purple, so I opened up a pack of the Bazzill Basics Monochromatic cardstock pack, in purple, which has varying shades of the same color. To those elements I had fun with embellishments.  This process is suppose to be fun after all!  

The second photo is the first page of the album which sets the whole mood.  I used the large flower from the "Watercolor Flowers" stamp set and stamped it twice, the second time without re-inking, and also turned it a bit before stamping.  This will give the flower more dimension.  I stamped 3 flowers in each corner, and added the leaves, using the same technique.  The photo was matted with the darkest shade of purple cardstock, and a portion of a white doily was added to that before it was glued to the center of the page.  The last element was to add those adorable ladybugs created from shaped eyelets.  The head is a black flat top eyelet, and the body is a purple heart eyelet.  You can add the antennas with a black Micron pen.  

 

I started out this  two page layout by stamping flowers and leaves along one side of each white 8x8 sheet of cardstock.  I then chose two different shades of purple cardstock and tore one side of each and glued it to the page opposite the stamped flowers.  After choosing two photo's for each page, I matted one on each page with black cardstock.  On one of the pages I added another ladybug.
This two page layout gets a soft look with the addition of stippling.  The left side is first stamped with a row of flowers and leaves at the bottom and then a soft mist of purple is added to the top, by tapping a stipple brush in the ink pad, then tapping/stippling it on the cardstock.  To create the matt for the photo I first cut it to size then "crumpled" it a few times, flattened out and rubbed it with a white dye ink pad. I call that process "acid washing".  I then glued the photo to the matt, then tore the bottom edge.  The matt is then glued to the page.  A couple ladybugs were added to this page as well.

The right page was stippled along the right and left edges.  Then the photo's were matted on crumpled, and "acid washed" cardstock. I then stamped the flowers and leaves on white scrap cardstock and cut out, and glued to the page as shown.  One more ladybug finishes this spread out.
To create this two page spread I placed the two pieces of white cardstock side by side and stamped the flowers and leaves in the middle of the pages, randomly.  The strips of light purple cardstock were glue to the top of one page, then the bottom of the other.  I chose photo's for the pages and trimmed some of them by using my large circle and oval punches.  I matted two of them in dark purple cardstock, and added the ladybugs. 
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I loved the photo's for these two pages, and wanted to highlight the girls outfits (which were created with toilet paper!) and to capture the fun of the "fashion show".  I created four color blocks on the left page and glued the photo's inside the center of each block.  The right page I first stamped all over with the flowers and leaves, then glued two color blocks on the top, added the photos, and then the large photo below. The ladybug was added to the center of the left page.
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This spread I kept simple, but stamping the flowers and leaves at the bottom of one page and the top of the other, and adhering torn strips of two shades of cardstock.  The larger photo's were matted with a torn edge on one side.  The left page I attached the photo with a silver circle clip.  The ladybug was added to the right page.
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This was the last photo of the event and it is such a sweet photo.  I especially loved the bulletin board in back of the bride-to-be, that says "God Bless America".  I stamped the flowers only )no leaves all over the white cardstock, and then added a torn strip of black cardstock through the middle of the page.  I then matted the large photo with purple cardstock and then attached the small photo with another silver circle clip.  The left page is for the bride-to-be to write down all the guests that attended the shower, and if she wants, she can document what gifts they gave her.
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Here is anther page for the guests list, and then the right page is a "pocket page" that can hold the cards that the guests gave her.  I cut a slit in the page protector just above the pocket so the cards could easily be slipped in and out.
These two pages are also "pocket pages".  Since this is a smaller album (8x8) she will need more room to store the cards, and they can get quite bulky if the cards are all on one page. The page on the right is holding the wedding card that I made the bride-to-be.
Here is a close up the wedding card.  I used a wedding themed brass stencil to dry emboss a white cake on the cardstock.  The flowers and leaves were embossed on different colored cardstock and glued to the top of the cake.  The wedding rings are from the same brass stencil, and were dry embossed on a circle of silver cardstock, which was then matted on a black square.  The square above the  wedding rings, is a matted brass charm.  And yes! brass charms are usually a different color.  I changed mine from brass to silver using a silver leafing pen.  The final step was to stamp "congratulations" below the cake and matt that to black cardstock with a torn edge.  Silver mini brads are a nice touch!
The album is now complete, and I am sure the bride and groom with cherish it, and look back upon it with fond memories of a special time in their lives.  Uh Oh!  Now I need to go and stamp up a gift bag............