Beachy Photo Album

A friend of mine recently got married in St Thomas .. a beautiful reception on the beach. Since my employment record has been pretty poor since we moved here, I was unable to go. But, I wanted to do something extra special for her so I've put together a couple of beach inspired keepsakes.

The first is a glass bauble, embellished with small rhinestone letters that say "I Do" on one side and has their monogram on the backside. Its clear glass, and I asked another friend that attended the wedding to get some sand and small shells for her to put inside the bauble, so they always have a piece of the beach where they got married.

Second, a photo album. When we got married, a friend gave me a simple photo album with a little poem on it indicating that we were to make it our anniversary album. Each year on our anniversary we are to take a picture of ourselves and put into the book. (and we've already failed - no pic on anniversary #1.. )

But I felt a plain photo album was not enough, so I super embellished it with sand and shells from the beach here in California.

It was covered in a canvas-like cloth, and unfortunately the only color I could find was black (I looked at Michael's and Target - and both stores had a terrible selection!)

I covered it with two layers of sand and sealed it, so that the sand will not flake or peel off. Since it was cloth, and that was a first for me, it soaked up so much of my mod podge that I'm going to have to find another adhesive in the future. I think i'll try to spray glue the sand on, the seal it with the mod podge... anyway, this is how it turned out:

Then, I pulled out my collection of seashells that I've saved over the years to find the perfect fit for the front. I pulled out half a dozen heart shaped shell charms from my jewerllry kit and tied them onto a strand of raffia. I wound the raffia around the opening on the front cover to frame the area the poem will be inserted into.

Then, I chose a large sand dollar, a piece of water-eroded shell, and a conch shell that was black and white - and it made the black photo album seem purposeful!

I have ordered some additional gems and I am going to put either their monogram or last name on top above the opening in the front cover to finish it off.

This came out so lovely, I think I am going to try to do another one using a spray adhesive. If it works out, I'm going to offer them as personalized handmade wedding gifts in my Etsy Curio shop, The Curio Boudoir. In addition, I'm thinking of expanding the selection to do smaller albums for vacations, beach-themed parties, etc.