RhondaMum: Vintage Photo Flip Book

As a mixed media artist, I naturally have many old photos, millinery flowers, buttons, and other treasures to use in my art. I hoard them and then a project comes along in which I just have to use some of my treasures. This was one of them.

I have so many wonderful old photographs, as I'm sure many of you do as well. But I've never really displayed them, except for propping up the occasional favorite. While doing Guest Design Team work for Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts, I knew from the get go that I wanted to use the Standing Flip Book that I received. Then I put two and two together and came up with a project that was so relaxed and great fun to create.

I bet you can already see where I'm going with this one. I find such pleasure in mixing up vintage lace and treasures to create art. I have several altered books I have made on my own and in swaps that use these same items. Why not a Standing Flip Book to display? Exactly! Too good of an idea to pass up. So I got busy. The stand comes with six pages laser cut from heavy duty graphics board.

First I ran my pages through my Xyron adhesive runner. I love this baby when it comes to applying adhesive to larger surfaces. I chose several papers that blended nicely together including this Juliet Verona 12x12 sheet, this fabulous Tan Faux Leather Paper, Lotus Scrapbook Paper and more.

A quick trim and file, (yes that is an emery board) and I'm off to the next side.

OH OH OH, DON'T forget to re-punch your holes before covering the other side.

Done covering and filing, next a bit of Antique Linen Distress Paint so that my edges blend in with the front and back of the page.

Now it's time to play with my photos, which I want and where, as well as larger and smaller pieces of vintage lace. I love to layer it all and just add to the page as much as I like.

For this photo, I decided to make a frame using vintage lace, folded over and glued into place. Clothes pins are a MUST to give you extra fingers while glue dries. Just be sure to remove them before the glue dries all the way, other wise they too will be glued into place.

Above is the back and below is the front, just so you can see how the finished process looks during dry time.

For this page I used a large piece of vintage lace that I was able to wrap all the way around the page, meeting the edges in the center of the back of the page.

I added another piece of lace down the center to cover the seam.

After adding my photo, of course I once again used my clothes pins to hold it all in place for a bit.

I love the design of this mirror (Mirror 1). It reminds me of the frames you would find on old pictures. So I decided to alter it so I could frame one of my favorite old pics.

After cutting the "stand" off, I filed the cut edges smooth. Of course I saved the left over parts to use on another project. The detail is just too perfect.

The frame looks gilded with the use of Distress Paints in Tarnished Brass.

The main thing is to just have fun with it, no stress, no time line, just use the things you love to make it your own. I made a huge mess in my studio with lace and buttons everywhere, but each page was given a life and I love the end result.

I wanted the actual flip book to be somewhat manly, but in those natural tea stain colors I adore. I used several layers of this printed tissue and lots of watered down glue. While wet, the tissue easily peels apart so "trimming" was easy. After I put all of my layers on, I did a final, thicker coat of glue to "seal" the piece.