Club Scrap Orchard Blog Hop

Welcome friends to the 

Orchard Club Scrap Blog Hop!

Oh my, this month's Club Scrap kit - Orchard is amazing. It features artwork from one of my favorite watercolor artists - Swarup Murthy. It echos all that is wonderful about fall. I debated on 2-3 different ideas on what I wanted to make for the hop just because I was so inspired but I finally decided upon a paper bag album.

And here it is!! 

I absolutely love this piece of pattern paper from the collection...

and the cut-apart says it all.  

HELLO AUTUMN!!!

Of course I had to put my own twist on it and stitched each bags to the cover rather than the usual binding for a paper bag album.  Pretty adventurous for me since i'm not very good at that stitching bit yet.  I knew I wanted to use each half of the bag to tuck a pull out piece into so I wanted the extra space this binding afforded me.  As you can see the stitching isn't perfect but it's better than my first attempt that won't see the light of day ;)  LOL!!

As you might see from some of the photos my actual covers were made separately from the part that the book pages were stitched to.  That was me hedging my bets. I know from past experience that my stitching skills are lacking so I did this instead...I cut the "inside" of the pages as one continuous piece of red cardstock.  I fortified the center where the pages would be stitched to with a piece of chipboard which was then covered with more red cardstock.  You won't see this patch because it will be covered by the covers.  

I then measured, poked holes and sewed in each individual paper bag.  That way if I screwed it up too bad, just pitch it and start over...and my book covers will be safe and sound.  But as luck would have it I was able to get the pages all stitched in without incident.  Well, it's not perfect but pretty darn good for me ;)

And here's a look from above...

I did a bit of stenciling on the inside cover.  The stencil actually says Today's Special but I took the liberty of rearranging it a bit to fit my wants.

A little kraft colored envie from a previous kit - works nicely for a little note to the recipient don't you think?

The book open with pull-outs in both sides.

And a view of all the tabbed pull-outs. 

I must say I'm very happy with this album.

There is LOADS of space for all sorts of photos and memorabilia.

Hope you've enjoyed this look at my stitched paper bag album!

Have a great day friends...

The next stop on the hop is ~

Tricia

and if you get lost along the way

Club Scrap Orchard Blog Hop

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com -

Club Scrap Orchard Kit

Book Binding Glue

Tapestry Needle

Waxed Linen Thread

Other:

Paper Bags

Chipboard