Birthday Express Album...

My Grandson's 3rd Birthday, My daughter took the kids to a Train Station,  I Loved the picture's and I just knew I had to do something with them... After thinking about it for a while this is what I came up with, I will do my best to tell you what I did to make it ... Sorry no pictures where taken during the process I didn't even think about it ...

I wasn't having any luck trying to use Chipboard out of 5 machines I couldn't get one to cut it, I only ended up with dull blades and ruined mats... If anyone has had any luck with cutting Chipboard on any of the cricut machines or the Sizzix Eclips, Please..... by all means chime in here and please tell !!!

Ok, enough with that ... lol,
What I did was cut the binding of the edges of my 12x12 Album Pages, I know a little expensive, but only the best ... Ha ha ha  I can say though it cuts very nicely in all my machines ... I used the SVG file 
Santa's Train, for the Train engine and Caboose, I enlarged it quit a bit and altered it from it's 3 D pattern...  

Then train cars where all cut with my paper trimmer.... no set measurements or design I designed them according to they way I wanted the book to look when it was closed...
I used the Paper's from Echo Park.... A Boy's life Collection... I covered everything, with paper then sanded around the edges with my little sanding block from Tim Holtz's to give it a rustic feel... The wheels I cut 8 for each page out of grayish black paper,  small circles and then 8 from my so called chipboard,,, Hey it worked :) Measure your large wheels for the right size and do the same thing... Glue grayish black paper wheels to Chipboard for each wheel... Boy I hope you got that :)

I wanted to tell a story in this little Album... And not being at the Birthday Party, I was clueless as to what to write ... so I went on the internet and printed of a little story from a Choo Choo story, I printed it on my Epson Person Printer, ( Love that little thing it's a must have for printing pictures ) anyway after printing I took my trimmer and trimmed it down to fit on each page, backing them with coordinating papers... On a side note : That little Epson Printer is awesome for downsizing photo's to fit on small pages !!!!

I used several pictures that my daughter took for decorating the pages, such as the train lights I wanted them to stick up above the book a little so I add a piece of  Chipboard for support !!!

Many of the sticker and things are in the Echo Parks Boy's Life Colllection... the buttons are also from a Boy's Life... and ran String through the buttons and used hot glue to glue them on ...

By no means was this just a simple little book to put together, I put many, many,  hours, days and even weeks into doing this... it was truly a labor of love, but that's the fun of being Creative .... 

Oh ya... Did I happen to Mention, In the process of me making this little Album, Echo Park surprised me and had a contest for the Boy's Life Collection... that really motivated me to finish in time to enter :)

 I entered it the day before the contested ended ..... I was so surprised when I got an e-mail from Echo Park saying I was one of there winners......  Oh so much fun !!!

Love the bright colors of the Echo Park Boy's life Collection they are so much have for a Little Boys Birthday Party pick, I was thinking if I would have been there and had the time before, I could have had so much fun making decorations and stuff for this theme... maybe someday !!!!!

                     I used grommets on the Front, and Back Covers to run the loops through !!!

I think I have covered the basic's here .... if you have any questions I would be more than happy to try to answer them for you !!!  Sorry it has taken me so long to get this posted, It's a lot of work setting up a blog and it's all new to me, but I'm slowly learning ..... Along with the many other new goodies I have gotten lately,  it takes time to learn it all .... But I'm having so much fun doing so !!!