Altering a modern album into an Old Book

I bought a photo album for under $3 and so I decided to customize this for a present to a friend.  Because I am in a Historical Club, I wanted to make this album look on the outside like an old book.

I used fun foam for the accent pieces for the hinges and heater.

I have some die cuts from Sizzix that I used to cut the foam.  I used Gesso to glue the pieces down and painted over them with it.

Painting over with Gesso.

Everything covered with Gesso.

I took acrylic paints, mostly browns, yellows and oranges and began to blend the colors to fake an old leather tome.

I sponged and brushed, dabbed and swirled.

After everything dried, I added some Inka Gold paints to the die cut elements.

I added white on the banner and green on the laurel leaves.

 

I painted the heater blue and yellow, using heraldry of an SCA Barony (Gyldenholt).

 

Adding names for the banners in black sharpie.

 

I thought I should seal the work, so I used Mod Podge gloss.

I added some wrapping paper I had to line the inside of the album.  I used Mod Podge Gloss to glue and seal.

I glued the photo pages back inside and it is done.  I handed this to my friends 6/11/2016.  They really seemed to like it.