The big 4-0!

A friend of mine recently asked me to do a clear album for her hubby's 40th birthday. Since she's one of my favorite people, I readily agreed! She gave me creative freedom on the design, so I went with a sort-of sporty over-the-hill-ish type theme.

Here's how it turned out:

This used a Clear Scraps acrylic album, some Bazzill cardstock, a Jenni Bowlin bingo card, some Close To My Heart papers, letter stickers, button & chipboard; EK Success foam letter stickers, Making Memories star brads, chipboard, metal word & letter stickers, a little bit of Stampin' Up ribbon, Doodlebug letter stickers and Zip Dry Adhesive.

Speaking of adhesives, here's my take on the Zip Dry Adhesive:

Overall, I rate it an "A".

It is, overall, pretty clear and great for clear projects like this acryilc album. It held tight for all of the embellies I used here, from the transparency frame (on the page with the big striped star - I added it to the corners of the frame) - to the ribbon and button - to the metal word tags on the front of the album. It is definitely more visible on darker papers - not working with this glue before this album there were a few places I had to add some extra things to hide the slight mess on the reverse side. On paper, if you don't stick it down to your project right away it kind of got to that weird semi-sticky glue phase - kind of like what free samples are stuck to in the mail? Do you know what I mean - a little rubber cementy? But, it was easy to rub this off and start fresh. I really didn't need to use a lot of the glue itself. The applicator tip was awesome and stayed pretty clear. It's a little odorous - kind of like a light spray paint/super glue smell. But overall, it did a great job.

With any clear project, I advise trying your best to hide your adhesives with photos, papers or embellies on the opposite side of the project.