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27/02/2015

DIY Pocket Mini Album | Part 2 - Creating the Pages & Finishing the Album

Good morning! Today I'm sharing how I made the pages for my Love Mini Album. You can find Part 1 - Making the Album Cover HERE. In this part, we'll be making the pages, and putting the whole thing together. After this your album will be ready for photos and embellishments! That's so exciting right? I had so much fun making this album, and I hope you learned something, and were able to make your own beautiful album! I'd love to see your finished projects, so you can leave a link in the comments, or let me know and I'll host a mini album link party.



Supplies:
  • 9 Patterned Papers - unless you want more pages
  • Score board (optional)
  • Bone folder - to score and fold pages
  • Sewing machine (optional)
  • Double sided tape - I used my ATG
  • Twine, string, or anything you could use to tie it closed (optional)


First, select your 9 papers that you want to use. I made my cover purple, and so I struggled a little bit with choosing papers, but in the end I think the papers I chose, will compliment the purple cover perfectly. All of the papers I chose are from the Maggie Holmes Open Book 12x12 paperstack. I chose neutrals, green/teal, and a little bit of pink and yellow. I think they look beautiful together!


 Next you're going to cut your papers down to 9 3/4" x  7. Or, if you made your album a different size, you're going to make it double the width of your front cover, minus 1/4", by however tall your album is. You have to take off the extra 1/4 inch so that when it's closed, the spine doesn't push the pages out beyond the edges of the covers. You also make them twice as wide as the cover so that you can fold them in half.

Once you have them cut to size, just score them and fold them in half, except for one paper that will go on your front cover. That paper gets cut in half and set aside.


After I scored and folded my papers I chose the order in which I wanted them to go in my album, and stacked them so they were in order from front to back.


Then I got out my sewing machine and stitched around the outside edges of all of my papers (individually). I didn't do this in my other album, but decided to do it for this one. You can skip this step if you don't want to sew on your pages, or if you don't have a sewing machine. If you want any additional stitching detail, AND still want to create pages with a pocket between them (like in my Love album), you'll have to do that now, or you'll sew your pockets closed.


I took one half of the paper I cut in half and adhered it to the inside of my front cover. Because of the size I cut it, it hides the uneven edges of the fabric, and goes all the way to the spine. I sewed around the edges of this paper before I adhered it to the cover, since I had already sewn the cover.


Once you've sewn all your other papers, decide whether you want your pockets to open at the top, or on the side. If you want them to open at the side, run your tape along the top and bottom (the short sides), and along the side where you're page is folded. If you want them at the top, don't put tape at the top, but run it around the other three sides. If you don't want pockets, run your adhesive around all the sides.


As you can see, my pocket is along the side (again). This is the very first page of my album, so I used the same paper that I used for inside my album cover. Adhere the rest of your pages together, just like your first page (unless you want to switch up where your pockets are on each page).


On your last page, run adhesive all over it. This page lifts a little bit when you flip to it, depending on how thick your other pages are, so don't worry about that. Just make sure you press it down so it stays in place.


Make sure your pages aren't over the gap where your back cover meets your spine. If they are, peel them off and move them further from the gap, otherwise your album won't close properly.


There you go. You're finished adding the pages to your album. Go ahead, flip through it and admire your handiwork.





LOVE LOVE LOVE this paper.





This is my last page. As you can see, the right side lifts a little bit, but that's only because I put 8 pages into it. If you did less, the last page wouldn't lift, but you also wouldn't be able to pack it full of love!


You have some extra space between your pages and front cover, but that's okay because once you start adding your embellishments and photos you're going to need that extra space for them to expand.


I added twine around my album, and to make sure the twine stayed on my album, I poked a hole in the spine of my cover and folded my twine so that when I wrapped it, the bow would fall on the front. Then I pulled it through the hole I made in the spine and tied a knot to secure it in place. I did the same thing for my Love album, but when I tied it closed, the bow was along the side with all the tags.


Here's what my finished album cover looks like. It's so perfectly me, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. It'll look beautiful on the shelf next to my other mini albums I've made.

If anyone knows where I can get some more chipboard, that would be great! I want to make a bunch more of these, and host a giveaway. Leave links to your projects in the comments, and I'll either host a link up, or a round up of my favourite albums!

Thank you for checking out this tutorial. I hope it helped you to make pretty albums!
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

25/02/2015

Studio Calico: Walden Card Kit

Good morning! I know this card kit is a little overdue (it was released in November), but sometimes I let my card kits pile up, then pull out a few and work on them over a weekend just to get them off the shelf. In this case, I needed a blog topic, so I worked on this card kit (and the December one).


For this card, I used some scrap pieces, and this stamp from Ali Edwards. I love  thank you cards. There's just something about showing someone how much you appreciate them, even if it's just with a simple card.


I loved the little plastic label-like sentiments that were included in this kit. I used every single one of them!


Inside the little wood veneer arrow, it says "hooray for sweater weather". Jon loves this card, I just wanted to use the orange cloud paper.


I used some scrap strips to look like washitape at the top and bottom of my sentiment. I loved the nuts about you sentiment. I wanted to use the little acorn stamp, but I only have one shade of brown, and it didn't look good all one shade of brown, so I used the nuts about you stamp like this.


I also couldn't get the apple stamp to look like an apple so I just used the "you're the apple of my eye" sentiment by itself. I think it looks fine. I added some diamond washitape along the edge where the papers met to hide the seam.


My favourite card! I love the pale colours, and the wood veneer heart is the perfect size. I wrapped the yellow ribbon around the seam and adhered it to the back of the patterned papers. Still love love love those plastic sentiments.


My favourite paper in the whole kit. I love looking at it. I almost want to make it into wallpaper and make an accent wall with it.


Used some scraps, and more diamond washitape and another plastic sentiment on this card. I love the look of it!

Thanks for coming by to check out the cards I made using the Walden card kit from Studio Calico. I hope you have a great day!
-Alexandria

23/02/2015

Project Life | Week 3

Good morning! I hope the weather wherever you are, isn't too horrible. It's been really cold here the last few days. Perfect weather for curling up on the couch with hot chocolate and a movie or book. Unfortunately I had to work the weekend, and it was chilly. On the bright side I'm sharing week 3 today, and there's another link up happening with Karen.


Here's my spread. I used cards from the Midnight Edition, and the Be you tiful card is from Studio Calico.


This week I made a bunch of craft projects, finished a book and documented my issue with choosing my next book. We also celebrated Jon's mom's birthday with a beautiful cake.


Here's the right side. I included photos of my book wreath (which I still need to hang), a selfie I took, a scrapbook page I made for work, and the cover of my Love Mini Album. My weeks are pretty boring and simple lately. We spend most of our time working, and when we're not working, we've been watching Grey's Anatomy, or I've been crafting, and Jon's been painting/assembling Warhammer models.

Thanks for coming by to see my spread for this week. Please check out the link party over at Karen's blog. Share your link, and check out everyone else's spreads.


Have a great week! I hope to see you all next week at the Monday Link Up!
-Alexandria

20/02/2015

Favourites Friday | Bloggers

I've decided that since this is my blog, I can do whatever I'd like with it. I've decided (thanks to an idea from Kellie at Give a Girl a Blog) to create a monthly post in which I share a few of my favourite things. This won't just include my favourite crafty things. Food isn't crafty, and I'd like to include it in one of my lists.

Today I'm going to share a few of my favourite blogs. Most of them are related to scrapbooking, but not all of them. I love to read blogs by people who have similar interests as me, and in the case of most of these ladies, that means scrapbooking. Both Project Life, and traditional 12x12 pages.

Wilna Furstenburg of I Heart Studio
I fell in love with Wilna's Youtube videos, and love to read her blog now as well. I took her Heartfelt Christmas workshop, and loved it! I'm saving a bit of money to purchase all of her other worshops from her site, and I own most (if not all) of her cutfiles. I love her style so much, and I love being inspired by her weekly videos. She's encouraged me to accept mistakes, and step outside of my comfort zone and use paint on a few scrapbook pages.

Marcy Penner of Hello Forever
I fell in love with Marcy's videos for Two Peas in a Bucket before the closed down. I loved her Project Life style, and took a lot of inspiration from her when I started working on catching up with 2011-2013 Project Life style (still have plans to share those spreads at some point). I loved that she didn't use 4x6 or 3x4 photos very often, she embellished but didn't overpower her photos. I took her mini book workshop at Studio Calico last year, and loved that! I got so much amazing inspiration from her that I used in my 30 Days of Me mini album.

Kellie Winell of Give a Girl a Blog
I first discovered Kellie in a Project Life group (I think). I loved the clean and simple style of her Project Life pages. Then I discovered that she makes stamps and I loved her even more! I love that she does more than just scrapbook, and uses her blog to share things happening in her personal life.

Dana Fox of The WonderForest
I can't remember how I originally discovered Dana's blog. It was a long time ago, possibly through Pinterest, and possibly through a make up tutorial. I fell in love with all the tutorials she shared for various things from hair, to make up, to craft projects. I love her blog templates, and would love to one day feel that this blog is worth purchasing a custom template from her. I love that she has a blog, and Youtube channel full of blogging tips. Through that blog and her Youtube channel, she's helped me to create some ideas for my blog, and change a few things around (it's a constant work in progress).
 
Amie Lamm of Little Lamm & Co.
I first discovered Amie during the Pocket Source's RAK giveaway they had last year. I won a set of her digital cards (love them), and immediately fell in love with her shop. I started seeing her work show up all over the place (mostly in the Studio Calico member gallery), and I fell in love with her style. I love browsing her Instagram and seeing pictures of her adorable kids, and her beautiful Project Life pages!

Andrea Gray of RetroHipMama
I think I discovered Andrea in a Project Life group. She was linking a video tour of her Project Life organization. It was creative, and of course I love seeing how other people store/organize their supplies. Then she started doing process videos, and I fell in love with watching her work. I also love to see how people create layouts. I love her pages, they're full of love and creativity.

Stephanie Bryan of Stephanie Makes
I started following Stephanie on Instagram recently, and after watching a video of her Project Life album for January, I started reading her blog. I love that she's thinking outside the box, and documenting her life in whatever way she wants. I can't wait to see how she documents February, and the rest of the year. It's so creative!

Thank you for coming to check out some of my favourite bloggers. I'm always looking for additional blogs to read, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave links in the comments and I'll be sure to check them out!

Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria
 

18/02/2015

DIY Pocket Mini Album | Part 1 - Creating the Cover

A few people asked me to share a tutorial on how I made my Love Mini Album (here). Today I'm sharing with you how I made the base of my album. I decided to split this into two parts because there's a lot of photos. I didn't think anyone wanted to spend two days reading through all of it!


Supplies:

  • Chipboard or thick cardboard - I used some from the back of a fridge calendar
  • masking tape
  • Fabric - I used old white sheets and dyed it, but you could use a patterned fabric and skip that step
  • Food colouring, ink refills, fabric dye or anything you can use to dye your fabric
  • Glue stick or mod podge - I used a glue stick so I could reposition the fabric if necessary
  • fabric tape, or washitape
  • scissors
  • plastic bag


First, we're going to cut our chipboard pieces to size. You can adjust this to whatever sizes you want, but to fit 4x6 photos into the pockets, you'll want your front and back cover to be 5x7. Your spine will be 1x7, unless you plan to make a lot of pages, then you can make it whatever width you want, just make sure it's the same height as your front and back cover.


Next you'll want to tape your spine to your covers. Make sure you leave a gap between them so your spine and covers can bend to close.


Wrap the tape around both sides, and tape the back cover to your spine as well. I used painters tape because I couldn't find any white masking tape.


Next you're going to cut your fabric. You'll need two pieces of fabric, one will be a couple of inches taller than the other, but they'll be the same width.


 Both should be a little bit larger than your album. I set my album on the fabric and cut/tore it to the desired size. The smaller piece is roughly 1" wider all around, and the larger piece is an extra 2" taller than the smaller piece.


Apply glue to the outside of your album cover. Lay your smaller piece of fabric on it and smooth it out. I close my album and smooth the spine and front and back covers to make sure the fabric won't pull when I try to close it. When it's opened flat, the fabric will bubble a little along the spine, but that's normal. It means your fabric won't pull. It doesn't have to be perfect because it'll be covered by your other piece of fabric.


 Turn your cover over and glue the extra fabric down. This makes sure it doesn't shift around or accidentally tear off the cover. It doesn't have to be pretty, it'll be covered by the second layer of fabric, and the paper.


Decide on the colour you want your cover to be. I used food colouring to dye both my Love Mini Album cover, and my Vintage Book Mini Album cover. I did them both in different ways.
For the Vintage Book cover, I put drops of food colouring onto the garbage bag I covered my desk with, and used the fabric to absorb the colour. The benefit of doing it this way, is that your colours tend to be more vibrant, it's just a lot more messy.


 For the Love Mini Album, and this one, I wanted more control over my colours. I put some water into a cup, and added a few drops of food colouring then added a strip of fabric. When it was the colour I wanted, I removed it, and gently ran my fingers down the length of the fabric to get out the excess water. Then I added more food colouring and another strip of fabric. When it was a little darker than the previous strip I removed it, added more colour and another strip.


I wanted an ombre look, and I knew my colours wouldn't be perfectly ombre (I've done this before), and I was okay with that. I just really wanted a purple album, and was okay if it wasn't a super dark purple.


I left my strips to dry on the plastic bag for a half hour. I left the ceiling fan on in the craftroom to help them dry a little faster. If you want them to dry even faster, you can use a paper towel, or an old rag and dab the strips to remove excess water.


When my strips were dry, I laid them out on my album cover. Because I cut my larger piece of fabric, two inches larger than the smaller one, I was able to overlap my strips of fabric. I didn't cut them all to be the same width, so overlapping them unevenly was okay with me.


When I decided where I wanted each strip, I gently slid them off and ran my glue stick along the first strip. I did the same thing I did when adhering the base fabric. I closed the album to make sure the strip wrapped around the album cover.


I glued down all the other strips the same as the first with slight overlap, and left a bit hanging over the top and bottom. I'm a perfectionist, but I love the messy-ness of this album cover.


On the inside, my purple edges weren't very even. I was okay with that because I knew I was going to cover them with my pages. This album currently looks like a mess on my desk, but by the end I promise that it won't!


Then I ran the album through my sewing machine. I only stitched around the outside edge, but you could sew this however you wanted. If you don't want any of your stitching to affect your pages, do it now before you add any pages, and you can still hide it.


Going back to the inside of your album, now is when you cover your spine with washitape. I used black washitape to hide the green masking tape, but you can use any colour you want! Just make sure that you push a little into the gap between the spine and the covers. I went out the width of my tape from the gap between the spine and the covers. The pages will hide all the tape except the portion on the spine.

Now you can set this aside and work on your Project Life pages, or watch something on Netflix! I'll be sharing Part Two of this - the inside pages and finishing touches - on March 6th. I'm working on that post right now, and I'm so excited for you to be able to finish your albums! You're going to love them!

Thanks for coming by! I hope you found this helpful! I'd love to see your mini albums, so please please please leave links to them in the comments. Even if it's just to a Facebook photo. I'd like to think that my tutorials help people create pretty things!

Have a great day!
-Alexandria