Hello everybody!
Today, I wanted to share with you my favorite way to make my own mini album foundation.
I use it all the time because it's very sturdy, and the result looks so great! You can adapt it to your own style once you have the base.
It's not that difficult if you have the tools: PVA glue or any strong liquid glue that you can spread out thinly with a roller, and chipboard (I buy mine in craft stores, but if you really haven't anything else, you can try with cereal cardboard).
For my mini album, I mostly used
Hello Sunshine papers and
Float my Boat stamps by Lawn Fawn.
The
anchor is heat-embossed with silver powder (and then fussy cut and tied with
yellow twine).
The title "2014" uses the
lifebuoy as a "zero".
The word "été" means "summer" and I die-cut it in a cardstock that I painted with my
Magicals (I mixed some "Shabby Turbine Teal" powder with white paint and some water and that's all!). The result is so shiny, I love it! You couldn't guess that it was only basic cardstock.
On the back of the cover, I added
a stamp by Elle's Studio for the place of our vacations.
I love that my
Magicals can be used in so many ways! I chose my favorite color palette ("Industrial Chic") because I was sure I would have a lots of uses for it.
I keep them in their powder form and only mix some of it with the needed medium: this way, I can have either a
spray ink (I used some "Time Travel Teal" color with an
Heidi Swapp chevrons stencil), a paint (I used some "Shabby Turbine Teal" with an
Heidi Swapp triangle stencil on clear plastic sheet), or anything else I fancy!
I think that stamps are a great way to embellish an album, because they help to bring unity by using them all over the album: I used the
boat that I paper-pieced and mounted on foam, the
anchor that I heat-embossed with silver powder, the
arrows on my tags, and the hearts (
tiny and
medium) here and there to add a contrasting touch.
Did you notice? My "lace" border is actually stamped by repeating the
wave stamp!
So now, let's see how to make your own mini album foundation! (Click on the pictures to see them larger).
Here are the supplies you need:
- PVA glue + heavy thread
- chipboard:
6-1/4 x 6-1/4 (2 pieces)
3/4 x 6-1/4 (1 piece = spine)
- Patterned paper for the cover (outside):
6-1/2 x 7-1/2 (2 pieces)
2-1/2 x 7-1/2 (1 piece)
- Patterned paper for the inside:
6 x 6 (2 pieces)
2-1/2 x 6 (1 piece)
- cardstock sheets:
6 x 12 (4 pieces) fold at 3" and 9"
3/4 x 6 (1 piece = spine)
- clear plastic sheet: 5-3/4 x 6 (2 pieces)
I also used 2 eyelets and some ribbon to close my mini album, but you can do without.
Step 1: the cover
Using liquid PVA glue and a roller to spread it out, glue the chipboard pieces onto the patterned papers.
Start by gluing the chipboard spine: center it onto the patterned paper spine. Then glue the two chipboard pieces on each side,
letting about 1/8" between each piece to allow the cover to close without tearing.
The patterned paper spine only covers a small part of the chipboard covers, so glue the 6-1/2 x 7-1/2 patterned paper pieces edge-to-edge to cover it all. You can add some ribbon or washi tape to embellish (or hide!) this edge-to-edge.
Then, cut each corner following a diagonale (don't flush cut but let about 1/8"), fold over and glue.
You can add two eyelets and two pieces of ribbon to close the album if you want.
Finally, glue the two 6 x 6 patterned papers inside, and then the 2-1/2 x 6 paper in the middle (overlapping the other papers). Carefully mark the folds with your finger and allow to dry.
Step 2: the inside pages
First, fold your cardstock pieces of paper (6 x 12) at 3" and at 9". You can use a border punch for the vertical sides if you want, but be careful to line them up!
Next, make holes on the paper spine like on the picture below. There are only two lines of 6 holes (spaced at 1" each) because you will sew two cardstocks on the same line.
Then, sew each of the 4 pieces of cardstock on the spine with a heavy
thread. To make things easier, you should first make holes on the
cardstock pages. The sewing is
the most difficult part...
Using double face adhesive, stick the clear plastic sheets between the flaps. That's why it was important to make the punched borders lined up!
Finally, glue the paper spine (with the sewed pages) onto the cover spine. Don't forget to carefully press the spine onto the cover for a perfect result.
And here is my (almost) finished mini album, ready to receive my vacation photos (that I am hopefully taking right now, as this post is scheduled!):
This album is also great to offer because it mostly uses standard photos (8 (6x4) photos and only 4 (3x4) photos). I think that the color palette and the sailor theme is also nice for a baby boy album!
You could also not stick the photos and make the tags removable to add more photos or more journaling.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and please, don't forget to share your take on it if you use it!
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