2 Little Mini Albums

In addition to our banner, we made a little mini album at our last Hostess Scrapbook Club.  I made 2 DSP versions, to show you the potential for these.

I had some retired gift bags left over from a previous Stampin' Up! catalog, so I used those.  You could use most any kind of little paper bag.  I've made lots of them using paper lunch bags and punched an entire row of holes along the spine and then added lots of ribbons to coordinate with the papers.  For these little albums for club, I just punched 2 holes and then added a little CS piece for the spine.

Here's how you go about making a paper bag album:

Choose the paper bags you'd like to use.  I think 5 works well for this project, but you could use a few more if you'd like to do so.
Using your grid paper, mark your holes.  Punch 2 or 3 bags at a time, using the Crop-A-Dile.

Choose your papers and your ribbons.  NO... I did not use these ribbons with these papers.  The ribbons are for one of my bags and the papers were for the albums for club members.  I didn't want you to think I'd lost it:)
Your measurements for your papers and your little spine piece of CS are based on the size of your paper bags.

These are the sizes I used for my pages --- 3 1/4 X 5 1/2" DSP or CS.  If you want to stamp on the inside pages, then use a very light DSP background, such as First Edition, or cover every page with DSP and attach stamped embellishments.  The CS for the spine is a 3 1/2" square.
I scored it at 1 1/2" and again at 2" and then marked the holes and punched them, to line up with the holes in the paper bags.

When you make a mini album using paper bags, you create a natural pocket in between each page.  You can cut CS pieces and add tabs to them, using these --- 1 per pocket --- to add further stamped images and photos.  You can add stamped images and embellishments to every page.  If you make a mini album for a vacation trip, you can add tickets and mementos inside the pockets.  The possibilities are endless.

I used a 12" piece of ribbon for the tie, to hold the mini album together.
Optional:  Add a second sprig of ribbon in a coordinating color.

Close-ups:

 

Now I stopped at this point and sent everyone off to add the finishing touches to their own albums, following their own path of creativity.    

Here is an old album I made using paper lunch bags.  I cut them down slightly, so they'd be more of a square.  This one has a lot of pages.  

Another option:

If you don't want to use paper bags, then just use CS pieces, cut to the size you'd like for your pages.  Attach them together the same as I did my paper bag album and embellish them to your heart's content.  You won't have the option of having pockets with pull-out pieces, so you'll just add your photos directly onto your pages.  You can make a mini album be pretty much whatever you can dream up! 

So... start dreaming and then go create!!!  Let me know what you come up with for your mini album!   

Come back soon and see my next posts:  more calendars, more wreaths...   lots of fun waiting for you!

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