How many times are you looking for a gift for someone and don't know what to give?
Sometimes a little hand-made album is just the thing to accompany a card — or another gift.
I did a small anniversary album; an idea I got from my friend Jennifer. The newlyweds likely already have plans for wedding photos. This will be a little album where they can add a photo on each anniversary. They'll be able to look back in 10 years at how they've changed and even how their family has grown.
I often like to make albums from scratch but I had this cute 6"x6" album –and the colours perfectly matched the wedding colours. I like to watch for small albums on clearance–you never know when you're going to need one! This one also had the perfect amount of page protectors for what I needed.
Next I gathered up some embellishments from my stash. I looked for anything that might work for a wedding album so I had lots of gold trim plus various flowers (I inked those blue ones to make them purple!), brads, buttons and some small Project Life cards that could fit my theme. A tray works perfectly to tote these items over to your workspace.
Then I gathered up some of the tools I knew I'd need. I wanted to keep it simple so a corner rounder, my paper trimmer, Tim Holtz scissors and Scor-tape were my key items. My advice is to never, never, ever live without Scor-tape.
Below are some papers that I gathered up from various paper pads I have. If you see one you really want identified, I could probably figure it out but I'm not listing them all here. I just go through and tear out the sheets that fit my theme. Then I throw in a few sheets of coordinating cardstock in plain colours.
I cut most of my sheets down to 6"x6" size. If you're doing this, take a look at each sheet and decide where you might want a particular feature of a page to be placed. That piece with the camera on it is actually from a sheet that had 6- 4"x6" pieces but I thought it might work so I cut it out too. I actually matched my cut pages into sets of two for each page. Then I sorted to make sure I didn't have two sets of purple right next to each other. I also decided which page would be on the left and the right. Of note; each set wasn't necessarily identical but they did coordinate with each other. You could always make it super-easy and have all of your pages exactly the same.
Here's a closeup of another sheet of 3"x4" pieces. I trimmed out a few of these that could work for me too. Don't worry about doing this; if you don't use them all, simply add them to your stash for use another time. If you never cut up these sheets, you're never going to use them!
The white sheets you see below are actually the white pages found in each page protector in the album. Because most of my background pages were going to be patterned paper which is a bit lighter weight than cardstock, I decided to keep these to add a bit of weight to my pages. I glued each 6"x6" background onto one side of the white paper–and I kept about a 1/8" edge all around as a border. Don't fret about this either. I don't measure. I eyeball. Who is going to look at it later and say, "That one is crooked."
Next up, I knew I'd need the word, "anniversary". When I did one of these albums before, I used various letter stickers and it was a major pain. This time, I bought a tiny die to use in my Tim Holtz Vagabond machine. I cut them out of thin white paper and probably should have used a heavier weight so that they wouldn't be so fragile. But they worked. I do still have two of these dies for sale so let me know if you're in need of one right away. (Of course, I can order one of these–or just about anything for you any time!) I found a sheet of stickers to use for my numbers…1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. but I'd like to find a font or something that matches. Anyone know of a Cricut cartridge with this font on it? I do have a small (vintage?) Cricut machine I could use. I, personally, am not a big Cricut user but in cases like this, I might be.
Now, on to the album. Here's that first page with that camera on it. I wrote a note to place a wedding photo on this page. I thought about taking one and trying to get it developed before I gave the album that day but it sounded too crazy to accomplish for the timeline I had. But you might be able to do it if you had time between wedding activities, right?
The rest of the photos aren't as big but you'll get the basic idea. I took the photos of each page while they were in the protectors so you might find some pages have glares on them.
The first two pages include photo mats, gold ribbon and three brads on the bottom of the page on the right. There's that blue flower I inked.
Another easy set of pages. The purple paper on the left had gold on it so I wrapped some gold cotton thread around the photo mat on the right side to tie the pages together.
As you can see, the pages have the same basic idea…some photo mats, embellishments and the title. I cut those little pieces of pearl off a larger piece I had left on a sheet of embellishments.Don't be afraid to use up those little bits you have hanging around from previous projects.
I love ric-rac. It's one of my favourite yard sale finds. You can see I only used a bit of it on these two pages. I added that note on the arrow-shaped paper to tuck a photo there because there's actually a clear acetate pocket on that page to tuck a photo into. You can even make these from page protectors–and sometimes packaging from products too. A small plastic cover from a tiny package makes a perfect shaker box. Use scor-tape around every edge and even glitter will stay in place. Guaranteed!
Believe it or not, that gold and that butterfly were already on this page. This was a sheet that I had to cut strategically to get that butterfly where I'd want it on the page. The anniversary title is placed on top of a strip of gold foil–my new favourite product which you'll likely see me demo-ing at crops this fall.
And another simple page. "Best ever" word is from a sheet of Heidi Swapp words. Who doesn't love Heidi Swapp's font? (If you don't know who Heidi is, go Google her!)
See how loud patterned paper tones down when you add something on top of it? I'd most likely never use that patterned paper on it's own. Too busy! But add a nice matted photo mat and the pattern becomes much more subtle. I've twisted more of that gold thread around both mats here but notice how I did one horizontally and one vertically. It's a simple little thing that adds some interest to a very simple page.
Here's another simple page made a little more elegant with some glossy, gold photo mats–and of course, more of my ric-rac. Gosh, I love that gold one! I don't have any for sale right now but did you know I do have some vintage items that I sell? I love using vintage items in scrapbooks and sewing notions are among my favourites.
Here's another page with the rest of that butterfly sheet. Between the butterfly and the patterned paper on the right, I didn't need much else here so I simply added some more of those Heidi Swapp words. Stay gold. Anyone remember that line from the book, The Outsiders? "Stay gold, Ponyboy."
And here's the 10th page. Paper doilies are another item I watch for at sales. Look how cute they are on this page! What else can I say. Oh, one final tip that I did here…see that purple mat on the right? It seemed to blend into the background page so I took my white uni-ball signo pen and outlined around the edge of it. It stands out much better now. Uni-ball signo pens are awesome but you do need to make sure they are the ones from China with the writing in Chinese on them. I do carry them but if you know ahead of time that you want one, do let me know to avoid having to wait for an order.
Here's the last page in the book. It needed something so I added that little 3"x4" Project Life card with the word, "notes" on it.
I could have left that page plain too but I think I like this. Depending on what the album is for, you could add a photo to this page. Or simply add the words, "the end".
Why not?
So there you have it. My finished album.
But what else could you do with a small album?
School pictures are great in a small album. Leave some pages for the recipient to add in more at a later date. You could even add pages with each future year as the title.
A small album is also great for photo memories of a trip or a special event. Or why not share a few favourite recipes or some sage advice? Or make a little one ahead of time to document a trip. You could also take the journal cards with you to write on as you journey, then add them to the album later.
What ideas can you suggest for a mini album?
Wow great idea for an album! Great gift!