Mini Albums!

One of the reasons I am so behind in scrapbooking is I love mini-albums!  I create several a year and they are some of my favorite work ever!  It is so satisfying to finish a whole album in a day or two! 

This purse acrylic album I made at a class at the Portland Creating Keepsakes Convention.  (CK) It was my first exposure to working with acrylic and I learned lots of great things like how to adhere to it (clear glue dots), what kind of paper to use (double sided so the mat is for both sides!) that if you use flowers they look great from both sides! (No stems means they are never upside down!)  We also learned to stamp on acrylic and how to use an acrylic dye.  (Not a fan of the dye!)  In the end, I had this adorable purse album that's sat around for a couple of years, empty. 

Then I saw the pictures of my daughter's first horse back ride and I knew I had the perfect combination!  My daughter still talks about the horse she rode, Sailor, as if it was yesterday!  (Two years later!)  I created this album for her to have in her room as an accent, but also to remind her of that great ride!

Front Cover:  Isn't she cute?

One of the pages inside! Another page inside.  I used punched hearts and circles to journal on because when seen from the other side, the shape still works!

There are 10 pages in all, but all very similar! 

Next, I bought a grab bag for $5.00 at the CK convention and inside it was 10 pages of paper (5 patterned, fall colors and 5 solid fall colors), buttons, brown ric rac, white foam letters and a 10 page 8x8 chipboard square album.  I decided to use only what was included in the grab bag and a set of quotation stickers.  (This was not a pre-completed project or did it have directions or anything!)  I decided to make a brag book for my desk at work, but of course since I was still at Scramp, I didn't have the right photos.  I decided to make all the mats 4x6 so I just need to trim the photos a little and they'll all fit!  Here it is:

I inked all the edges of everything with brown.

The leaves on the bottom page are part of the patterned paper.  I had extra, so I cut them out, inked the edges and added popdots to give some dimension and added them to the top page for continuity!  The one of the buttons across the top of the page actually hide a hole in the paper! :)

Since I don't have the photos yet, I cut out the photo anchors and kept the sticker backing to the part that would touch the photo.  I then used a brad to adhere the rest of it down.  After I put photos in, I'll just remove the sticker backing and stick it to the photo!