Autumn Treasure Mini Album

 

 

Hey there everyone!  Here's my latest mini-album adventure.  This one is a bit larger than most of mine, with the covers measuring 7" x 9" x 1 1/2".   I wanted to create an album to house some of my autumn pictures, which happens to be my favorite season.  The Huntington paper collection from Close to My Heart was the perfect paper for an album with this theme.

 

 

 

 

The cover is wrapped chipboard and has metal corners to accent the front, as well as a metal bookplate on the spine.  I love how the vintage-looking metal works with the earth tones of this paper.  It has a wrap closure made with brads and jewellery cord, accented with wooden and metal beads.  The beads I recycled from a bracelet I found at a thrift store for 50 cents.

 

 

 

 

I cut the title on my Cricut using the Artbooking (Close to My Heart) and Graphically Speaking cartridges.  I cut them from Desert Sand Cardstock, then painted them with Luminart Golden Opal paint to give them a treasure-like gleam. I did the same for some of my theme words inside the album.

 

 

 

This book only has three base pages bound with a hidden hinge system (see my Gatefold Mini Album tutorials on this blog or Kathy Orta's tutorials for details on how to build those).  Each page has several foldouts and additional features to make this a very interactive album with lots of room for pictures and journaling.

 

 

 

Inside the front cover I chose to do a window feature using a few scraps of barnboard paper I had in my stash.  The closure is made of brads, hemp cord, and a few metal beads from that recycled bracelet.

 

 

 

Each page has flip-up features as well as pockets to maximize interest and space. 

 

 

 

 

There are three large inserts in the base pages, each double-sided and easily accommodating 4" x 6" photos.  The tabs are covered with patterned paper but you could use alpha stickers or handwrite titles on them depending on your album theme.

 

 

 

 

This page has two small foldouts on the left which accommodate 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" pictures with room to spare.

 

 

 

Opposite the foldouts is a pocket with a folder in it, holding two more photos, each 3" x 5" in size.

 

 

 

 

This page has a pretty folded edge with a wooden button accent and contrasting edging.  It houses a double-sided photo mat that will show off 4" x 6" pictures.  I printed my photos for this spot at 3 1/2" x 5" to allow more of the beautiful paper to show, and to leave a little space for journaling.  The pocket flap opposite it is another perfect display place.

 

 

 

The pocket itself holds another large mat (4" x 6" photos fit well) as well as displaying an additional photo on the top inside flap of the pocket.

 

 

 

 

This is the overleaf of page 2 (I know!  Only two pages into it and already there are at least 20 photo spots!)  I created an angle pocket for the face of page 3 which holds two more photos plus a small one on the outside of the pocket.  The page 2 overleaf (on the left) can display two 4" x 6" photos.

 

 

 

Here's both sides opened up to display another folded pocket edge as well as a pocket on the left and a tiered pocket in the middle section.  A total of 7-9 pictures fit in here plus there's a little bi-fold tag for journaling that tucks into the front of the tiered pocket.

 

 

 

 

Finally, the last page overleaf has a fold-up photo spot concealing a fold-down beneath it.  Another 5 pictures live here on this page alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The back inside cover is the perfect place for a standout photo of a beautiful prairie sunset.  I double-matted it to show it off even more.

 

 

 

I kept embellishments to a minimum on this album because the pictures tell the story quite nicely on their own, and because I wanted the book to shut without bulging or bowing.  If you wanted to add bulkier embellishments, it would be a simple thing to increase the gussets in your hinge system and to widen the spine a little.

 

So that's my Autumn Treasure mini-album.  Thanks for stopping by to share it with me, and I hope it has inspired you to go cut up some chipboard and get gluing!  Cheers!