Articles : Tutorials - Scrapbooking

Make a Mini Album in Minutes!

...and How to use Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Flock!

Class Title:  Make a Mini Album in Minutes and How to use Doodlebug Stick It Products with Crushed Velvet Flock

Inspiration: While looking for a mini album for a gift, I couldn't find the exact premade album that I wanted to work with. I like to keep my gifts simple and inexpensive!

Class Objective:  It's a quick way to take all of the guesswork out of a mini album. I see this as an inexpensive, fun, and fast way to make gifts for Grandma, a thank you for a teacher, or an album for a friend! And if you learn a new technique with some fun products along the way, then all the better!

Materials:

	My Sunshine Sun Spots 41-11940
	My Sunshine Paisley Punch 41-11938
	My Sunshine Sunny Days 41-11942
	My Sunshine Sunburst Stripes 41-11941
	My Sunshine Flower Patch 41-11934
	My Sunshine Accessory Sheet 41-11943
	Accents Adhesive Transfers 133-01914
	Loopy Lou Alpha Adhesive Transfers 133-01915
	Tangerine Crushed Velvet Flock 133-01789
	Bon Bon Crushed Velvet Flock 133-01796

Five papers from My Mind's Eye...these are pretty heavy cardstock papers, which is a requirement for this project. I have 11 fall themed 4 x 6 photos which Pam (4peasinourpod) was generous enough to share with me for this album so I know that this will be plenty of paper. One sheet of matching diecut extras from the same line. Two packages of Doodlebug Stick With It stickers...one of letters, one of their shapes and extras, and two different colors of Doodlebug Crushed Velvet flock.

After receiving my papers, I dug through my stash to see what else I wanted to use on the mini. I found these supplies: 

Some flowers, buttons, ribbon, lace and a few journaling stickers.  I will also use embroidery floss, a brown ink pad, my alphabet stamps, a glue pen, some pop up dots and a brown fine tipped marker.

So, now that we have our supplies gathered, let's get started! 

The first step is to cut off that cute My Mind's Eye border along the bottom of your Patterned Paper. SAVE IT! We will be using it for embellishing!

Next, you will cut each of the sheets of Patterned Paper into two pieces 6" x 12"...you will be folding this in half again, to make your pages 6" x 6"...be aware of the direction your stripes are going if it matters to you.

The stripes on the paper on the far left would really bug me if they were going across my page, so I made sure to cut the paper so that they were going up and down.

Once you have all of the papers cut in half, take a look at your photos with the papers and start to think about which you like best for your album covers (front and back). I wanted mine to match and I like the look of the plaid, so I pulled both 6" x 12" sheets of that to start with.  After that, it's just mixing and matching!

Next, you will fold each 6 x 12 sheet so that you have two 6 x 6 squares back to back. Make sure that you are only folding as many 6 x 12 pages as you have photos for, unless you would like to add extra pages for lots of journaling. I forgot to take a photo of mine before placing photos on them, but you can see what I'm talking about here: 

Your fold will be the outside edge of the page because it is sturdier. The two loose edges will be made sturdy when you place them together with your binding process. Choose the order of your photos and start placing them on the pages. I started my photos on the inside page of my front cover. You can see that a 4 x 6 photo is going to take up the majority of the page (more sturdiness!) As it happens, all of my photos are landscape (or across). If you have portrait style photos (up and down) remember that you will have about an inch of the inside edge that won't be easily visible when we put the book together.

Continue until you have placed all of the photos on the pages.  Once the photos were on, I dragged my ink pad around all of the edges of my pages over the photos and all.

Now, let's start to embellish! YAY! My favorite part!

For the cover I've decided to use the strip that we cut off the patterned paper. I know that I will use a diecut across the middle of the page, so I can cover any seams with that! First of all, I cut a 4 x 6 piece of the floral paper, and placed that on the cover with 1" on both the top and bottom of the page. Then, I cut two 6" pieces of lace to cover the seam. It needed more, so I took the My Mind's Eye logo strip and cut a 3" piece off of each end. Take those two pieces and lay them over the top of the lace...you will need two of those strips to do both the top and bottom border of the front cover, like so!

Now let's get to work on the Title Spot for our book. I chose the blue journaling tag because it is big enough to put a good size title on, and it will cover those seams in the My Mind's Eye logo strips!

Once you've decided on your title, you have to work to see how it will fit on your tag. These Doodlebug letters are so fun, but they do take up a bit of space, so you have to allow for that. I didn't think it would all fit, so I decided to layer another tag for some interest. Oh, hey...back up...do you see the edge of the tag? I thought it would be really cool to add some flock to that to give it dimension. What do you think? I used a glue pen to trace the inside line of the border, then just poured the flock on in small clumps. Make sure that your glue is not soaking wet, or you will move it around when trying to place the flock. I used a Martha Stewart glue pen that I got with some glitter from WalMart for this. 

You may be able to see in the first photo, that I used a sheet of wrap from my stickers to create a flocking work surface. This made for easy clean up because it rolled up easy to put the excess flock back in the tube. When using the flock, you want to make sure you get full coverage. I found it to be harder to place on my surfaces than glitter, but MUCH easier to clean up. The secret is that you have to push the flock into your sticky surface. The stickers come with a craft stick, but I found it easier to use my finger to just press the flock in. If you want more coverage, press a large clump of flock...if you want lighter coverage, you can drag the flocking across the sticker or your glue to get a more thin coating of it.  Once you get all of your letters flocked, shake off the excess and make sure everything is covered. If it's not...press more flocking on the bare spots. I decided to add a little more dimension to my letters by outlining them with my fine point pen.

Here is a close-up of my finished cover

As you can see, I placed the finished title tag over those seams (I used Pop dots to lift it up a bit), added a button to the small diecut, and layered a few flowers to add to the bottom corner. I love that skinny ribbon for tying my large buttons!

Here is the full shot of the front cover

Turn that over, and let's get started on the inside!

For the left hand page, I inked all of the edges. I cut a 6" piece from the diecut orange floral strip and placed it over the seam between the photo and the page. I doodled and outline on that with my white pen. I then placed a shorter piece of ricrac along the top edge of that. Because this is a casual, homey album, I used a staple to hold that down. I then layered two of the diecut flowers, doodled on them, and finished them off with a tied button. I used a Fontwerks label sticker and my stamps to add some journaling to this page. If you don't have label stickers, you can use some plain cardstock to cut a tag.

For the right hand side, I again inked all of the edges. I used a piece of ribbon along the seam, folded the diecut tab and stapled it to the edge (make sure you place it where it won't detract from your photo on either page), flocked with orange around the edge of the floral tag and layered a  sticker under the edge of the tag. You can embellish as much or as little as you like...it's your album!

For the left hand side, I inked the edges, I used a 6" piece of the diecut plaid scalloped strip and covered the seam with the thin ribbon. I placed tied buttons on the tab that I started on the last page. I then placed a journaling sticker on the border for my title. When I realized that the word Beauty wouldn't fit on my sticker, I added a diecut flower to finish off the title. You could just let it extend over the ends of your sticker, but I liked the more finished look of the flower. I used the orange flock for the letter stickers, and again, outlined them with my fine point pen. I wanted these two pages to flow together well, so I continued with the borders that I used on the left hand side. I then added a journaling sticker which I left blank for Pam to include a few details of her daughter's field trip. I finished off the page with a few flowers and buttons.

You can continue to embellish the album as you like, or you can follow along with my details from here.

For the left hand side of this, I used a 6" piece of ribbon to cover the seam, and then I layered a journaling sticker with one of the sticker frames from the Doodlebug Stick It package. I added the brown Crushed Velvet flock to the scalloped frame.

On the right hand side, I used the rest of the orange die cut for the seam, three of the diecut flowers (which I flocked around the center) added some tied buttons and a diecut tag.

For the left hand side of this page, I used a 1" x 6" strip of the dotted paper, which I made a scalloped edge on. I then added the blue ribbon over the seam. For the tag on this one, I placed the Doodlebug Stick It Frame on the yellow floral paper then flocked it with the brown Crushed Velvet Flock. After flocking, I cut around the edge of it all, placed it on the page, added a journaling sticker and a layered flower. I then added a bow tied with the blue ribbon. Here is a detailed photo of that:

For the right hand side, I continued the blue ribbon across the page. I then added the large diecut flower with a button center. I used the glue pen again to flock around the edges of the brackets and then used them to draw attention to Pam's daughter picking the apple from the tree.

On both sides of this page, I used the striped diecut to cover the seam. I added the red ribbon over the top of that. On the left hand side, I placed three little journaling stickers to add some words. Again, if you don't have the journaling stickers, you could use some cardstock and ink the edge! I really like how the orange Crushed Velvet flock looks with the flower I added to this page. 

On the right hand side, I layered a few die cuts; the flower and the tag and added the journaling sticker to make a neat little cluster. I added the initial with the Doodlebug Stick With It letter sticker and some stamping for the word. If you don't have alphabet stamps, you could use small letter stickers, rubons or your own handwriting!

Here's a close-up of that cluster.

For my last page, I place ribbon over the seam and added some flock to the diecut tag. I then placed a few flowers on the tag and left it blank for Pam to journal. Isn't that photo of her daughter adorable???

So, now that you have all of the pages complete, you're going to use a hole punch or CropADile to punch the holes in your pages so that we can put them together. I will use three ribbons to tie mine together, but I have used as many as five. You could also use eyelets if you don't trust the sturdiness of the pages. Or you could use the rings from the office supply store to hold it together...your choice!

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this class with me! I hope you've learned a few techniques and that an album doesn't have to be elaborate to be beautiful! If you have any questions about a technique or I have forgotten a step, please feel free to email me at lalafiore@msn.com.