First mini album

Well - you old hands will probably laugh at this, but I have been in a week long experiment.  Many many  visits to blogs to see examples...  but I've finally muddled through to the end and can send this off to my friend Cindy.

Here is the story.  I found several different shaped chip board albums in the Michael's dollar bin... so I thought it was time to try a mini album.  Famous last words were, how hard could it be?   I am excited about the idea of the mini, but had some real execution issues.


First question - how do you make the paper the same shape as the chip board?  I traced around the shape...tedious.  Then I glued the shape first, put the paper on and then used scissors after the glue dried. Hmm, not happy with that either..  that was when I decided to use ribbon around the outside edge (new from Stampin Up).
I knew enough to use PVA glue - but needed to figure out how to keep the pages from curling up while they dried.  AH -  I put them between two Grand Calibur plates - and used the machine to weigh everything down.

So then what... where do the photos go?  I made some small flap pockets that either untie or flip out like matchbooks.  The inside reveal blank space for photos or journaling.

However, I still needed to find better real estate for photos.  I visited Rose, the queen of minis.  She showed me how to glue four small envelopes together and then make tag inserts for photos.

There are just three chip boards (6 pages) but it took me forever to put it together... or at least it seemed that way.  I ended up putting a rosette on every other page.   Realizing that if I put one of EVERY page, it was just too bulky.

I added pearls and made die cuts. Since I used materials from the new Stampin Up mini, it was easy to coordinate papers, ribbons, brads etc. But, fiddle fiddle faddle.  Enough is enough.  I put it into the box and sealed it up for mailing. Hands off now.