Gatefold mini album tutorial.....

Welcome back! Ok to start with you will need (10) 9"x6" envelopes. That will be 5 for each side. First off take and cut the glue flap completely off and then cut just a sliver off of the bottom so that it will be open. Then measuring from the bottom, make a score mark at 2 1/2" and fold.

You can see in this picture what it looks like once the pattern paper is on the envelope. But if you want to add a decorative border on all the left hand pages like I did please continue to read so I can show you how I did that.

Once you have cut the flap off of the sticky glue end. Cut a (5) 1" x 6" strips of white cardstock (can use whatever color you want too, I just used white) and then use a decorative edge punch the entire length of the strip. Then glue that to the flat front of your page on the end where the glue flap once was. Just like you see in the picture. I'll give you the dimensions of your pattern paper at the end of this tutorial to save you some time.

As you can see in this picture I have the patterned paper glued on top of where I placed the decorative punched strip. I also attached my binding before I added my pattern paper to give it a more clean crisp and finished look.

Here is how the binding goes on....... cut (10) 2" x 6" pieces of white cardstock (or whatever color you choose), then score all of those in half. I used my Bind-it-all to punch the holes but you could use a small hole punch and book binding rings if you like...either one would work. Then measuring from the end of the envelope where it has been folded over, measure 1/2" at the top and bottom and draw a pencil line. This will show you how far over to glue each binder strip on and all of them will be evenly placed for you once your album is complete.

Now it's time to cover all your envelopes here is what you will need.

(20) 6 1/4" x 5 3/4" pattern paper for the larger areas of the envelopes

(20) 2 1/4" x 5 3/4" pattern paper for the smaller pockets that were folded up from the bottom.

Ok that will cover all the envelopes now lets move on to the larger inside pockets where the factory opening (or glue flap used to be). First off I used a large hole punch and only went half way in at the center of each of those openings so that the tags that I put in there will be easier to pull out. I also added another little extra detail that you probably couldn't see in any of the pictures but you can see it when those larger tags are removed. I used a strip of pattern paper measuring 1 1/2" x 5 3/4" and glued that to the inside of the INSIDE upper edge of the factory open end so that when the tag is removed you wouldn't see just a plain white envelope. You would need 10 of those.

Then since I didn't put a decorative punched border on all the right hand side pages I decided to add just a strip of my scrap pattern paper and used that along the edge of each of those pages on the front and back......that strip will be added at the factory edge opening as well and those strips measure 1/2" x 5 3/4" and you will need (10) of those for the front and back. In the second picture from the top you can see where I added that strip of pattern paper.

For the tags that go inside the larger pocket, you will need (10) 6" x 5 3/4" pieces of either pattern paper or colored cardstock. I haven't made my tags yet for the smaller flap but you could use the office supply shipping tags or just make your own. Or you could make another larger tag and slip that in the 2 1/2" pocket. That's just all personal preference.

Now your ready to make your front and back covers. Here is the supply list that you will need:

(1) 10 1/2" x 7" medium weight chipboard

(2) 5 1/4" x 7" medium weight chipboard

(1) 11 1/2" x 8" pattern paper for back

(2) 6" x 8" pieces of pattern paper for front covers

Once all those are covered be sure before you punch your holes or use your Bind-it-all that all your pages are turned correctly. Now your ready to put your album together and decorate the front covers. You will notice that there will be a slight lap over of the 2 front covers. I did that on purpose so that once I put all my embellishments and photos in the album I would have some room to grow. To latch my covers together I used Tim Holtz hitch post and a plain hair band.

I do hope that this tutorial is descriptive enough but in case I've forgotten a step or overlooked something please feel free to leave a comment and I'll be glad to help. For all of my readers from overseas I do apologize for not having these measurements in metric form. But I'm hoping that you can use a converter to get the correct measurements. I was going to try it but I'm terrible at those kind of things and just knew that I would mess it allllll up.

I will continue to try to get the video up and on here for you all. It basically tells you everything that I just went over with you except I went into greater detail on this post than I did in the video.

I hope that if nothing else this inspires you to try making a mini album yourself and if you do please please send me a comment as to where I can view your creation. For many many years all that I would do were 12" x 12" scrapbooks that were store bought but now I'm just absolutely hooked on making these little mini albums. Although I love doing many other crafts as well. I bet my sewing machine thinks I've died cause it hasn't been used in almost a year now. YIKES! But with fall coming on I'm starting to feel the urge to get it back out and sew something up. But for now....I'm just having fun with paper.

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful wonderful day and God Bless.

My first Gatefold mini album.....

Hi everyone! I thought I'd share with you the mini album that I made yesterday. I tried my best to make a video to show you but for some reason I can't get it to load. Yes, I'm a newbie at you tube videos but I'm trying my best and still in the learning process of not only blogging but videoing as well now so just bare with me.
This is a gatefold album. I used 9" x 6" envelopes for it and have used 10 in total. I'll do a tutorial in the next post and will walk you through it as best I can with pictures. The paper I used was from K & Company and is the K-ology line. Plus I used Prima flowers, Tim Holtz metal embellishments and hitch for the closure as well as more K & Company embellishments.

This is what it looks like when you open it up. The pages alternate from the left to the right and intertwine. So in other words you open the left hand side page then the right hand side and so on and so forth.

This is what it looks like after opening the left hand side. You can see that the right hand side needs to be opened now to go further into the album. Also note that I didn't use the decorative border on any of the pages on the right hand side. I just left those plain so it would be easier to open up.

I'll walk you through these pages along with a short tutorial in my next post. But if you have ANY questions about any of it just leave me a comment and I'll be more than glad to help you in any way that I possibly can.

I haven't put ANY of the embellishments in this album yet cause I'm waiting til I print my pictures off from what I'll be taking this weekend at our family reunion. Plus I thought that it would be easier for you to see the basic structure if I showed it to you plain.

So stick around, the tutorial is on it's way....

Second try at adding videos.....

Hi everyone! Just thought that I would try my hand at making this video work like this for you instead of you having to click the link....please bare with me as this is a learning process for me. The little mini album was so fun and easy to make once I got the hang of it. I didn't think that I would ever be able to make it. But couldn't hardly wait to share it with you all. So hopefully this will work better for you. If I can get the hang of the videos I'll do more for you and can possibly walk you through the steps of making some of these creations.


UPDATE: I meant to say "I know that everyone has seen an exploding box" rather than saying and exploding card....I was nervous so forgive me.

Exploding envelope mini album....

Hi everyone! So glad to see that you made it back. I worked in the craft room all day Sunday on this little project. I had been watching a video on you tube about how to make one and decided that I would try it. It's an exploding box. It's made completely out of envelopes and card stock. I had seen the exploding cards but never had seen anything to where you could put pictures in it so I just had to try this.

Here it is opened. Now I knew that it would be near impossible for me to show you the full effects of this project unless I somehow came up with a way to video it and post it on here. So my little pea sized brain started thinking about how to do it. I knew it could be done cause so many other blogs have video on them but you have to remember....I'm not real computer savvy so just bear with me. It took me all day to get this figured out but I think and I repeat, I think that I have it right now. So the link below will show you the box in action and I talk a little more about the box itself and all it's function.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTO3AgcD0PI

Hope that you enjoy!