Arnold Grummer's Spring Mini Album

Hello, Peggy here to show you how I made this wonderful little mini album

to be filled up with some pictures of spring. It's in the air isn't it?

Well, OK, a little early for some but here in British Columbia

on Vancouver Island we are in full bloom!

List of supplies for today's tutorial: 

• Arnold Grummer's Paper Making Kit
• Magnolia Casting Mold
• Chipboard for the Covers and Spine
• Double sided tape
• Liquid Glue
• Gelato's
• Envelope Punch Board
• White Cardstock
• Tags Die 
• Polymer Clay (White)
• Acrylic Paint 

I made some wonder full paper again with my Arnold Grummer's Paper Making Kit.  This time I made my sheets a bit thinner to be able to manipulate the paper around my chipboard easily.  I also used an iron to dry my sheets as last time I made paper I air dried. They came out much flatter.
I used my chipboard from the sticky notes kit for the front, spine and back covers. I taped my edges with double sided tape to make my handmade paper adhere. This picture below is a bit blurry but I thought I would include it as it shows my placement for the chipboard and the space allowance (1/8th of an inch) for the covers to close.

Below is my paper after being  taped down. 

Next I made four envelopes with my envelope punch board.

These tiny envelopes are perfect for my envelope mini. 

Then I made a hidden hinge system to place my envelopes onto to create pages in my book.

 I adhered the bottom of each envelope to the binding system. I placed a slit in the bottom of each envelope to slide onto the tabs. I ended up cutting off the top of each envelope as well to act as pockets. 

Next I made some tabs for each tag that I wanted to pull out of the envelopes. I used a Tim Holtz Die to cut these and I adhered them to each tag. I lined each tag with a matching cardstock.

On the front of my Mini Album I had made a Magnolia Paper Cast. 

It gave me a lot of texture but I was looking for more definition. 

This photo below shows the hidden hinge system perfectly. 

So in the end I went ahead and made a cast from the same Magnolia Casting 

mold with Polymer Clay. I colored it with acrylic paint.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial. I love these products as they are so 

easy to use and easy to follow directions.

You can receive 20% off using this coupon code: EARTH20 for the month of march at checkout on the Arnold Grummer Web Site. 

Mini Album Cover

Here is a sneak peak of the album cover. I found some moss on the beach a couple years ago with a leaf of seaweed imbedded in it. I made the flower on the top from cardstock, eight layers of scalloped circles spayed with homemade glimmer mist and scrunched up. The trim I colored,  came from my daughters dress that was too small. There is also some lace from the same dress that I colored with copics. The tassle on the side came from a recycled card and the brown metal came from a candle. The cherish embelishment is Making Memories Vintage Sentiment. The button on the stamped acitate tag was snipped to make flat. All the green lace is from the dollar store. The papers I used are from K&Company Classic double sided designer paper.

Second page I used my cricut to cut our the bird cage and destressed it with Tim Holtz distress inks. Tiny gold gems on the top and bottom from dollar store. I cut out a flower from the lace on the dress and placed it on the bird cage. The two layers of designer paper on the bottom were ripped and distressed with inks. All six 4x6 tags that slide out are made with the same designer paper from K&Co. I made my own tabs by folding a separate piece of designer paper and puched a hole with the crop-a-dile and eyelets set.

My First Envelope Mini Album

I selected  six regular letter envelopes for this project

First I glued the envelope shut. Then I cut the envelope about a third and used the larger size keeping the smaller piece for another pocket. Also, I cut the edge off the opposite end to give me a tube like pocket. One end to go into the binding and one end for me to place tags.

Here I cut and taped my "Stack the Deck" binding method taught by Laura on "Following the Paper Trail" sizes as shown and scored on those measurements. The length is determined by your envelope width. You want your binding to be slightly smaller to slide into your envelope.

here they are right side up ready for Stacking on top of one another smallest to largest. Then sticky taping on each edge.

Here shows each edge taped after stacking and now placing the envelopes inside each edge.

now placing my tube like envelope into the binding and adhearing to the sides of each edge.

This is what it should look like after all six envelopes are inserted into the binding with equal distribution of pages.

Here I have prepared a chipboard cover. I measured my envelope widths and left a quarter of an inch above/below and on the sides of my covers for embellishment room.

 I chose some patterned paper to cover it. I left two chipboard thicknesses between the back spine and the front and back cover so it would close properly. Then I folded the patterned paper over the edge and sticky taped it down. Then covered the inside of the covers.

Here is my paper covered book ready to embellish.

This shows my "stack the deck binding system" ready to be placed into the book covers.

More pictures to come when it is completed with embellishments,tags and photo mats.

Most of my inspiration came from searching UStream and YouTube Videos on "envelope mini albums" and "paper bag mini's". Now I am really into making my own paper flowers for this album.