Good morning, everyone! I am back for week 2 of our mini album tutorial 🙂 Well, I have to be honest…I did not make as much progress on the mini album as I had originally hoped or planned 🙁 On the upside…there are all sorts of things we learn along the way 🙂
So…this week, we will cut and prepare all of the patterned paper for the mini album pages. As you probably already figured out, I chose to use BoBunny’s Weekend Market paper collection. Because this paper line is quite masculine, I expect to use alot of gears, chain, eyelets and other manly metal bits. For this reason, I chose not to adhere the patterned paper to my pages quite yet. I like to attach gears and such to my patterned paper using brads before I adhere it to the mini album pages. We will also cut and adhere some of our matting to our tags.
Throughout this week’s tutorial, I continue to share my creative process, including both the things that worked…and the things that didn’t quite go as planned 😉 All in all, we will go over:
- the dimensions for all of the matting for the mini album pages and tags,
- how to cut your patterned paper to accommodate angles and notches (used for finger pulls) on your pages,
- how I add a splatter effect to my pages,
- a super easy no-fail way of centering your patterned paper every time, and
- I even get a little side-tracked and go over how to make your corner chompers work like new again (mine had become rather pesky and started to grab).
I also cover 3 design principles that you can use to take your projects to a whole new level:
- balance – evenly distributing elements (color, pattern, etc) throughout your mini,
- unity – using similar design elements throughout your mini to make it cohesive, and
- variety – adding unexpected elements throughout your mini to add more interest.
I will warn you now…this may be a long tutorial series! I will be going all out on this mini album, packing each week with a ton of useful information (well, I hope you will find it useful) even if we don’t move quite as quickly as I would otherwise like. …so, let’s get into the materials you’ll need this week…
Materials
- patterned paper
- solid colored cardstock (I use ivory and kraft)
- Scor-tape
- distress ink (for distressing the edges of your wallpaper, if desired)
- shimmer spray (I swear by Lindy’s Stamp Gang)
- paper distresser
- paper trimmer
- metal-edged ruler
- exacto knife
- corner rounder
- 1-¾” circle punch
- heat tool (optional)
Instructions
Well…I really couldn’t share my creative process in its entirety without recording a video for you, so that is exactly what I will continue to do throughout this tutorial series 🙂 …and I will make it super easy for you again…here goes:
Measurements
Front of Pages 1, 3 and 5:
Three pieces of patterned paper required:
- 1 @ 2¾” x 5¾”
- 2 @ 3¼” x 5¾”
Back of Pages 1, 3 and 5:
Three pieces of patterned paper required:
- 3 @ 8¾” x 5¾”
Front of Pages 2, 4 and 6:
Four pieces of patterned paper required:
- 3 @ 8¾” x 5¾”
- 1 @ 5¾” x 2¾” (with corner cut @ 45º to match pocket on page)
Back of Pages 2, 4 and 6:
Four pieces of patterned paper required:
- 1 @ 3¼” x 5¾”
- 3 @ 5¾” x 5¾”
Tags:
For each of the 3 “booklet” tags in the front of pages 1, 3 and 5:
- 2 pieces of patterned paper @ 4″ x 5¼”
- 2 pieces of ivory cardstock @ 4″ x 5¼”
For each of the six 5½” x 8″ tags on the front of all pages:
- 2 pieces of patterned paper @ 3¾” x 5¼”
- 1 piece of kraft cardstock @ 7¾” x 5¼”
For each of the nine 5½” x 8″ tags in the ends of all the pages:
- 1 piece of patterned paper @ 3¼” x 5¼”
- 1 piece of ivory cardstock @4¼” x 5¼”
- 1 piece of kraft cardstok @ 7¾” x 5¼”
For each of the three 5¼” x 8″ tags on the back of pages 2, 4 and 6:
- 2 pieces of patterned paper @ 3¾” x 5″
- 1 piece of kraft cardstock @ 7¾” x 5″
For each of the three 5½” x 5¾” tags on the back of pages 2, 4 and 6:
- 1 piece of patterned cardstock @ 5¼” x 5½”
- 1 piece of kraft cardstock @ 5¼” x 5½”
I hope you were able to stick it our with me this week and learned something new that you can use on all of your projects going forward. Next week, I look forward to getting into learning a few techniques that I like to use in my mini albums to take them to a whole new level…and hopefully we’ll even get into the nitty gritty and start embellishing some of the pages 🙂 Thanks for sticking with me this week. Cheers!
You are amazing! I just came across your videos last night and have spent hours watching you! (no joke) I have learned soo much from you! You truly are a paper crafting goddess! Thank you for inspiring me to do more albums! Absolutely love all that I have seen so far and I have so many more to watch! Big hugs to you!
Thanks for all the tips – I’ve never tried the strip of adhesive down the middle but that looks like a brilliant idea that I will definitely give a go. Right, I’m off to the next video.
Where can you get the lube stick you used on your crop a dile
Marilyn, I purchased mine from RioGrande.com. Before you do that though, it might be worth trying a bar of soap, deodorant or even chapstick…no guarantees on how that will work, though. Cheers! Monique