5 Tips to Make a Pretty Mini Album with Angela

Hello crafty friends,

It's Angela here showing you a mini album made with the gorgeous Family Heirlooms collection by BoBunny.  If you are new to scrapbooking mini album or, for any reason, don't feel comfortable with this type of project, let me share with you five tips that will make the easiest mini album the prettiest.

The size of the mini is 7 x 9 x 2 inches. It has a hard cover that I made with a piece of chipboard and covered with three different papers from Family Heirlooms collection, one light color for the outside cover, one darkest for the spine and a third different one for the inside cover.

The first tip I would give you to make a pretty mini album is to vary the size of the pages. Make some pages longer, smaller and wider. 

You can also vary the shape of the pages, for example including a half circle page. You can even vary the size of the cover like I did in my mini where the front cover is narrower than the back cover.

The second tip is to include pockets. Making a pocket is very easy and it's fun to create hidden spaces where adding journaling or mirabilia.

In the pocket section I would reserve a special place to envelops. You can use real envelops or creating your own like I did here, using the WRMK 1-2-3 Punch Board. 

To give even more interesting and secure its content, I created a closure with two brads and a piece of twine. This, introduce to my third tip.

Add texture using twine. Think of any twine, string, ribbon, fabric and lace. I used a piece of velvet ribbon for the closure of the mini and a piece of lace under the embellishments.

Also stitching is a great plus. You could stitch an embellishment or the profile of a page or close a pocket with a regular or a zigzag stitch.

The forth tip is about the embellishments themselves. Play with the embellishments! Let the embellishments guide you to create the page.

On the above page, I created a kind of notebook with a piece of patterned paper just to give a place to that beautiful fountain pen die-cut. On the page below, I folded the Family die-cut following the tile shapes of the design.

We arrived to my last tip, the fifth. This is the most creative of the tips I listed till now and it's definitely the one that I prefer.

Tip 5: include unexpected elements!

It isn't that difficult, sometimes it is the design of the patterned paper itself that guide you. What about a mini in the mini?

I made a little accordion mini album out of paper Family Heirlooms Ancestors and glued it on the circle page. Isn't it fun?

To secure it and avoid the accidental opening, I made a closure using again a piece of twine and a brad.

And what about buttons? 

These Vintage Buttons cards were a wonderful opportunity to include in the mini album a few of my granny buttons.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed the Family Heirlooms album I made and hopefully found some inspiration from my tips. Happy crafting my friends!

BoBunny supplies:

Patterned Papers: Family Heirlooms/ Keepsakes/ Pedigree/ Heritage/ Trinkets/ Generations/ Ancestors/ Origins/ History/ Lineage/ Traditions

Double Dot: Natural Necessities 6x6 paper pad

Cardstock Stickers: Family Heirlooms

Chipboard Stickers: Family Heirlooms

Layered Chipboard: Family Heirlooms

Noteworthy: Family Heirlooms

Brads: Family Heirlooms

Stamps: Rose Garden

Double Dot Pearlescents: Blush/ Coral

Other Supplies:

AC Sticky Thumb dimensional foam adhesive/ sticky dots

WRMK Precision 5" scissors

WRMK 1-2-3 Punch Board

Envelope Notebook using Garden Grove with Denise

Hello BoBunny Fans

I hope that you are all staying safe and well in these trying times.

Today I am sharing an envelope notebook/mini album using the beautiful Garden Grove.

I am absolutely infatuated with little envelope notebooks, folios and mini albums currently and they have brought me such joy and fun in the creative process.

They are also fabulous little gifts and a great way to use up old envelopes and little scraps and bits of paper.

If you look on the web there are many tutorials on how to create these envelope notebooks/mini albums and so today I am not going to show you how to make one, but I would like to share some tips and tricks with you.

If you use older envelopes, you might find that they are rather thin, especially on the folds. So one way that you can re-inforce them, is with washi tape. This ensures that they won't split and will stay intact through all the opening and folding. See below.

When making these notebooks, one also does not want too much bulk and so even though you add papers, photo's, pockets etc. a way of adding elements, without bulk, is stamping. These are lovely design elements and don't add bulk.

In this notebook/album I added a little booklet of different sized papers etc. for journalling. This is a great way to use up little bits and pieces of patterned paper, of different sizes. I sewed the little booklet insert together and then adhered the back page to the notebook.

Here is a look at the sewn centre below. I, again, added stamping and drew some pencil lines for journalling.

I did create some pockets and for this pocket below, I added a stamped sentiment tag.

A great way to add interest on pockets, is by creating a punched edge, as shown below. I used eyelets and thin twine for the tags.

A design element that I use over and over and is so simple to do, is to use a fine-liner to go around the edges of the pages. It just gives them a finished and clean look. Faux stitching on the pockets also adds interest and is also a really easy design element. 

I created a little video to show you all the little pockets, booklet and elements of this notebook/album.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by the BoBunny blog today and I hope that you are inspired to try something like this too! If you are like me, you may have quite a bit of time now to craft and time to spend at home. It is definitely food for the soul.

Have a fabulous day!

Denise x

BoBunny Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Grove, Adorable, Ambiance, Flutter, Postcards, Remember, Tranquility, Vibrant / Garden Grove

Stamps: Of Times Past, Family Heirlooms, Flourishes & Such, Expressions

Layered Chipboard: Garden Grove

Washi Tape: Garden Grove

Candy Dots: Family Heirlooms

Spring Mini Album with Elena

Hello BoBunny Friends, it's Elena's turn to bring you a Spring inspiration with Garden Grove collection.

I found a Cascade fold chipboard mini album in my stash and chose it because of the acrylic tulip on the cover.

I covered the tulip with the paper and colored the acrylic part with the alcohol inks.

Last year on April we traveled to Georgia  - a country in Caucasus with an ancient history. So I used a few photo shots made there.

  Since the trees started blooming that time it was such a pleasure to enjoy the colors and the mountains.

To keep the memories I used Harmony thickers to fix the month we have been there.

 It was the week before Easter and I wanted to fix it too, so added the Bunny layered chipboard.

We visited the monastery with a beautiful garden  before our climb on Kazbek mountain.

Everywhere in the old city Tbilisi  wisteria was blooming, so I couldn't  miss it

BoBunny Products:

Patterned Paper: Garden Grove/ Blanket, Tranquility, Happiness, Vibrant, Adorable, Ambiance, Garden Grove

Layered Chipboard and Brads: Garden Grove

American Crafts:  

Thickers  - Harmony, Count the Ways, Time and Place

Sticky Thumb

Ribbon Birthday Card with Denise

Hello BoBunny Fans

It's Denise here today, to share a special ribbon Birthday card with you.

I used the Garden Grove stamp to create various backgrounds and features for this card.

I created a little tie for this card too, as a feature and also to keep the card neatly closed.

This card houses 3 tags in a little pocket for various messages and sentiments, along with lots of other areas for messages etc. and perhaps a little more personalized stamping,

Above is what the card looks like without the tags in the pocket and below is a look at the 3 individual tags.

I am going to use this card for a very special 50th Birthday for my sister, where I will add some photo's, messages and little sentiments.

I also created a video tutorial to show you the creative process.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by the blog today! I hope you were inspired and got some seeds of inspiration.

Have a fabulous day!

Denise x

BoBunny Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Blanket, Postcards, Flutter/ Garden Grove

Cardstock: Country Blue Double Dot

Stamps: Garden Grove, Sweet Celebrations

Garden Grove Layout with Elena

Hello BoBunny Friends, hope you are enjoying the Springtime

I like the Springtime for it's colors and specially for the first flowers. All these you can find in a brand new collection Garden Grove

I have enjoyed the fussy cutting process while creating this Layout. I mixed large flowers with the smaller ones, and arranged everything around the photo of my daughter.

Never thought that you need to have a patience for this since it was quite easy to do.

I combined the flowers from several paper sheets and I love how they match each other. Also I used the card and it has a watercolor butterfly wing that I attached to the photo to create the feeling of a girl with the wings. It has almost suit the color of the hoodie my girl wore.

To keep the butterfly presence I cut out several butterflies too.

And added a few small vines  around the flowers clusters . Adore to work on the details.

BoBunny Products used:

Patterned Papers : Garden Grove/ Flutter, Adorable, Remember, Lovely, Happiness.

American Crafts:

Sticky Thumb Runner