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Monday, October 1, 2012

Fall Mini Album


Happy Fall Ya'll !   This is Debbie O'Neal aka ScrapHappyDeb of Debs Electic Thoughts Blog. Our Cricut FANatics October theme is  FALL  (Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving projects of any type).  Our designers, of course, are free to share any type of project in October but I wanted to show you a FALL project.

I just love the colors of fall...warm reds, orange, browns, tans, etc.  Plus Fall items always seem to have a lot of texture too don't they?  So my project is a Fall Mini Album album I made recently for a swap I was in on the Circle MB.  I tried hard to incorporate the feeling and texture of fall in to it.

I used the new Mini Books Cricut Cartridge to create the mini album base. If you haven't bought this cartridge yet, I am issuing an enabling alert !  LOL   You will want to own this cartridge after seeing how easy it is to make one of the mini albums included.
I selected the Mini Book Accordian Album on page 13 of the handbook. The assembly directions are on page 27 of the handbook.
 
I wanted my book to be 6" wide so I cut it at 6".  But that meant that the length was longer than
a regular 12X12 mat so I used the 12X24 mat and a white poster board cut in half so I could make the cover as long as was needed.  
The cover was then folded at the scoring marks to create a 6 X 6 square.  Notice there
is a little tab where the open end of the cover is tucked.
Next I cut the three pieces at 6" that form the inside of the album again using the larger mat and poster board.  Once the three pieces were cut, you adhere them to create the accordian fold shown above.
Next I adhered one end of the accordian fold inside the cover. Then repeated with the other end on the opposite side of the inside cover.  This forms the base of your mini album.  It creates 8 pages for your book.
 
Now on the the fun part...decorating the mini album !
I used the patterned paper and journaling cards from the new Simple Stories Harvest Lane line.  Yummy colors and patterns in this fall line were perfect for my Fall album.  I covered the square album pages by cutting the patterned papers and solid colored cardstock into 5 3/4" X 5 3/4" squares and inked the edges and adhered to each page of the album.  For the outside cover of the album
I  hand cut the patterned paper for the curved piece of the album cover.  Where that little flap was cut, I used my exacto knife to make the slice in the patterned paper so it could still be used.  I put some jute twine in a button and then used a glue dot to adhere it to the little flap.
 As I mentioned above, I cut the squares of patterened paper and cardstock and adhered to each page to form the base.  I used some Washi Tape to adhere some of the cute paper embellishments and journaling cards to the inside of the album pages.
You can see here where I made sure an added the Washi Tape on both sides of the journaling card so that it now flips over in the book like a page.  I even added some Washi Tape as a bit of embellishment on the cardstock page.
I repeated the process of alternating cardstock pages and patterned paper through out the album and the journaling cards and Washi tape.
It was fun alternating the patterns and colors.
On the last page I made a pocket out of cardstock cut from page 16 and embellished it with some Washi Tape.  Instead of the tag for the pocket, I used one of the SS Harvest Lane Bingo cards and added a button with jute twine to it for the free space on the card.
 
To finish off the cover there is a band that goes around the mini album.  I used a gold foil paper and the Autumn Type Cuttlebug folder to emboss it.  Layered some felt flowers I cut out with my Cuttlebug and used a button with jute for the center of the flowers.  I tied some just to the other end of the band to fnish it off. 
 
Since this project was for a swap, I also included the matching set of embellishment stickers and alphas and a baggie of embellishments so the receiver could add the final touches to the mini album to match the photos they put in it. 
 
I can hardly wait to make more mini albums using this cartridge !!!  Happy Fall Ya'll
 
Cricut Info and Supplies Used: 
Designed By: Debbie O'Neal aka ScrapHappyDeb
Cricut Machines Used: Expression and Cuttlebug
Cricut Cartridges Used: Mini Books
Other Supplies Used: Autumn Type Embossing Folder, Simple Stories Harvest Lane Paper and journaling cards, felt, gold foil cardstock, buttons, jute twine, ink, washi tape
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

35 comments:

  1. Cute, cute, CUTE!

    Darn you DEBBIE - enabling me with this post. I'll have to dash out to Michael's and see if they still have one left (since there's a sale there this week up in Canada).

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  2. I have been looking at this cartridge but just didn't know exactly how it would work out on mini albums. I love how yours turned out so guess what? This cartridge is now on my wish list! What wonderful presents for any occasion but especially now with Christmas coming up!

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  3. Love this project! I didn't think that I would like this cartridge until I saw what you had done with it! TFS

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  4. Adorable album and the colors are perfect for fall. I'm adding that cart to my wish list for sure.

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  5. WOW!!! I bought this cartridge thinking it was just going to add to my collection, now I want to make some mini books. Thanks for sharing how easy it is to make them.

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  6. Fabulous. I'm so excited. I just bought this cartridge on eBay. I was sort of questioning if i made a smart decision. i can see I did and now I can't wait for it to get here. Woot woot. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  7. wow! awesome mini! love all of the embellies!

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  8. Love your fun mini!! Thanks for enabling -- I have to add that cart to my list.

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  9. So pretty...great paper and embellishing! Lee-Ann :)

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  10. What beautiful colors on the papers. Such a fun album...now I do want this cart!

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  11. I love this mini!! Wonderful job!

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  12. Love it - yes I agree this cartridge is well worth it. I love the mini album. Great job - loving the fall colors. Perfect..

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  13. This is fantastic! I really like the ease of making the album and the way you decorated it!

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  14. I LOVE it!! It's a beautiful mini album. Love the idea of including the extras for your swap partner. Someone is going to be very lucky to get this. :)

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  15. your mini album is gorgeous!!!!

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  16. Great project! I've been looking for a good reason to get this cart. I think I found it.......

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  17. Debbie,
    Awesome album! This is a super way to celebrate Fall! I love the mini album and the way you designed it!

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  18. This is a beautiful book, thanks for the instructions I have the cartridge and did not use it yet but you made it look easy. Thank You

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  19. What a fun mini. You're making me want this cart :-)

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  20. Debbie this mini is adorable. I've been pinning every mini I see on Pinterest lately because it seems to be my "new" obsession. Now I have yours to pin. Thanks for the ideas.

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  21. Debbie, I Love your mini!! So Totally Awesome!!

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  22. This mini album is awesome. I have the cartridge and it is great to see how you used it.

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  23. your mini album is adorable. you made it look so easy. have just looked past this cartridge but your making me think that I may need to take a second look at it.

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  24. Great mini album Deb! Nice colors too. Your swap partner will just love it! I will have to get this cart now. :)

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  25. Love your mini album. I've been wanting to use this cartridge, thanks for the inspiration!

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  26. AWESOME!!!! I know I need this cart but I just haven't gotten it yet...thanks for the push!

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  27. I am so glad you did this project! I have this cart but hadn't seen anything done with it. This is fantastic!!

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  28. I need this cart! Love it!

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  29. Great info Deb, thank you so much!
    Now to put that cart to work...soon. lol

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  30. Great job on the album. I bought this cart thinking my school kids could make themselves a memory album and you just helped me to see how easy it will be to get them started on one. Thanks

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  31. I bought the digital copy. Is there somewhere to download the "handbook"? I think I need the directions ;). Thanks!

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  32. I figured it out.... sorry. Thanks for the example.

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