Hidden Hinge Album - Graphic 45 Voyage Beneath the Sea

This is a project I did last May for my friend Yvonne for her graduation gift. She graduated with her Bachelor's degree and her and her family went on a cruise as her graduation gift and I wanted to give her something that she could use to remember the trip.

I used the Graphic 45 Voyage Beneath The Sea papers that my friend Carmen had picked up for me at Tuesday Morning, don't ask me when because I have no idea! This is the first and only hidden hinge album I've made and I found the directions on YouTube from some lady that had a wonderful English accent! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be to make.

Here is a look at the album opened up so you can see all the wonderful colors and images. I made quite a few pockets and decorated tags for the pockets and since I wanted plenty of room for pictures most of the tags had photo spaces on both the front and back of the tags. 

I tried to leave some room in place so Yvonne could write things about the pictures if she wanted. I generally try to leave journaling spaces on mini albums as I think it is nice to have written descriptions about the pictures.

There were tags in the "between" spaces of some of the pages as well. All the white spaces were included so they could be used as templates to cut the pictures to size to fit on the mat or tag in the album. This picture shows how the tags in between the pages can be pulled out. I used a variety of twine and ribbon on the tags.

This is the same pages as the picture above but I wanted to show how the tags pulled out of the pocket. It's always difficult making areas for pictures with Graphic 45 paper because I always hate covering up the beautiful paper. 

You can click on the pictures to make them bigger if you want to see more detail. There is a lot of embellishment I would have liked to have done for the album but I always tried to be mindful of not making mini albums too thick with embellishments because to me albums are suppose to be about the memories of the pictures more than just decoration.

I do like how the hidden hinge albums give the opportunity to add so many little hidden ways to add tags and photo mats so there can be more pictures. I'm not even sure if Yvonne ever even put any pictures in this album and I never thought to ask her. I did tell her I would add the pictures for her if she wanted to get them printed.

A variety of picture sizes is always best in my opinion because sometimes you might want a close up  of a person or object and the smaller photo areas allow for those kind of images. The smaller mat areas can also be used for journaling. 

As you can see the album was pretty thick by the time I finished. This picture also shows the variety of twine and ribbon I used on the large tags. Most of the cording is Maya Road cording and I love that it can be frayed out to give a bit more interest.

This is the album opened. I generally don't decorate the back of an album much because I don't like wasting great images and embellishments on something that won't be seen as much. 

Graphic 45 Life's A Circus - Envelope Album

I had never made an envelope album before and I totally messed this one up but I still ended up liking it. I messed it up by not allowing spaces to add tags and such in the pockets of the envelope. Next time I make one I won't use as many envelopes so I'll be able to do the pockets and such.

Supplies Used:

A9 Envelopes

Graphic 45 Le Cirque

Various Cardstock

Black Acrylic Paint

Spellbinders Iron Motif Die

Various Stampin Up punches

Michaels Wedding Graffiti flowers

Hot Fix studs and rhinestones

Dollar Tree Pop Up Glitter Stickers

Various Ribbon

Maya Road Twine Cording

Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

Paper Studio Brads

Nuvo Jewel Drops

and probably some other stuff I don't remember

I love looking at all the Graphic45 projects people make and I would love to do one of those super fancy projects one day but the practical side of my brain always overrides the creative side of my brain. I have the need to make sure a project is usable and not just something to look at, especially if it is going to be handled frequently. This issue causes the pages in my albums to be fairly simple and flat.

Another need I have is to have enough spots for pictures. I mean it is an album for cheez-it's sakes and there should be pictures! I do try to balance it out on the pages and think of them as a small scrapbook page. I always include the white paper so people can remove it and use it as a template for their pictures as I know not everyone is a scrapbooker and might get nervous about adding pictures. Well even my friend Carmen is like that and she is a scrapbooker. I have given her mini albums over the years and the ones that have pictures in them are the ones that I printed off the pictures and put in there. She tells me "I don't want to mess it up". 

I always say one of the great things about Graphic45 paper is that there are so many elements that can be fussy cut and used on projects. It makes it so easy to embellish whatever project you are making. The tag on this left hand side has the Maya Road Twine Cording on it. I really love that stuff! It's thicker than regular bakers twine and I have used it on several projects as "rope".

One of the difficulties I have is not covering up the picture area too much since I don't know what pictures people will be using. I try to keep the elements from overlapping that area and have to finagle an embellishment around quite often until I get it to what I think is right.

I like to mix picture sizes up on the pages so it's not just all one size through out the album. I think this allows for some good group photos or some close up shots.

When I make albums I try to keep the back as flat as possible because that is where most people are going to be holding the album when looking at it and besides no one really looks at the backs of books so why work hard to decorate something that is usually ignored. 

I actually made 4 of these *okie knows there are some folks saying "of course she did"* and did them quite some time ago but never got them posted. I have another album I'll be posting soon that is using the Graphic 45 World's Fair collection.

Graphic 45 Bohemian Bazaar Mini Album

Who here knows how much I like to make mini albums? *okie sees almost every hand in the house go up* Okay then ya'll know me well!

This album took me over a year *okie thinks maybe two* to finish because I just kinda got stuck on it and I just boxed it up and put it away. I should say put them away because I made 4 of them, as usual for me! I think it was all the bright colors that were throwing me off with this one...it was like looking at a convention of hippies who crashed their love vans at an intersection!

I used a 6x6 acrylic album for this project. I had gotten a really good deal on these a few years ago. I paid $1, yes ONE DOLLAR, for each album and I think I ordered like 20 of them, or some ridiculous number. 

I did all the designing of the album in Make The Cut and then converted the images to SVG for cutting with the Explore in Design Space. The flowers on front are actually done with punches and I made them to mimic the flowers on the patterned paper. 

For the page on the left I made it to open up where more photos could be placed and this is a great little way to make more pictures fit in these albums. Before putting the picture mat down I tied some bakers twine around the mat and used a border punch on the strip on the bottom. On the right page I added brads for the flower centers. 

The flower on the left page was a punch and I spritzed it with water and wadded it up and then folded it back out and let it dry to give it the texture it has. The flower center is a  holographic glitter sticker that I found at Dollar Tree. On the right page I made a pocket so I could add tags. One of the tags is a journaling tag and the other has a place for a picture on the front and bag of the tag.  

When working with a small space it's hard to try and add more than one photo to a page but adding a small one works okay, you just have to make sure you leave enough room for the a decent picture to work on the larger one so the whole photo isn't covered up. On the left page I used a frame and when I designed the album I made sure to make sure the back side page had the same image.

When making a frame and using it on the front and back side of a page it allows some interest of being able to see through to other pages *okie hopes that makes sense but thinks the picture helps make the point*. I'm always trying to figure out unique embellishments and I think the little fence for the tag pocket on the right hand page turned out pretty cute.  

The flowers on the right hand side were cut with the Explore and once again I used brads for flower centers. I decided to use an oval frame on the left and once again the back side has the matching frame size. Oh you might notice too that I added little words on the tabs of the albums. I had to scour through my stamps to find once that worked with the theme. 

I did a few fussy cutting flowers for the page on the right and then a few punched flowers. One the right page has a flap that lifts up and pictures can be placed on the inside. 

I really don't like decorating the backs of albums because no one really looks at the backs of such things and when I do decorate I make it as flat as possible. There were a few items in the collection that made it pretty easy to add some decoration to the back. I did fussy cut a few flowers to add but didn't add any dimension to them.

Although it took me a long time to finish this album set out I was pretty pleased once I got them done. I gave one to one of my nieces' for her birthday and she loved it. I made sure to let her know the white cardstock pieces were to be removed and used as templates so she could cut her pictures to that size and place in the album. 

Mini Album Garden Theme

When Carmen came to visit back in March she brought me a mini album kit she found at Goodwill because she said it reminded her of me and she likely wouldn't ever put it together anyway. I had posted this on Facebook and my Aunt Betty said she loved it and that gave me the idea to scour my computer for pictures, print them off and then give the to my Aunt Betty and that is just what I did. She LOVED it!! Of course the pictures I have of the album don't have the family photos I put in but at least you can see how it looks. Oh and since it was a kit Carmen brought me I only made one...yes you read that right...I ONLY MADE ONE!

Pretty much everything the album is decorated with came with the kit. I think I only added some twine, washi tape, a bit of ribbon and stamped a few things, which may sound like a lot but it really isn't.

I had the chicken wire ribbon from another project and it went nicely on this album with the garden theme. The cover photo was one I had of my Aunt Betty and Uncle Perk from a Thanksgiving probably 10 years ago. 

I used my own ribbon on these pages but the other elements were in the kit, including the little charm. I think the seed packets were some of my favorite elements in the kit.

I tried to use as much of the kit as I could and there was a lot of chipboard elements that I could use and I still ended up with a few left over. 

The gingham pocket was included and I used a Bo Bunny background stamp to it for a little more interest. One of the tags in the pocket has Maya Road twine and the other has some burlap ribbon, which I wish I could find more of....I really like that stuff! I like the elements that had open space so Aunt Betty can add a little narration about the photo on the page if she so desires.

Sometimes I have a hard time remembering it's okay for elements to overlap pictures and I had to accept this with the watercan chipboard image because I really wanted to use it! I tried to keep the picture areas fairly large so I could use just about any photo I had to put in the album. 

I wasn't so sure about the fork and spoon chipboard image but it did work out okay on the pocket. I loved the image but wasn't sure it really went with the whole theme but since we eat what comes out of a garden I could justify using it. 

Trying to keep things interesting in mini albums is sometimes hard for me and I think it is because of the small size as well has having to come up with so many different looks so pages don't seem redundant.

Another thing I had to watch for while using the chipboard images was placing them so they didn't stack on top of each other when the album was closed so it would cut down on the bulk, it takes a lot of finagling *okie is shocked that finagling is an actual word and knows it has to be because she didn't get a red line under it when she typed it* due to the different size and shapes of the chipboard.  

On the back I tried to add something interesting but with no elements popping up so they didn't get torn off during handling. 

My Aunt Betty looked through the album several times when I gave it to her and I think she liked all the pictures I chose. I tried to include her kids and all her grandkids in a picture somewhere in the album and I think I did a pretty good job overall. We were having family game day the day I gave it to her and she made sure everyone got to see the album and it made me feel good that she was so proud of it!

Christmas Themed Acrylic Mini Album

I tried to get all fancy and edit the video I made but that just didn't work out too well. I hate that we are forced to change things that we know how to use and then can't find somthing similar, such as the Windows Movie Maker. Oh I could use it but it won't recognize the type of file my camera uses and well it was just one headache after another so I just uploaded the dang thing to Youtube "as is". Ya'll are gonna have to excuse my poor video skills...I know I really do suck at it.

The paper I used for the album is Basic Grey Wassail and was one of the first BG collections I purchased. Oh how I did use to love my Basic Grey! At least until they started getting some really funky patterns and by then I had started my love affair with Graphic 45.

Anyway here is video of the mini album and by golly someone better watch it because it a dang hour and a half to upload! I seriously went to Walmart and came back and the thing was still uploading so....

WATCH THE DANG VIDEO PLEASE!!!

Name Book - Word Album

I'm not really sure what these things are called to be honest. I have seen it called a Word Album or a Name Book and I remember when they were all the rage a few years back and everyone and their mother on the Cricut message board were making these things. I made one for my oldest Goddaughter Ashley not long after I got my Cricut and it was a CHI-OMEGA word book. One weekend my cousin Teresa came down and we made 3 of them for her grandchildren at the time and her daughter Amber, not to be confused with my youngest Goddaughter Amber, loved them. It was actually Amber's idea that I make one for her sister Marissa's new baby Lane. 

Since Marissa had the baby early Saturday morning my daughter and I opted to wait until Monday to go see her and the baby because I knew the hospital has so many rules and there would be visitors in and out and I wanted some quality snuggle time with little Lane, as did my daughter. I worked furiously over the weekend on the frame that I posted yesterday and then the Word Album that I am posting about today.

Now my skills as a paper crafter have improved since making the word albums years ago as has my stash of supplies, tools and machines so this book is probably the most sturdy I have made. Months ago I found some packages of comic book boards at Zipp for like $2 a package and bought them with no certain idea in mind other than it looked like chipboard and I love chipboard. There are 100 boards in a package and are acid free. When I went to get chipboard out of my craft closet to make this album I opted to use the comic book boards and the Explore cut them wonderfully! I used the deep cut blade housing and set the dial to custom and then chose the medium chipboard setting. I cut each page 3 times so I could have a good sturdy book, or album *okie is still confused about what to call the dang thing*. With previous books I used tape to put the pages together and such but for this one I used glue and I think it will make it last longer. I used my brayer to go across each layer after gluing them together to help spread the glue and make the layers adhere to each other better. 

I'm sure you guys know how to make these things and they aren't really hard. The hardest part for me is to figure out what font to use to make the name stand out. I used White Vinegar for the letters and had to break the letter apart and get rid of the pieces that I didn't want that was in the font. I also set a shadow to the letters because I love shadows. Oh yes, I designed it Make The Cut and then exported to SVG and uploaded to the Explore, which I think is probably obvious since I still don't like designing with Cricut Design Space and most importantly MTC has the wonderful shadow feature *okie grins to herself thinking about all the other cool features that MTC has that CDS doesn't have*.

If you can see in the picture the turquoise letters look a little leathery and I achieved that look by spritzing some Coredinations cardstock and then wadding it up into a ball, crumpling it up really good. After I let it dry I got out an Emory board and sanded across the top, giving the paper an even more distressed look. After all that I then cut the letters out with the Explore. The shadow of the letter didn't have anything special done to it other than a little inking. 

I can rarely find a good way to decorate the back of the first letter in these books so I normally just ad a strip of paper for some decoration. The second letter didn't have a lot of room but there was enough for a space for a small photo. I cut out some deer heads in several different sizes to use through out the album. When gluing the "plaque" down I made sure not to add glue to the top where the white piece of paper is so a photo can go behind the plaque. 

Generally I try to add more than one photo space to a page when there is enough room. Sometimes it is difficult to adorn a page and work around the holes of the letters but a well placed deer head added enough little embellishment to where the page didn't look too plain. 

I did have to print some paper to use in the album because I didn't have much of anything in my stash of papers that matched the theme or colors. Luckily I did have enough cardstock in the colors I needed. 

Another way to add extra photos is to make a pocket and put tags in the pocket. On this page I was able to add two tags and also had enough room on the pocket for a photo. I was able to find ribbon in the closet that was masculine enough to use on the album, which I used not only on the two tags but also on the o-wires. 

With this page I had to work around the holes of the N and some narrow arrows worked great and once again a deer head was able to add some interest. The deer paper and the chevron paper are some that I printed. I really like the Canon Matte photo paper for this purpose as it grabs color well and can be cut with the Explore and holds up well with being embellished. 

Why yes people that is a piece of burlap on this page! I did try to tie the book and the frame from yesterday together with colors and theme and I think I was able to pull it off pretty well. I did use Sobo glue to put the burlap down and also the arrows and deer head. I really don't think my beloved Scotch Quick Dry Glue would keep the elements down on the burlap but that Sobo just don't play!

I think I might have gotten back into my crafting groove a bit now and while I am running out of ideas for projects right now I think I can likely walk into my craft closet and find something to create. 

Used Those 3:1 Wires - Mini Album

I was brave over the weekend and tackled some mini albums using the 3:1 pitch wires I got at Zipp Outlet. I will say it was a bit of a challenge to get the holes all punched and if I didn't have a Crop-O-Dile Big Bite I'm not sure I would have been able to finish them.

I used some of the Graphic 45 Mother Goose line for the little albums and it was test of my patience on using the papers for a 4" album. I also had to watch the embellishment on the inside because the album couldn't be too thick. Since people don't generally comment on my craft projects anymore I will just post the pictures and y'all can just see how it came out.

Front of the album.

Close up of the front. I used LiquiTex on the flowers to help them keep their shape after I manipulated the petals like I wanted.

Page 1 and 2

Page 3 and 4

Page 5 and 6

Page 7 and 8

Back of album

And that is all.

Graphic 45 Mother Goose Mini Album

One of the ladies that attend stamp club frequents Tuesday Morning and she brought 7 different sheets of the Graphic 45 Mother Goose line for us to purchase, for only $1, for the card challenge. The challenge requires that you make cards with the papers that are purchased and then bring them back the next month. It's always a lot of fun to see what everyone comes up with and instead of cards I decided to make a mini album with the sheets I purchased.

I've always wanted to try an accordion album and figured this was as good a time as any to see if I could make one. Now I could go into all kinds of details about what I did on each page but I honestly don't think anyone reads most of the stuff I type so I am just going to say the hell with it and only post the pictures.

I really love how it turned out and I think I might make a few more albums out of this line. I was lucky enough that BFF Carmen was able to get a package of all the sheets from Tuesday Morning and share with me so I have enough to do a few more albums. I'm not sure I will do accordion ones since I have a ton of acrylic and chipboard albums I can use.