Little Darlings Mini Album Tutorial

This mini album and its tutorial was featured on the Graphic 45 blog yesterday and I've received many lovely compliments on it. Thank you all so much. I've reproduced the tutorial here with more photographs. If you need any clarifications, please drop me a note in the comments section. Once again, thank you!

I whipped up this mini album using Graphic 45’s new Little Darlings collection as a gift for the grandparents. The raw mini album is really quick and easy to make. And all you'll need to do after making the album is to decorate it with your favourite Graphic 45 papers and embellishments. Here are some photos of the completed album:

 

So let's get started on how to create the raw mini album. Here's what you'll need:

Supplies:
Graphic 45 Little Darlings patterned papers - 4-5 sheets of 12x12 inch papers
Graphic 45 Little Darlings chipboard tags
Vanilla cardstock paper - 1 sheet
2 chipboard pieces measuring 6x6 inches for the covers
Ribbon - 30 inches

Instructions:

1. Cut 2 sheets of 7x7 inch patterned papers for your cover. Adhere the 6x6 inch chipboards on to the back and centre of these patterned papers.

 

2. Cut a diagonal off the corners of your patterned papers. Fold over the sides of the patterned paper on to the back of the chipboard and adhere securely. Repeat for the back cover.

 

 

3. Place the front and back covers side by side an inch apart. Lay the ribbon across the centre of the back of the covers and glue down.

 

4. Now onto the spine of the mini album. You'll need two sheets of vanilla cardstock measuring 5 3/4 x 11 3/4 inch each. Score each cardstock at the 5 3/4" mark. Then score at intervals of 1" apart. Accordion fold the cardstock. Do this for both sheets of cardstock.

5. Join the two pieces of cardstock together as shown. Adhere securely.

6. Adhere the cardstock to the front and back covers of your mini album.

7. Cut 5 sheets of Little Darlings patterned paper measuring 5 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches. Fold each sheet into half and glue the ends together.

8. Adhere each page on to the spine of your album and you're done! To securely close the album, just tie the ends of your ribbon together into a pretty bow. How simple was that?

Now all you need to do is decorate and embellish the mini album to your heart's desire. I decided on a lace cover for my spine and this is how it looked before I embellished the cover.

The inside pages - again I embellished the spine.

 

More photos of my completed album which I decorated using images from the Little Darlings patterned paper, chipboard tags, fabric, seam binding, pearls and flowers. The images were given more dimension using 3D foam dots.

 

So if you're thinking of making a pretty mini album for a mum-to-be or a brag book for the grandparents, why not give this a shot? Happy scrapping!

Sue