I have a little scrapbooking confession: Mini albums confound me. I love the idea of minis - of capturing a single event or theme in one little format - and I'm always inspired when I see other's mini creations. But, for the life of me, I could not figure out how to complete one myself. I'd start them with gusto, only to have my inspiration and patience wear out long before the album was ever finished. I think that's why I stick to layouts: one page and you're done! But still, something about the mini keeps tempting me. So, determined to create an album of our summer vacation photos, I set out to make a mini in my scrapping style: simple, easy, and fit for a short attention span!
Along with the many photos I had from our Texas vacation, I had also gathered lots of little pieces of memorabilia from the trip that I wanted to include as some journaling. Here's what I came up with:
album (Maya Road) + patterned paper ( Girl's Paperie, Studio Calico) + corrugated letters (Making Memories) + letter stickers (Sassafras Lass) + die cuts (Girl's Paperie) + ribbon (Heidi Grace) + twine, heart charm
I started with a 4-ring chipboard album that's approximately 5 x 7. I decorated the cover with paper and die cuts and added some ribbon, twine and an antique heart charm. I also lined the interior sides of the cover with a coordinating paper and die cuts:
paper (Studio Calico) + chipboard (Maya Road) + rub ons (Jenni Bowlin) + die cuts (Girl's Paperie)
The album came with several chipboard pages, but I opted to use only three of them:
I covered the front side of them with patterned paper and then use various bits of memorabilia from out trip to create mini collages on each page:
patterned paper (Sassafras Lass) + die cuts (Girl's Paperie)
On the back side of each chipboard page, I adhered my journaling, which was printed onto kraft cardstock. After printing my journaling on the kraft, I used a lined stamp with watermark ink to add some interest to these pages:
Then I pulled out my photos from the trip (I had about 50 photos, all printed at 4 x 6 size.) I organized them in the order I wanted them to appear in the album and then adhered them back-to-back. Using the chipboard pages as a guide, I punched four holes in each photo so it would fit into the album:
Then I assembled the interior pages, using the chipboard inserts as dividers in the album and filling the space in between with all my photos:
My album is pretty full, though you could probably get about 10-12 more photos in there. I love that this mini includes the photos, the journaling recap, and little pieces from our travels all in one small place. Not counting the photo printing (I sent mine to winkflash for prints), it took less than a day to create. And more importantly, it's gotten me over the mindset that I can't do minis - bonus!
Watch for more of my adventures with mini albums in early October when my self paced-project, a cute Halloween mini album featuring Jenni Bowlin Studio products will debut at Big Picture Classes. I'll show you a simple, step-by-step process for creating an album that will help you conquer your fear of minis. (And yes, plenty of candy corn will be involved!)













