Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by the blog today!

I have this mini album to share with you, made with the Let’s stay home collection. I wanted to create a mini album about our time at home, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I started with the base from sturdy cardboard, glued to two papers called ‘Kind hearts’ and ‘Hope for a new day’. The album measures approximately 4x6 inch, the spine is 1.5 inch wide. My number one tip for making mini albums; make the spine wide enough. I always put more embellishments and pictures in than I originally thought. Many of my mini albums are really bulky and can’t close properly.

Because of the hearts on the cover, I created a shaker element in the shape of a heart. I covered the edges of this heart with white printerpaper, so the cardboard doesn’t show on the inside. I used some clear acetate and sequins from my stash to make this into a shaker. I attached a plain white ribbon from my stash to the cover and back, before the final layer of patterned paper was glued on top.

On the spine I attached a few tassels (these are store bought, but you can also make them yourself) and some paper beads, made with strips of paper from the 6x6 paper pad. If you want to create these too, you could check tutorials on YouTube on how to make them! So easy and it adds a lot of texture to the outside of the album. The ‘charm’ on this tassel is actually a puffy sticker I stuck to a piece of paper. Put a little hole in it and your custom charm is ready to adorn your project!

The pages are bound to the album with a hidden accordion paper hinge. There are also lots of tutorials on YouTube how to make these kind of hinges, if you’re interested. I made six hinges for 6 pages.

Then the really fun part begins: building the pages and creating different elements with all of the lovely papers from the collection. The 6x6 papers are great for mini albums because the print is smaller.

I personally like my mini albums to have interactive elements, like flaps, envelopes, a sequinshaker and slits where you can put extra pictures and tags. Examples of these elements you’ll see on the following pictures.

For the envelope-page I used an Envelope punch board. But also, the stationary pack is ideal to include in your mini albums, because they add an immediate interactive element, without the work of making it yourself!

For the embellishing of the pages I used everything that is available in the collection, like the fabric bows, the die-cuts, enamel dots and stickers. I loved using the mini puffy alpha stickers to create little captions in the album.

Hope you enjoyed watching the close-ups from this mini album. For a flip through go check out my Instagram, @sgrselse. I hope you have a lovely day!