insider tips

I wanted to talk a little today about the mini album that I made using the wood veneer in the Bazaar add-on. When I first got my kit, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it - and then my husband came to me with a folder of odds and ends that he had collected on his weekend trip to San Francisco at the beginning of the month. He had flown out for his cousin's wedding, but was able to do quite a bit of sightseeing in the 2 days he was there. I knew his photos plus the tickets, postcards and brochures that he had held on to would make a great mini album.



I started by cutting the veneer in half. I used a craft knife and a ruler - first I used the knife gently, to score the veneer, then I applied more pressure and cut the rest of the way through. I was a little worried about whether or not I'd be able to punch holes in it for the binder rings - but it was no problem. I used a 1/4in circle hand punch from Fiskars, and it went through it easily. It *did* get stuck on the punch, but I was able to carefully pry it off without breaking the veneer.



I pulled together some photos from his sightseeing and the wedding, and resized them to fit in the album. The veneer measured 4x6in once I'd cut it in half, so I sized my photos so that the longest vertical was 3.5in and the longest horizontal was 5.5in. I printed them and then stacked them in the order I wanted to put them into the album, and then cut kraft cardstock to the size of each photo. I masked off a circle on each piece of cardstock and sprayed them with different colors of Maya Mist (I used red, turquoise, avocado and silver). I used yellow thread and machine stitched around the circles, and then added a punched circle of patterned paper to the center of each one.



I stacked the photos with the kraft cardstock that matched, and then punched holes in each ones that lined up with the ones in the veneer. Then it was time for the fun part - customizing each page. I added a typed label and brad to the title page, and added extra photos, stitching, bits of patterned paper with typed descriptions and memorabilia to the other pages.



Once I'd finished a cardstock page, I glued it to the photo that it matched. I punched holes in the wedding save the date and part of the program and added them into the album as well. I have some things that are too big to fit in the album that I'd like to add - I'm thinking of adding a couple of my leftover Maya Road envelopes from Yearbook to hold them.



I love the format of this album because it's no fuss - you don't have to worry about all of your photos being the same size or orientation, you don't have to worry about what to do with your memorabilia, and you don't have to worry about actually finishing it - each page has basically the same design, so you're not making a lot of decisions. It's so simple you could put it together in an afternoon, and can be customized to fit almost any occasion. I've always considered myself a little mini-challenged, but I might be trying more after this. I hope you'll join me!