Anatomy of a Mini-Album

HAPPY NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY!

I hope you are taking part in some of the fun activities that are happening in your neck of the woods-or like me, in your online community, today. Studio Calico has some great stuff planned-challenges, sketches, chats and make and takes. Last night I did some pre-planning and have my eye set on a goal of 9 layouts completed today.

But, first I have to run (20 km today) and go buy some whoopie pies from my friend, Cindy, at the Kelp Music Festival. I'm sure they'll be delicious and well worth that run!

I promised pics of my completed Montreal mini-album so without further ado here's all the details.

So here's a general list of what I used:
*Album: Maya Road 4*4 mini album (took out the chipboard pages from the inside)
*Random scrap papers from previous Studio Calico kits: 8 pieces of 8*4 papers, folded in half and adhered on the left and bottom to make little envelopes
*Iphone photos resized to ~2*2 in Photoshop
*Studio Calico mists to cover the inside chipboard and the back
*Random embellishments: I dug through my stash and pulled out anything that I wanted to use up or get rid of, including some travel embellishments

This was a great opportunity to use up some of the older product I have to make way for some new supplies that are on their way.

Here's the cover:

This is the opening page-a story of M & his distress at the French instructions on the fill-up machine. The story of each page is tucked into the little pocket at the top like this. This card from an old packet of October Afternoon was perfect for this story.

*car photo & our walk up St. Catherine street...



*breakfast at Presse Cafe & some shopping love...



This is my favorite page. Can you guess why?! Ben & Jerry's for ice cream...



A walk to Mount Royal and the endless search for cupcakes-I never got one first nor last. They were sold out at my favorite place, Cocoa Locale and then the second one we went had terrible service so I bailed...but don't worry because you'll see how I made up the 'cupcake calories'...



*great dinner at La Paryse which was voted 'best burger in Montreal'...



*our burgers & desert at Coldstone Creamery 'All Lovin' No Oven'. Look it up-it's delicious! Cupcakes be damned...



*busying oatmeal at the grocery store for breakfast (my guilty conscious was at work for eating so many treats!) & mirror photos in the hotel room before going out to the show...



*meeting friends for dinner & the show...

Just a few last notes about the album in case you are interested in creating a similar one:
*I used my cropodile to punch a few holes and add grommets to the cover and back side for the ribbon to hold the book together.
*This IS a great way to use up your stash.
*The canvas size, 4 by 4, made this album easy to sit and do in multiple mini sessions when I had a few minutes. It came together really easily because I had already organized my supplies into one basket.

I really like the final results. It's tiny and cute and the photos really pop against the pages. I still have a stack of the 'envelope' pages and the chipboard pages that came with the book. I'm envisioning another weekend mini-album with them some time soon so stay tuned!

Now go enjoy your Saturday! Happy weekend!

xoxo
K

May Madness!

I can't believe it's already May. Where did the time go?

We have a laundry list of things coming up in our house this month. Here's what's on the docket:

1. trip to NY + camp for the weekend
2. Ottawa Race Weekend- half marathon #2
3. My birthday- #28
4. Another new M. Ed course starting- #8
5. Starting report cards
6. National Scrapbooking Day
7. Taking a cake decorating class

8. Starting weekly ritual of swimming laps

In other news, I started work on our Montreal Mini Album. Here's a few snapshots of what's completed so far. Some of them are a bit fuzzy.

Here's the cover:



All the page inserts that I made out of pattern paper from leftover pieces of Studio Calico kits:



One of the pages inside the book:



A double pager in progress:

Hopefully I'll have some free time this week to finish it off! I'm enjoying the small photos and the smaller canvas. I haven't made a mini-album in a while and I'm enjoying the process. More about that in a future post.

Happy Monday!
xoxo
K