DIY Mini Scrapbook Album – Vacay

I was inspired to try making my own mini scrapbook album from scratch after watching Heidi Swapp’s tutorial class on Scrapbook.com. It’s a free class & she uses boxed cards to make the base of the album.

I had a few photos printed from my last vacation to Aruba and decided to use those for the album. They are press prints from Persnickety Prints that I had hanging on my Christmas tree last year. The press prints are so nice and sturdy, just love them. I also highly recommend the pearl finish when you have an image that you want to shimmer.

I had this Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine paper pad that I’ve been using for years now. I think it was a freebie from the Stamp & Scrapbook Expo, so it was a big stack with multiple pages of each design. I decided to try to kill it off with this album.

I chose a few papers and cut them down so that the album would be a 6×8 size. I adhered some pages together and used my sewing machine to sew pockets in a few pages (3). Heidi Swapp gives this idea/tip in her 2nd video in the class series. I like the idea of mixing the pages, some with pocket tags, some without.

I cut some chipboard to 6×8 and adhered it all together with Tombo permanent adhesive. For the cover I chose a paper that was 9 inches long so there would be overhang onto the back of the album to cover the spine. The journal card pages worked perfect for that.

Once the base of the album was complete, I loosely outlined where I wanted the photos then proceeded to complete & embellish each page. In total it probably took about 6-7 hours to complete the whole thing. Probably the quickest I’ve ever completed a project like this. Using the one paper pack as a base and sticking to a theme probably helped me focus more and get it done.

I used a lot of stash supplies, that “escape” sticker is from 7 Gypsies. Lots of Simple Stories embellishments from their mini “snap” packs and some other beach/paradise collection like “Here We Go”.

I love tags, and finally picked up a tag die-cut set at Stamp & Scrapbook Expo last year. It is from Hero Arts, the Infinity Tag set.

These papers worked out well because of the way they are color blocked for divided page protectors, it sort of blocks off different parts of the page layouts and also provides embellishment without having to add too much extra.

The “pure magic” is from Me & My Big Ideas, the other stickers and washi are Simple Stories Here We Go collection.

This fruity paper is from a 6×6 pad – American Crafts Dear Lizzy Happy Place. It was perfect for a visit to the smoothie bowl shack.

When I decided to start this album I had no printer ink, so couldn’t print additional photos that way. I did use my Lifeprint mini printer to print out mini photos of the food and snacks from the trip. The strip of paper under “good eats” is inked with Ranger Distress Inks. Again the pattern paper was already designed, so I didn’t have to add anything to it.

Sunglasses paper from 6×6 pad – American Crafts Dear Lizzy Happy Place. I also started by using the kraft photo corners, then just decided to continue that throughout the album for cohesiveness. The press prints are such a nice quality and I didn’t want to adhere them down.

This layout probably took the longest because I was trying to block off the left page to add some small stories. I have a Lifeprint hyperphoto that will take the place of the regular photo on the top part about these swans, fish and a swimming iguana. (Their servers were down at the time 😦 )

The bottom was a visit to a favorite night spot, Bugaloe, with live music & the best grouper ceviche – yum!

For the right side, I added a different paper from Simple Stories Summer Vibes collection. I cut parts off to make the words make sense for the theme.

I wanted to include some journaling in the album, some was recorded in Day One app and other in an Instagram post. I put the journaling (which I write a word or two about the different things that happen, places visited or inside joke type stories) on the viewable page. Then I add my more personal take to the pocket tag.

For the page I wanted to put the journaling right on that busy page, so I used the negative from the tag die-cut to ink a space that journaling printed on vellum would show up. I used Ranger Oxide Inks to get a nice layer of ink to cover up the images on the paper. At first I just printed the font in black, but then decided I would like it reversed better. I use apps on my phone to create this journaling and print directly to my Canon printer using their printer app. (Letterglow app, PicStitch app, and Canon Print – learn more about that here) I continued that inking on the right side of the page to outline the photo a bit more.

Used my typewriter for this journaling on the tag.

This album was fun and surprisingly easy to come together. I’m glad I have a completed project for something I wasn’t even sure I was going to scrap the photos for to begin with.

I highly recommend checking out Heidi’s class and trying a mini album of your own.

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Feeling Crabby // scrapbook layout share

I needed to just make a page. I hadn’t done it in a while. I wanted to capture the moment. I wanted to capture my mood. A few incidents have just been circling and sometimes recording it, & getting it out seems to offer clarity in some way. Or maybe validation?

I needed to get some photos printed on my Instax with the black border film that was in there, so that I could change it for some other photos I wanted to print.

So I printed these 2 photos from capturing my crab sweater, which also coincided with a Instagram post a couple weeks ago.

I just wanted to make and not think too much. I used paper from Pinkfresh Studio Dream On collection and elements from their Indigo Hill collection, I received in a warehouse box last year.

I also wanted to incorporate the new Tim Holtz Snarky Small Talk stickers.

I also used some stickers from Simple Stories Carpe Diem Posh line.

The cute little crab is actually from a stationery pad my cousin gifted to me.

If you follow me at all, you may know about my quest to understand my journey more, which deals with a lot of inward soul searching, in true fashion of a Cancer or crab, water sign, guided by the moon.

I let the colors of my sweater guide me. Nautical colors are always a favorite, but I liked that this was not a layout from the nautical season so much. Thinking about these collections in different ways.

I’ve been challenging myself to use older supplies, so pulled out the polaroid border frame and arranged it under the pop-dotted Instax photos.

I knew the most important part was getting some journaling down and left a space at the bottom for some quick notes. These sentence fragments are probably my favorite way to record journaling. Just how my monkey mind thinks sometimes, in bits & pieces.

I used a metallic pencil to quickly sketch some lines as a guide for the journaling. I went to use my Signo white roller ball pen, but it was almost out of ink, so I switched to the Sakura gelly roll. This one also wasn’t flowing, but got it to work. I suspect this incredibly dry air is part of that.

For the date title, I used some older alpha stickers. The white did not show up as well as I wanted with the pattern paper, so I outlined it with black pen to stand out a bit more.

I like how the layout finally came together. Sometimes I’m not sure as I’m going along, but I was determined to not get held up too much. I actually finished it rather quickly in comparison to others.

I always come back to a few tried & true techniques, or rather things I love about scrapbooking:

Candid photos  //  handwriting  //  pattern paper mixing  //  collage (or more modernly known as clustering)  //  words/phrases  //  dark backgrounds  // a 3-color scheme

Stamp Storage Organization

The organization of my clear stamp collection has been a project a few years in the making. I’ve intended a certain outcome for quite some time and keep working on it little by little. I think now is the time to finish it up.

After seeing Jennifer McGuire‘s system a few years back I decided to use the Avery Elle storage pockets and purchased them about 3 years ago. I never got around to setting it up until last year when I was refreshing my studio.

Most of my stamp sets were from Papertrey Ink and stored in the CD cases. This worked fine for me, but as I’ve collected other manufacturers, I want one place to store them and less of a footprint than the CD cases took.

So I decided on the Avery Elle pockets and Fridge Binz for storage.

I purchased badge holders to place the stamps on and slide into the pockets. I wanted something clear and sturdy, the idea came to me when I was sorting through some memorabilia and came across large badge holders from a concert. I ordered a large amount through Amazon here.

I know there is a lot of info about different type of acrylics and polymer and what is “safe” to store stamps on, etc. I am not particularly concerned about my stamps lasting forever, so it is working for now and I have not had any melting or warping issues.

One of the challenges for me with stamping/cardmaking is I can never remember what sentiments I have and where to find them. I have a lot of stamp sets that have multiple purpose sentiments. So I developed a symbol system using Web Dings in word software and set up labels to identify the stamp set.

On the label is the name of the set and the manufacturer. Then there are symbols included on the label that identify types of sentiments or graphics included in the set. This has helped me immensely because I can flip through quickly and recognize what sets have a sympathy sentiment or some type of encouraging sentiment.

After getting all the sets labeled, it was time to decide how to sort them.

I purchased plastic folders from the Dollar Tree (they have a few different designs) and cut them into 4 pieces to use as dividers. I rounded the corners at the top and used my Dymo LetraTag labelmaker to add labels to the dividers.

I divided the sets into the following categories:

Scrapbook/Journal

Food

Home/DIY

Flourish

Backgrounds/Pattern

Labels/Tags

Travel

Birthday/Celebrate

Sentiments

Alphas/123

Flowers/Nature

Animals

Christmas/Winter

Autumn/Halloween

Masculine/Boy

Feminine/Girl

Love/Wedding

Baby

It may seem like a lot, but I basically just started organically making piles of stamp collections and then decided on the categories.

So far this system has worked well for me. The bins with my stamp sets sit on the bottom of my cart facing the space where I primarily stand to create.

Due to all the clear components and labeling, everything is easy to spot, and I feel like I’m using more stamps now that I can find them easier.

For a quick video walk through, check out my YouTube channel:

Any questions? Leave a comment.