This week I have been busy using the Midway Collection. This fun and bright collection was perfect for creating this mini-album and I have used some very informal cell phone pictures taken on a day-trip to the carnival!
Midway Mini Album
I have created this album from scratch using my Cameo and two die-cutting files from Lori Whitlock (found here and here). The album can be created by hand (search online for accordion fold binding) but using a digital cutter makes light work of a lot of the measuring and all of the cutting!
I have chosen to make all of the inserts out of envelopes and tags – but the cutting files offer a number of options which are all included with the download. I also scaled down all the cutting files by 65% before I started as I wanted my album to be smaller. Just remember to scale all elements in the same proportion – otherwise they will not fit together.
The
picture above shows a couple of details from the album cover. I cut a slit in
the hat and slotted a couple of stickers into the cut. One of my favorite tips
is to use talc to remove the stickiness from the back of stickers – which basically
turns them into die cuts and lets you play around with placement without
fearing you will stick them in the wrong place! The little camera button is my
favorite embellishment of all – I could have used 10 of them in this project
alone!
This album has a simple construction and is held together by the accordion fold spine. There is a detailed instructional video on YouTube which guides you through the process and each set of two fold is held together with eyelets (see Pictures 1 & 2 above). I chose to reinforce the covers with chipboard but you do not need this step. Each “page” is slotted into the spine and you can choose to glue them in. I found they were a tight fit without gluing and I like being able to pull the envelopes out to look at too, so mine were not glued in (see Pictures 3 & 4 above).
The picture above shows the envelopes and tag inserts in more detail.
The tags and envelopes are simply decorated with several elements from the collection including the Word Stickers, Brads and Tid Bits.
There
are so many fabulous design details in these collections – I know that I am
going to use every scrap of this one over a few years to come as my kids grow
up!
Dad’s Treat Boxes
To demonstrate how versatile this collection is – I have used a couple of bits and pieces to make these fun Father’s Day treat boxes. They both contain a gift voucher to a wine boutique for my husband and Father-in-Law (hope they don’t read this blog!)
I
have cut the boxes using my cuttlebug and this great Sizzix die and then used some
of the Sew Fun Banners and Tin Pins to decorate. Fun,
simple and a great way to use up some of your leftovers too.
I hope you have enjoyed these projects – please post a comment with any questions and be sure to check back next week for some more ideas. – Lowri