Tropical Paper Bag Mini

Do you love to create mini albums? I love to create them but often I make them for myself and am very slow about actually adding photos. This past year has been different. I have made eight different albums to be given as gifts. Two of the albums I made are paper bag "tropical" mini albums, each with a slightly different cover and slightly different inside pages. I am sharing both covers and the inside pages of just one of the albums. I created them both as gifts for two of my nieces. My inspiration came from Tracy at the The Paper Crafter's Library. She created a very similar album. Sadly, even though I was really eager to create may own tropical album I  couldn't bring myself to do.  When I purchased the Graphic 45 Tropical Traveloque paper collection it was sooooo gorgeous I didn't want to cut into any of the papers. I put it aside for a VERY long time (so long that I don't think the collection is available any longer and I think I saw Tracy's video in April of 2012!). Then I learned that one of my nieces would be living in the Caribbean and a second would be visiting her. So I just had to take the plunge and get creative with these gorgeous papers.   I hope you enjoy looking through the album. I am so glad I finally got around to doing them.

To create the netting used throughout the album, I used cheese cloth that I dyed brown with walnut ink.  I also dyed some white cord with the same walnut ink and incorporated a bit of twine on the tags and for the binding.

I used a hot glue got to attach the tiny shells. I hope that it holds the shells in place permanently!

 I also created protective sleeves for each page. I simply cut larger page protectors down to fit the page size of my album pages (about 7" x 9") and used my sewing machine to stitch the edges together.

I used embossing powder to create the sand on the inside of the front and back covers.

 I attached bands around the black mats on the inside pages, only adhering them to the back of the black mat so that photos can slide under the edge of the band.

I wanted to add some journaling cards with lines, so I used my computer and printer to create lined paper.

These albums were so fun to create and the best part is that I was able to give them as gifts. I can't wait to see the albums filled with photos taken by my nieces.

As I mentioned earlier, I was inspired to create this album after watching a video from The Paper Crafter's Library. If you haven't visited the The Paper Crafter's Blog, I encourage you to do so.  You will have free access to the blog, but will also have the option of becoming a paid member and you will have access to the most incredible source for crafting videos and tutorials!

Happy Crafting and THANKS for visiting!