Envelope Mini Album

Today I'm sharing a mini album that was made with Kathy Orta's "Envelope Mini Album" tutorial on youtube.com. She has a company, Paper Phenomenon, that makes the kits for some incredible projects, as well as the full tutorial and videos if you want to go for it on your own. This particular mini album tutorial is free, and you can follow-it on youtube starting here: Envelope Mini Album  I have to admit, I wasn't a fan of the cover she used with the clip board, but you don't have to use that. I like a more simple look myself.
I used digital paper from Basic Grey's Clippings Paper Packs and Element Packs. I thought it made the book really fun.
Here's the cover of the book. I also changed the binding from that which Kathy's tutorial instructed, as I was not a fan of duck tape. So a friend of mine (Jeannie), who made one of these books for me as a birthday gift, suggested we use some Tim Holtz grunge board for the binding. I loved the look of it on the book she made me, and loved the leather feel, so took her lead and used it.

  The latch on the front was made with a brad, an eyelet and a washer (another idea from Jeannie). The eyelet was glued into the underside of the brad with the rolled side of the eyelet facing away from the brad. Then an elastic hair tie was secured into the back of the cover (with an eyelet).

The inside front cover is pretty self explanatory. The brad from the front cover is secured well into the cover prior to the striped card stock being added. I may add a little something else to the first page, but I haven't decided yet what that might be.

I used many of the elements from the Clippings elements pack for this, many of them replacing the insert cards shown in the tutorial. I backed them all in solid black, so the printed side could be used for journaling and the solid black side would be for photos. There are three pages in the album that have the large tag coming out of the very top of the page. For those tags I made a tab with an eyelet and some ribbon as a pull to remove the tag from the pocket. Again, the back of these are solid black and to be used for photos.

This next page is pretty simple. There is a small pocket at the bottom left that is the opposite side from the previous page. On the right, you can see a large card. Half of this card is slipped into one of the envelope pages, and can be pulled out.

Here's the same page with the insert card pulled out. The inside of the card is black, for photos.

 The next page has another variation on what was shown on the video tutorial. I wanted to add some more pockets. On the left I made a larger pocket that holds some journaling cards. The right side has a little library card envelope; the tutorial for it was found in a youtube video. Very easy to make using the We R Memory Keeps Punch Board. The two strip pieces in the library envelope are just two scraps, backed in black, and then with added grid paper (from the same paper pack) that can be written on. Just thought they were sort of cute and fun.

This page is pretty straight-forward.  You can see more of the elements in the pockets on the right side, along with the tabbed card at the top. The left side has another pull out that is inserted into one of the envelopes.

Here's a photo of the card removed from the envelope page. Again, they are totally black on the inside for photos. The left/red side is a bit dark and busy for journaling, so another photo can be added there, and then journaling on the facing side.

Here's another page with the insert card pulled out. I don't have any idea how many photos this will hold, but I imaging that it would hold around 30 to 40. There are just so many places to put them.

Here's another page where I added one of the library cards and, on the right side, another pocket. I added the little arrows for fun. They were in the element pack with the other great journaling cards.

 

 And one more page with all of the elements/cards. Added some fun little arrows. And, again another tabbed card pulled out of the top pocket for photos and journaling.

And, a view with the card pulled out of the envelope.

This is the last inserted page, and again I added some elements in the pocket on the left and an insert card on the right.

And a  photo with the insert card pulled out.

And finally, here is the inside back cover. I was going to put another library envelope on the left side, but I like the paper too much and didn't want to cover it up. I guess I could put one on the back inside cover instead.

And, that's the end of the book! This was really a fun project to make. My sister-in-law made one along with me, and with the different paper she used our books look entirely different. Hers is a beautiful, artsy circus theme, and mine is sort of editorial. I love them both.
Next, we are going to try Kathy Orta's folio lapbook project, also with full tutorials on youtube. I have purchased a couple of her tutorials/videos for some alternate photo books and some folios, and am looking forward to trying those after I have practiced on these free tutorials.

Thanks so much for taking a look! Thanks to Jeannie Lassey for always being available to answer my incessant questions. She's my lifesaver!

Have Fun and Craft Your Own Story!