A Soul's Heartbeat: January 2018

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Country Kitchen Mini Album

a Country Craft Creations design team project

Carta Bella collection, Country Kitchen, has lent itself wonderfully to my new mini. Tammy Merrill from Country Craft Creations supplied me with the majority of the goodies to make this album. I hope you'll take away some inspiration for one of your next minis.

This is an 8" square mini constructed with medium weight chipboard and covered with black Artisan cardstock along with decorative papers and elements from the Carta Bella Country Kitchen collection.

I included two extra sides to this mini so that the pages are completely enclosed when snapped shut (magnets hold the front securely as well as holding different pages and elements shut within the book) You can easily do this to any mini you're making by adding an additional spine on the right hand side and a skinnier front piece to magnetize all together. My front strip measures 8"x1 1/4"

This mini includes six hinges with 1/2" gussets between each. Three sections are made using cut out oval frames from my Cricut and decorative edge elements on the flip page.

This is the backside. Once the photos are in place all the edges around the frames can be securely glued to keep the photos snugly in place. You can see the decorative edge cut on the Farm to Table page, this was also made using my Cricut.

The frame sections are tri-folds, as shown above, this allows for lots of room for photos or if you're showcasing the great cooks of your family, recipes.

The additional three sections either have pockets, belly bands, flip outs, or tuck ins. It's a great amount of real estate for those family cookbook favorite photos. The paper is so darling I think the animals, pigs, cows and chickens just make you smile.

Side pockets lend themselves to tuck in books this one will hold two 5" square photos on the inside. The little bags are perfect journaling spots for memories you want to pass on for years to come.

Clustering 3-5 elements cut from the collection provides fun pockets for mats and photos. I always like to remind crafters when you create pockets this way to secure the back side with some wide tape, this provides a nice smooth surface from sliding things in and out of the pocket. No snaggy edges to catch on.

When using a belly band I always like to include some sort of stopper at the bottom to prevent photos and mats from sliding all over the place. Here I've used the cute little farmhouse.

There's lot of fun stuff inside these pages so I hope you'll join me on the video for a complete walk through with lots more photos. Have a great crafty day my friends!