Authentique's Stitches Loose Spine Mini

a Country Crafts Creations Design Team Project

Many of you faithful followers will have already seen a condensed version of this mini if you've been following along on my YouTube video tutorial series Loose Spine Mini.  This series consists of 9 process videos walking you through the complete process, step-by-step, page-by-page, of how to make this mini.  Today I'm here with the blog post and video presentation of the finished Mini Album.

Tammy Merrill of Country Craft Creations sent Authentique's Stitches collection to me to play with and it has been fun and a tad nostalgic along the way.  I'm an oldie that learned to sew on my Momma's Singer Treadle machine, that's right the non-electric version.  It was a fantastic way to learn because you had so much control over the speed.  Of course all the fancy-dancy stitches weren't available.  Forward and reverse, just right for a youngster learning.  The Stitches collections brings forward so many of those old memories.  I hope you'll find some great nostalgia in my book as well.

The construction of the mini is with a loose spine and no gussets between the pages.  Unique, easy and fun to make.  I tended to add a few extra pockets and flaps, something that's so easy to do when you are creating but also can leave an alligator mouth on your mini.  I solved that problem by creating this gorgeous belly band to allow for photos and what nots as the mini expands even further.

The mini is six pages total and uses Country Craft Creations Artisan cardstock for the base, belly band and spine.  I did use three coats of Collage Podge (a Mod Podge) on the spine for extra stability. There are six tuck in top mats that measure 4"x5"

You'll find as with most of my minis that there are a lot of options for photos with with tuck in expandable booklets or flips and flaps.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo on all the edges.  Most of the tag ties and bows are made with colored Seam Binding from the store.

I did have fun designing a decorative envelope and adding a touch of lace gifted from my talented friend Manuela in Switzerland, you may know her as Bunny Bow on YouTube.  Manuela has sent me so many gorgeous lace items shes crafted with her embroidery machine and I hoard them, I know I'm bad but I do I hoard them.  This time I just had to include this little rosette of lace and yes, I promise Manuela I'll be better going forward, but it's so hard, I love them all.  We crafters are such silly ducks!

I went through my stash of dies and used quite a few throughout the book along with a lot of the stickers and cut aparts from the Stitches collection.

The graphics within this collection are so stunning they lend themselves to being left free to enhance the viewers perspective.  Here you can see I simply cut along the papers image line to create a pocket and continued the paper from left to right on both pages.  Simply stunning images.

I hope you'll walk through the finished book on the video with me.  And if you want to create a mini like this for yourself be sure and check out the video tutorial series as well

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