Okay, are you ready for a fun little holiday starter project?
A few weeks ago, always crafty Lain Ehmann posted this clever layout on her blog. Fun! My kids think up wish lists every year, but we seldom write them down. I loved Lain's idea. Loved it so much in fact that instead of a layout, I created a mini album inspired by it. A wish list mini album, that is :).
Are you up for it? It'll get ya in the holiday mood! Here goes:
Step 1:
Gather your products. I used:
- 2 pieces cardstock (I used white)
- 1 piece patterned holiday paper (I used some fun new American Crafts I had been hoarding :).
- 1 piece journaling patterned paper (these will be cut down, so journaling tags work as well. I had some long cardstock journaling tags from Becky Higgin's baby kit that matched perfectly.)
- 2 pieces of 3x3" chipboard (I used SEI’s cute coasters. If you use a different size coaster or chipboard, just adapt your inside page sizes to match the size of your album)
- large silver eyelets (I actually used extra large eyelets from a fabric store)
- book rings (I purchased mine at Office Max)
- decorative stickers
Step 2
Cut your inside pages. Mine measure 3x3”.
Step 3
Round the corners of your inside pages.
Step 4
Cut your journaling tags. You’ll want one for your title page plus one for each member of your family. I cut mine to 2.75x2.75”. If your album is a different size than mine, just measure these ¼” smaller than the edges of your inside pages.
Step 5
Cut your patterned holiday paper the same size as your journaling tags. Cut one for each member of your family.
Step 6
Round the corners of your journaling paper.
Step 7
Round the corners of your patterned holiday paper
Step 8
Adhere two new squares of holiday paper (3x3”) to the insides of your cover chipboard pieces. You don’t have to do this if you like the look of your chipboard. Mine just had patterns that clashed with my project.
Step 9
Carefully trim the edges of the holiday paper from your cover chipboard pieces
Step 10
Glue the rounded corner journaling paper squares and rounded corner holiday paper onto your inside pages. Begin with a single journaling page for the title page, then attach one holiday paper and one journaling paper to each spread. You want to end with a blank last page. You will attach a photo here. Now put the inside pages in order* and put the cover chipboard and back chipboard in place.
*Make sure they’re in perfect order for hole punching, so you don’t accidentally punch the wrong side of the page.
Step 11
Using a punch tool, punch a hole (mine was about 3/16”) in your cover page at the top left hand corner.
Step 12
Using your cover page as a guide, punch holes in each of the inside pages and the back cover.
Step 13
Attach eyelets with a setting tool to your front and back cover. May I suggest doing the back cover first so you get the hang of it? I did my front cover first and got a little wrinkle in it. Just a suggestion. ☺
Step 14
Put your pages one-at-a time on your book ring. Use a ring a bit bigger than you would think. I ended up having to put all of my pages on again because my ring was too small initially.
Step 15
In a word processing program, create text boxes about 1.5x1.5”. In the center of each text box, type the name of each member of your family. I created two additional text boxes with the word “merry” and the year to use in my inside covers. Print this page out on the other piece of white cardstock.
Step 16
Using a circle punch (use it upside down so you can judge where you’re punching), punch your inside title circles.
Step 17
Using dimensional adhesive, attach your title circles onto the patterned holiday paper sides of each spread.
Step 18
Now comes the fun part! Have each of your family members write down their Christmas wish list. We got a little crazy “wishing” with ours. Really, Owen has never actually been scuba diving, so it was kind of funny to hear that on his list ☺.
Step 19
Attach a holiday accent to the front of your album. I used a plastic gel sticker, but any cute festive embellishment would be great!
Step 20
Select a fun holiday photo (or be crazy like I did and stop to have a photo shoot while you’re actually making the album! ☺). Crop the photo to a square and print it to measure 2.75x2x75”. Round the corners. Adhere the photo to the last page of your album (the page right before the back cover).
Now, sit back and enjoy your work! You’ve recorded a fun bit of your family history for years to come.
Here are a few of our inside pages. Our dad is working today (poor guy-the day after Thanksgiving ☹, so we’ll have him do his journaling when he gets home.)
Guess that’s it. It has been a blast blogging here this week! Sorry the website has been so crazy while you’ve uploaded your challenge entries. The winner will be announced next week sometime, by the way.
Thanks for playing along and for your fun comments!
Later,
☺Candice
