5 Ways to Add Interest to your Mini Albums – Crate Paper

Hello Crate Paper friends! Lorilei here today sharing five tips and ideas for adding custom and interesting touches to your mini albums!  I think it adds a unique flair and as a bonus they ideas are creatively fun!

I am using the Sunny Days for my mini album today, the five tips and ideas could be used with any of your favorite Crate Paper collections!

#1. Add Interest and Extra Goodies with Pockets

• Add a pocket to the backside of your mini album cover.  I made mine by measuring the cover and cutting a paper from the 6×8 Sunny Days paper pad.  I then cut two more pieces of paper at shorter lengths to create “pockets” and stitched down the two long sides and bottom to hold the pocket together and adhere it to the back cover with strong adhesive.
• Decorate the front of the pocket with chipboard and die cuts, add cards, ephemera die cuts and notes to the pockets.  It is surprising just how much the pockets will hold!
• At the back of the mini-album, I created a page with pockets the same way, except that I punch holes in the page once I had stitched it together.  If you don’t use a sewing machine on your projects, you can assemble the pocket with a thin line of liquid glue or use red tape!

#2. Create Interesting Pages

• Create your papers and pages with paint!  I used the pink paint from the Sunny Days Acrylic Paint set and added simple big dots to white card stock.  You can get super creative with splatters, puddling paint, or using stencils.  I find painted papers add an instant hand-created feel to a mini-album, plus they are fun to make!
• Create envelopes from coordinating patterned papers.  My daughter has a WeRMemory Keeps Envelope Board, and she created a 6×4 envelope for my mini album from the Sunny Days Collected paper.  I simply punched holes in the bottom of the envelope and added it into the mini-album.  Envelopes are a fun way to keep extra journaling, photos or ephemera.
• Add interest with varying page sizes.  I love to see the layers in a mini album and to vary the page size is a sure-fire way to add interest!  My album is 5×7, my smallest page is 4×4 and varies from there.  There are always so many gorgeous patterned papers in the Crate Paper collections and varying the page size gives you a peek at all of them layered together in a mini album!

#3. Handmade Embellishments

• Creating your own embellishments adds so much uniqueness to a mini album.  Making embellishments is one of my favorite things to do in crafting!  I often look to Crate Paper and Maggie Holmes embellishments for ideas and use what I have to re-create them.
• I made prize ribbons for this mini album using Sunny Days paper with a couple of Willow Lane scraps added in.  I used punches to create the layers of circles and cut the banners to a shape inspired by Willow Lane embellishments.  The addition of the Sunny Days jewels adds sparkle and interest as well!
• I created some unique paper clips by adhering chipboard pieces to large gold clips.  I use a glue gun for this and pop a punched circle on the back of the chipboard shape to keep it neat and tidy!

#4. Create Page Tabs

• I love texture and layers, having pieces sticking out from the edges of the pages of a mini-album is one of my favorite items to include.  It feels lovely when you handle the album and also gives the viewer a way to flip the pages!
• Create tabs with punches or hand-cut them.  I cut 1 or 1.5″ strips of paper, folded them in half and rounded the corners with a punch.  I used my sewing machine to stitch them onto the pages (tape or glue works too!)
• Vary the size and colors of tabs.
• Add stickers and sentiments to the tabs that are specific to the page they are on or add general sentiments and words that co-ordinate with the entire album.  The Sunny Days Sticker book has some awesome clear stickers that look cool over patterned paper!
• Use tags for tabs; Sunny Days has so many cute tags on the Happy Place paper!
• Vary the position of the tags on the page.  You’ll notice I staggered the tags so that I could see most of them at the same time!

#5. Add a Mini to your Mini

• I created a simple pocket page by cutting the paper 2.5″-3″ longer than the finished page size and folded up the bottom and adhered the two sides.
• I think it is a fun surprise and an interesting idea to add a little mini tag album to your mini album!  I collected fussy cut tags, die-cut tags and added them to a small book ring and tucked it into the pocket!
• You could put together a small notebook made from papers to tuck into the pocket as well.
• It’s a great way to include more photos or another story to the theme of your mini album!

I hope you enjoyed my tips and ideas today and incorporate some or all of them into your next mini album!  I find it fun and relaxing to play and create with the beautiful pieces and papers!  Happy Creating with Crate!