Last year, Israel and I went on a romantic vacation to Sedona, Arizona. Most of the pictures we took were stand-alone types; photos that wouldn’t get the attention they deserve if I put them in a group on a layout. Because there were so many of them, I didn’t want to take up multiple of pages of a regular sized scrapbook, but there weren’t enough of them to warrant their own album.
I also had postcards and clippings from pamphlets. So, I needed a lot of space for the ephemera and the journaling.
There were a lot of thoughts about how our activities reflected the personality of our relationship: our differences and our similarities. My answer for this vacation was to make a mini-book with the theme of “You. Me. The Two Of Us.”
I have found that putting together a mini-book isn’t much different or harder than doing a layout. I use the same process: 1)Decide on a title, tone, and sometimes a theme. 2) Pull out papers that will work with the photos and theme. 3) Gather embellishments that compliment the colors.
When I am ready to assemble, I begin by adhering the background papers, photos, and journaling through the whole book.
Then I go back page by page and add embellishments around the photos or anchoring lines. When I’m done, I flip through the book to look for pages that don’t satisfy me (usually because I didn’t have a lot of ideas at the time I was working on it). By then I always have something to add or change, and I work this way until I feel satisfied.
Giving this vacation its own little book makes it feel extra special (which it was) and gave me the space I needed.
The benefit of having mini-books is that they are so much more accessible to visitors than big heavy scrapbooks. I rarely have people look through my big albums. But it is inevitable that when people come over and see the mini-books on my shelf, they take them down and look through them. Because they’re smaller they are more inviting and require less of a commitment to look through them.
Consider a mini-book the next time you have an event with too many photos to fill one double-page layout.
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The Two Of Us
Mini-Album
Supplies: Products Used: Adhesive (Creative Memories, Dots, PVA) Bling (Heidi Swapp for Advantus) * Book (7 gypsies) * Brads (7 Gypsies) * Chipboard Embellishments (Deja Views) * Chipboard letters (Heidi Swapp for Advantus) * Epoxy stickers ( s.e.i.) * Gaffer tape (7 Gyspsies) * Letter stickers (Creative Memories) * Metal frame (Pressed Petals) * Patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye, Crate Paper, Dream Street, K.I. Memories, Kelly Panacci for Sandylion, Basic Grey, Rhonna Farrer) * Rub-on’s (Art Warehouse) * Stickers (Creative Imaginations, Creative Memories, E.K. Success) * Title card (My Mind’s Eye) * Transperancies (Hambly, My Mind’s Eye) * Word strips (7 Gypsies) * Pen: American Crafts * Other: ephemera, ribbon from own stash.
