Half Flower Mini Album by Amber Mitchell

Hello crafty friends, Amber Mitchell here on Paige's blog today to share with you this colorful mini album I created using the Bloom Street collection and the Half Flower cut file from Paige.

A few months back, I used this same cut file on the cover of a journal I created and I loved how it looked. So much so that I decided to create a shaped album out of the cut file itself!

Shaped albums can be quite simple to make if you know the basics of your die cut machine. With a bit of resizing, mirroring, and welding you can create an album of any shape!

To start with this project, I first resized the Half Flower cut file to measure roughly 5.75 inches in length and cut two copies of it from white cardstock. I then removed all contours from the image and cut two more pieces from patterned paper that I printed at home using the Bloom Street Digital Collection. (I used these pieces to back my cut file and to act as the covers of my mini album as well). It's important to note that the covers of my album are mirrored. I used wet glue to adhere my cut files to their backing pieces and while those dried, I worked on the spine of my album. I created a 1.5-inch spine using patterned paper. To do this, I took a sheet of paper that measured roughly 5.75 inches in length and 4 inches in width. On the 4-inch side, I scored at 1.25 inch on both ends. I then attached my covers to both sides of spine and started working on my pages.

To create the pages of this book, I took two images of the cut file I used, mirrored them, removed all contours, and then welded them together back-to-back. This creates one large flower shape that, when folded in half, matches the half flower shape of our album. I cut 15 pieces to use as pages and folded them in half. I then stacked them into groups of 3 to create five signatures for my album.

To bind them in my book, I used white elastic thread that I decorated with acrylic beads and paper beads. To dress up the spine a bit more, I added a bow around the middle strings that I made using a Fiskars punch.

With all that done, it was time to embellish. I created a heart-shaped shaker using my Cricut and some sequins from my stash. I think that this interactive aspect added a lot of character to the book. I used a mix of floral and ephemera die cuts from the Bloom Street Digital Collection that I printed and cut at home to create a cluster around this shaker. And for the final touch, I of course added a dimensional flower I created using the Rolled Flower cut file. 

Thanks for joining me on the blog today! I hope this project inspires you to make a shaped album and I'll see you next time with another fun project!

SUPPLIES: Patterned papers, stickers, die cuts, charms, embellishments: BLOOM STREET, Bloom Street Digital Collection; Die cut machine: Cricut; Cut files: Half Flower and Rolled Flower by Paige Evans

Location: California, USA / Blog: Happy Crafty Studio / Instagram: @bambidearr / YouTube: bambidearr / Pinterest: bambidearr