Big sigh.........ah, Christmas is over and we can take a deep breath finally. I don't know about you, but I was still wrapping presents at midnight on Christmas Eve. That's par for the course in our house! Now that things are settling down, I'd like to share a little project with you. I'm more of a layout girl usually, but I made a few of these mini albums using small paper bags. I'd like to take you through how I make mine. Along with some simple instructions, there are some step by step photos to show you what I'm talking about.
Here's the front of the paper bag mini I made for my Mom after a trip to the pumpkin farm before Abby was born. Hard to believe there's paper bags under there, huh! Here's what I started with: 8 small paper bags {mine are 4x8"}, strong tape adhesive such as Provo Craft Terrifically Tacky Tape or your ATG, chipboard, patterned papers, ribbons, ink, canvas {optional} and Glossy Accents. My chipboard covers are cut to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". I used Bella's Finally Fall line, some Simple Stories, Bazzill and Simple Stories Ribbons along with some accents from a past Express Kit, and canvas that was masked and spray heavily with glimmer mists and allowed to dry.
Step 1: Put 1 paper bag on your work surface in front of you with the open end on the right. Lift up the flap (which is the bottom of the bag) and place adhesive as shown in the picture. I marked the bags with a green maker where adhesive should be placed. Then fold that flap over and crease the fold very well. Repeat this step for all 8 of you paper bags. Take two paper bags and set them aside. These two bags will be your front and back. NOTE: you can make a thinner or thicker album, 8 is my preference for overall thickness. Just gather an even number of bags for you album. My numbers and directions are based on an album using 8 paper bags.
Step 2: Next, take 3 bags and while the flap is folded over, put adhesive as shown, then put additional tape adhesive to cover the rest of the flap. Take the other 3 bags without adhesive on the flap and one at time line up an adhesive covered flap with a non-adhesive covered flap. Adhere two bags together to create whats shown in the third photo. This will create 3 sets of two bags that are attached by the small flaps in the middle.
Step 3: Next you'll need to adhere the sides of your bags so they don't open up completely. These pockets created by adhering the sides of bags will be homes for you journaling and photo tags.
**This is the point where I begin to cover my bag sets with my patterned papers. You can leave the flaps in the middle loose or adhere them down to their respective sides to create additional pocket for your tags or photos. You can also make your pockets more defined by using a circle punch to notch out the pocket further.
Step 4: Next, you'll want to start assembling your paper bag sets to create your album. Take your paper bag sets and cover the backsides of them (opposite the flaps) with adhesive as shown by the green marker lines. Adhere the paper bag sets together on the backsides, and press firmly together. Then take your 2 bags that were previously set aside and adhere them as shown to the two outer bags, leaving the flap on the outside of the album. The two flaps on the outside of the album will be where you attach your chipboard covers. **NOTE: You may want to cover your chipboard before adhering them to the album. This will make decorating easier also.
Step 5: Cover the outside of the flap, similar to in step 2 and adhere the chipboard cover as shown. You can continue to decorate your album as desired, or you can add a canvas cover over your chipboard. Don't forget to ink all the edges!
Extra step: To cover your album in canvas, just cut your canvas about a 1/4" wider than the width of your chipboard covers. This is too allow for the canvas shrinking if you paint it and for the fraying of the edges, which looks pretty cool too! I don't always cover the chipboard completely, as in the Fall Mini Album. I like the combination of canvas and the patterned papers, so I usually wrap the canvas around the spine of the album and cover about half of the chipboard. The canvas shown in my example was painted with acrylic paint, using some stickers as masks for flowers. To adhere the canvas to the cover, I used a strong liquid tacky glue.
I hope my quick tutorial was helpful and you create a mini paper bag album of your own! Thanks for stopping by today. Please stop by my blog for additional pictures of my Fall Mini Album. If anyone would like additional photos of the tutorial, please leave a comment on my blog and I'll post them there for you!..
Happy Scrappin'
Jody
