DIY: sweet mini album

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Easter!

Today I would like to share with you a tutorial about how to make this sweet little album :)

The original tutorial is in slovak as this mini album was my DT work for Papero Amo.

(minialbum som vytvorila pre Papero Amo, originálny návod v slovenčine nájdete na ich blogu)

First, let me say that I've seen few project with this kind of binding but never found a tutorial about how to make it. So I made up my own :) Here it is!

You're gonna need: A4 cardstock sheets (or scrapbooking papers), washi tape, glue, sewing machine (not necessary), ruler, cutter or trimmer and whatever you want to embellish the front page (or the inside pages). I've used buttons, a tag from Elle's Studio, scrapbooking paper from Crate Paper and Big Shot and created accordion flowers.

Step 1:  Cut the A4 cardstock into 15x30 cm size. If you're using scrapbooking papers, just cut them in half. You'll get a 15x15 cm (6x6 ") minialbum.

Step 2: Fold each sheet in half.

Step 3 (a tip): In order to get a nice and crisp fold (especially for the cover page where I've used a thicker cardstock) I've used a Tim Holtz water brush. Just "draw" a water line and the paper will fold nicely. (Pepsi is watching and learning, too :) )

Step 4: Put all the folded pages together.

Step 5: Now, if you're not using a sewing machine, you can skip this step and go to the next step. If you're using a sewing machine, divide the folded sheets in about three groups (5 sheets per group). It will be easier to sew them up in a small groups.

Step 6: Glue the pages together - but only on the upper and bottom side, don't glue the right side - you will get a space between the two pages (and there's no need to glue the lef side either). I've used just a school glue, because I'm going to sew them together. If you skipped the previous step and are not going to use the sewing machine, be sure to use a strong glue so the pages won't fall apart.

Step 7:  Sew over the upper and bottom side.

Step 8: Do this with each group of pages and eventually sew them together. It's easier to sew together two groups of pages then to sew the last page to the bunch of all the pages.

Step 9: Binding. Measure how thick the album is. Don't press the pages when measuring so there will be enough space inside for photos and embellisments. Cut out a piece of cardstock - mine is 15cm long (the album is 15x15) and 2,5cm wide (the thickness of all the pages together).

Step 10: Prepare a large stripe made out of a washi tape. It should be at least twice the width of the piece of cardstock we've just cut out.

Step 11: Put the stripe on the washi tape as on the photo.

Step 12: Use it to bind the pages together.

The base of the album is done! Now for the embellishing. I've used my new Big Shot - and my favourite accordion flower dies - AGAIN! I just LOVE these flowers :) Here are the links:

                                        

I cut out few of them, using the Big Shot, white cardstock and Crate Paper patterned paper (from Flea Market collection)...

... and embellished the front page. Tadaaaaa  :)

Happy crafting! ♥