I decided to call this mini an ultra mini album – which automatically made it the first in my brand-new category of mini albums. 🙂 The ultra mini album sits right between my category of micro albums and regular, full-blown mini albums: sort of like an ultrabook – you know, the category of superthin laptops sitting right between a netbook and a regular full-blown laptop 🙂
Creating an ultra mini album turns out to be a great way to use up your leftover design papers, especially if you’ve got more than just tiny scraps.
For the binding of this ultra mini I used my Cinch; the design paper is Flora and Fauna by K&Company.
I invite you to check out the Flora & Fauna XL keepsake album that I mention in the video. And if you want to make some scrap mats of your own, I recommend my scrap mat tutorial!
So what if it’s not Father’s Day anytime soon! I just wanted to give my dad a special card, just to let him know I love and appreciate him, and I was going to do it right now. 🙂
My father loves his nature, flowers and animals, so I took a sheet of cream-colored A4 paper, added a couple of pieces of the perfectly fitting Flora and Fauna design paper and got to work! Oh, and also, I harvested some of the pears and apples growing in my garden so as to make a cute autumn harvest basket for my dad. Needless to say, he loved it!
When my mother saw the Butterflies & Stars keepsake album I had recently designed for a friend, she immediately commissioned one herself, as a present for her cousin. There are some differences between the two albums though. For instance, this Flora and Fauna album is somewhat larger than its predecessor; the designs of both its base pages and its cover pieces are different as well.
All in all it took 21 sheets of A4 cardstock for the construction of the pages and tags and about 23 sheets of double-sided design paper (12×12 inches). For the cover I took two 12×12 inch pieces of cardboard, created five unique pieces and arranged them just so.
Two pieces of linen bookcloth strengthen the folds of both spines. The magnets I used for the closure are by Basic Grey, they’re absolutely the strongest crafting magnets I could find!
My mother’s cousin is a dear 80-year-old who loves her garden and everything in it, so my mother wanted somewhat of a “garden theme with little birds and bees and butterflies”.
Fortunately K&Company’s gorgeous Flora and Fauna design paper was already eagerly awaiting me in my stash, begging me to be used – and the very pale lavender color of the cardstock turned out to be the perfect combination. I also used some of the matching embellishments and design elements that go along with this paper – which I’ll show you in de video.
Anyway, long story short, the keepsake album turned out rather beautifully and I’m more than happy with it myself. If you’d like to create an album like this yourself, check out the tutorial for my Springtime Dreams Keepsake Album, for it has the same basic page design!
This is truly a very lovely paper that reminds me of a walk through the park in spring with lots of grass and flowers, trees and birds – and their little eggs! I know it’s autumn now, but with gray, wet skies covering the Netherlands I like to think ahead and picture next year’s spring in my mind! 🙂
As its name suggests, its theme is all flowers, plants, birds and butterflies, although it also has one sheet of music & poetry – couldn’t tell you why for the life of me, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Maybe there’s someone reading poetry in that park, accompanied by someone playing a soothing melody on the piano…..
A couple of weeks ago I found a nice little Youtube tutorial for a photo wallet made of only one piece of doublesided 12×12 inch paper (30×30 cm). So I chose a beautiful, stylish piece of design paper by K&Company, Flora and Fauna, and got to work.
Keeping a bit low profile with the embellishments, I tried to make the wallet as flat as possible. Assuming the person who receives it might want to keep her business cards nicely together in her handbag, any 3D embellisments or bling would run the risk of coming off and getting lost in said handbag. So I kept it nice, flat and simple and just used some ribbon and a border punch.
Here’s the minimalist yet still very feminine end result!
