Mini Pocket Album - May 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit
Hey, y’all! For my first May project, I have a mini pocket album inspired by the “Tea Book Ephemera Organiser’s” from Bohemian Crafting! When I saw the original video, I knew I had to make my own little book! Not only is this an adorable little book/album, but it is also easy to put together!
Make sure to check out my video and see it all come together!
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For my cover, I used a piece of poster board from when my kids were in school. It’s flexible, yet sturdy – I’m not very good and guessing the weight of paper, but I do know it isn’t as thick as the 130# cover stock I like to use as card bases!
I cut out a 10-inch by 8-1/4-inch rectangle from the poster board, then on the 10-inch side, I scored at 4-1/2-inches, rotated the cover 180 degrees, and scored at 4-1/2-inches again. You could also score at 4-1/2 inches and 5-1/2-inches if you didn’t want to rotate your cover piece, I only rotated mine to make sure I had the front and back flaps of the cover as close to equal as I could get! This way, if my original cut wasn’t “exactly” 10 inches, my front and back cover would still be 4-1/2 inches, and any “excess” would just find its way to the spine!
I picked out the papers I wanted to use for my cover and cut four 4-1/2-inch by 3-inch rectangles out of the floral paper and two 4-1/2-inch by 2-1/4-inch rectangles out of the orange-ish paper. I added the extra 1/4-inch to the orange-ish paper to give a little bit of extra to work with to make sure I didn’t have any gaps – which is also why I glued it down before the floral paper! I didn’t glue the paper down to the spine until after I had the pages stitched in, because I knew I wanted to cover all the thread.
After the outer papers were glued to the front and back cover, I poked some stitch holes and added some simple stitches using 6-strand embroidery floss (I used all 6 strands!). Then I picked out the papers for the inside of the covers, cut the background papers just long enough to have the edge hidden by the 3-inch pockets, glued them to the cover, and added the pockets.
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I have three different pocket page sizes – 3, 3-1/2, and 4 inches – made from 6”x6”, 7”x7”, and 8”x8” squares of paper. And, regardless of the finished size, they were all made the same – folded in half, then half again! This gives an opening at one long edge of the paper (the top of my pockets) and the two short, outer edges. To seal the outer edges, I didn’t glue them closed, I used leftover strips of the BoBunny paper, solid cardstock, and BoBunny stickers to hold them closed. As an optional step, you can also use a circle punch – or just scissors – to add thumb holes to the top edge of the pockets! I inked the edges of my pages, and since it is chalk ink, I have my pockets a spray of Workable Fixatif to help the chalky finish stay in place.
After I had the edges sealed, I added a strip of green cardstock to the inside spine and finally stitched my pages to the spine through the holes I had pre-poked using a template I had made to help me keep my pages centered and evenly spaced. Each page has two holes for stitching through – 1/4” from the top and bottom of the pocket – and I just used simple straight stitching to hold them in.
Once the stitching was done, I finally added the papers I had picked for the spine to cover my thread.
After the pages were sealed, I used more of my scrap pieces –the solid cutoffs stamped with one of Tim Holtz’s newest stamps - and some of the stickers to add some simple decoration to the pages and cover – sometimes adding another wrap around the edge, sometimes creating tabs for the edges. On the cover I also used one of the Tres Jolie Chipboard pieces, coated with clear gesso from my stash, the Faded Jeans Chalk Ink from the kit, and a little clear embossing powder, and with some of the KaiserCraft pearls on the stem.
Thank you for joining me here today, I hope you enjoyed this mini pocket page album and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
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In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I used:
Finnabair Clear Gesso, Tim Holtz “Floral Trims” Stamps, Fiskars 1.5” Circle Punch, We R Memory Keepers Tab Punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Hampton Art Clear Embossing Powder, UHU Stic, Art Glitter Glue, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, double-sided tape, Krylon Workable Fixatif, Liquitex Matte Varnish, 3M Durapore Tape