So anyway... After thinking about my 2010 album and what kind of album I wanted to make this year, I really knew 2 things: 1. That I wanted to use more fun colors (last year's album was mostly black, grey and red) and 2. I wanted to try a square format. I also remembered that my absolute favorite page from last year was when I used an entire 5x7 photo as the page itself. So I figured I'd work with that 7" dimension and create a 7" square album. Here's the cover I created for the album. I started with a 7.5"x7.5" (slightly larger than the 7" square) piece of thick cardstock (7 Gypsies), added holes for the binding, rounded the corners, covered 1 side with self-adhesive felt (to give it some cusion) and then I wrapped that same side with fabric I sprayed with a spray adhesive. I cut the fabric about 1/2" larger than the chipbaord and tucked the edges around. I coverd the inside face of the covers with another sheet of self-adhesive felt and added oversized grommets to the holes.
Here is the album as it stands now. I'm using 4 binder rings as the binding. I'll add the date and some kind of embellishment at some point:
Here is the inside of the front cover, where the felt is:
I spent a good amount of time looking at different manufacturer's 2011 Christmas releases and finally decied that the "Holly Jolly" collection by Echo Park would be perfect. I love the color combinations and all the adorable patterns. It'll be a nice change of pace from my album last year. I pre-cut all my papers down to 7"x7"" and rounded the corners:
To make the most of the Echo Park Holly Jolly collection's bright & cheerey patterns, and to accomodate that 5"x7" spot I wanted, I used my patterned paper scraps to cut 2"x7" strips. I plan to attach them to each pair of facing pages either on the outside edges, inside edges, or along the bottom. I'm going to alternate a solid cardstcok or glitter cardstcok page with a patterened page, so each pair of facing pages has 1 of each. The 2"x7" strips will match though, kind of like book-ends. Here's a loose-laid example:
I decided that I liked interjecting some surprise "transparency" pages last year, so I grabbed some scrap acetate packaging, trimmed them to 7"x7" with rounded corners and used spray-adhesive to adhere some Ki Memories die-cut paper to them:
I also wanted a few smaller "pages" here and there, to allow me to add more small pics on busy days, or for more journalling. After giving it some thought I created these large tags:
I'm not sure if I'll add them in pairs or just 1 here and 1 there, top or bottom, but with the rings positioned where they are, I'm open to both options. Here's what they look like inserted into the album:
I also pre-cut some mini tags for journalling (I added some old Cosmo Cricut paper that coordinated and had some good journalling lines), and a stack of 4.25"x4.25" white cardstcok for matting 4" square photos. I won't use that photo format on ALL the pages, but it at least gives me the supplies to create some fast pages during a hectic month. So here's where I'm at. It's been a lot of fun doing all the prep, now I'm just waitng until December!:
