DIY Mini Envelope Album

Looking for a unique way to showcase your memories? Try making a DIY album using mini envelopes.

DIY Mini Album - Using Mini Envelopes.

One of my favourite things to make are notebooks or mini albums. I've never met a mini album or notebook I didn't love. I always like to have one tucked away in my bag to jot down notes or save receipts in.

I've made and shared quite a few here on the blog but I think this mini envelope album might be my favourite.

Have you seen these envelope mini albums before? They're so clever. I made a similar one the other year but it folded like an accordion instead (you can find my accordion folding album here).

Each page of the album doubles as a pocket so you can store photos, tickets or other memorabilia inside. Such a cute idea.

Supplies:

• Patterned cardstock or mini envelopes

• Martha Stewart score board and envelope tool or an envelope punch board

• Paper trimmer

• Glue Stick

• Double Sided Tape

• Washi tape, stickers and embellishments to decorate.

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How to make an Envelope Mini Album.

1. To begin with you need to make your mini envelopes. I trimmed my card down to 5½ x 5½ inches to make a finished envelope measuring 3¾ inches x 2¾ inches (or 9½ x 7 cm).

2. If you're using a Martha Stewart scoreboard like I did you need to place the envelope template in the top left corner and then place your paper alongside the edge of the template.

The template has measurements on you can use as a guide to make the envelopes. I scored at the 2-inch mark, rotated 90 degrees, scored at the 2½ inch mark and repeated.

Another alternative is to use an envelope punch board like this one, use an existing envelope as a template like I did here or pick up a pack of mini envelopes from your local craft shop.

3. Use a pair of scissors or a craft knife and a ruler and cut away each of the corners where the 2 scorelines meet.

4. Fold along the scorelines and use some glue or double-sided tape to stick the side flaps down.

5. Repeat until you have enough envelopes.

6. The next thing you need to do is start connecting the envelopes. Take your 1st envelope and fold back the flap. This will be the cover of your mini album.

7. Take a 2nd envelope and apply glue or double sided tape to the inside (the plain side) of the top flap.

8. Flip the 2nd envelope over and slide it into the 1st with the sticky side facing down. Make sure to press down firmly.

9. Repeat adding more pages until you're happy with the size of your mini album.

10. When you get to the end you should be left with only the 1st envelope flap showing. Wrap it around to the back of your album to finish the cover.

I found it helped to measure and score the flap where it naturally folded to help make a neat spine.

11. Use some strong double sided tape to stick the flap down. I like to use this wonder tape roll. It's super sticky and holds forever.

Now for the fun part. Decorate and fill your mini album to your heart's content.

I love how this project turned out. For my envelopes, I used some glittery patterned card I picked up from the craft department in The Range. It was only £3 for a pad of 32 sheets (4 x 8 in) by a company called DecoTime.

I used some die cuts from My Minds Eye, some pretty paper washi tape strips and letter stickers both from Simple Stories to embellish my cover. It's hard to show in a photograph but I love the combination of matte and glossy.

I already want to make another one, this time a little bigger. I think they'd work great as a recipe book. Each recipe could have a photo on one side and the recipe on a card in the opposite pocket.

What do you think?

Want more crafts? Check out some of my favourites below:

• DIY Accordion Envelope Mini Album

• Scrapbook Paper Pocket Envelopes

• DIY Instagram Mini Album

DIY PAPERCLIP TRICK NOTEBOOK.

Paperclip Notebook Binding.

I fell in love with the cards I used to make my upcycled gift boxes so I couldn't resist going back and seeing what else they had in the same range. I snapped up a couple more of their gorgeous bright and colourful cards and decided this was a perfect opportunity to show you another of those crafting tricks I picked up in school.

If you don't have any experience with book binding and hand stitching I know the whole process can seem pretty intimidating. This clever paperclip trick is super simple and lets you bind notebooks together quickly and without a single stitch.

Bookbinding has never been so easy!

Supplies :

• Cards or Cardstock,

• Hole Punch,

• Paper, 

• Gold Paperclips, 

• Rubber Bands,

• Bone folder,

• Craft knife,

• Steel Ruler,

• And a cutting mat.

Some of the above links are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase through them I receive a small commission.

1. To make the cover cut your card in half following the center fold.

2. Mark the halfway point on your card and use this as a guide to punch your holes.

3. Use a bone folder and a ruler and score a line about an inch in. This means that your notebook cover will be able to open and close easily without creasing.

4. Using your cover as a guide punch holes in your paper. I was able to punch about 6-8 sheets at a time. For the pages I used A5 plain paper as it fit the height of the card cover perfectly. To stop the paper moving around as you punch it use a couple of paperclips to hold your stack in place.

5. Sandwich the plain paper between your card covers and tap it down against the table top to make sure all the holes line up. Don't worry about the paper being too long as this point. We'll be fixing this later.

6. Take your ruuber band and thread in onto a paperclip. Push the rubber band through the top hole and thread it through the bottom hole from the back. Stretch the rubber band and hook it onto the bottom of the paperclip.

This part can be a bit tricky depending on the rubber band you're using. If you're having trouble getting the band to fit try gently curling your notebook towards you as you attach it to the paperclip.

7. Trim off any excess paper using a craft knife and a steel ruler. I find it works best to do lots of light even strokes to get a smooth finish. You can use a fine sandpaper to gently sand away any uneven cuts.

And that's it. You're all done. I used some brightly coloured rubber bands and gold paperclips to match my cards and I'm more than pleased with how they turned out. In fact, I think they look pretty fantastic ;)

What do you think? Is this something you'll be giving a go?

P.S. You can now follow the blog over on Facebook. Yay!

Gathering Beauty

SIMPLE SOFTCOVER NOTEBOOK DIY.

I discovered this fantastic blog called Design & Form whilst trawling Pinterest on the weekend, sadly it isn't being updated any more but you can still pore through the archives and enjoy it's beautiful minimal aesthetic and clever diy's. I loved these diy felt slippers, braided trivet and origami paper lily but it was this diy for an xl notebook that really caught my eye. You know how much I love notebooks and you can never have too many, right?

To make my notebook I used some A4 printer paper that I already had lying around. For the cover I used a couple of pieces of  scrapbook paper from the Diy Shop range from Crate Paper. It's another one of those easily customisable projects that you know I love. The original diy used plain black paper for the cover but by choosing your favourite patterned or non-patterned paper or even making your own and adding some colourful ribbon or twine you can put your own unique spin on it.

Things you'll need to make your own Simple Diy Softcover Notebook: A4 paper, Scrapbook paper, A pencil, A ruler, Hole punch, Bakers twine, And some scissors.

1. To make sure all your holes are in the same place you'll need to make a guide. Mark on a piece of paper where you want the holes to be. I measured mine 1.5 inches and 2.5 inches from the top and the same on the bottom.

2. Line up the hole punch and punch out the holes. To make sure I only punched one hole at a time I used the end of my hole punch and then moved it in an inch. A single hole punch would work even better.

3. Take a stack of paper (10 sheets at a time worked best for me), use your guide piece of paper to mark the holes on the top piece and punch. If you're worried about your stack of paper moving around you can use a couple of binder clips to hold your paper in place. Keep going until you have a thick stack of paper.

4. Measure and cut out a couple of pieces or scrapbook paper for the cover. The piece I used is a calendar made up of rulers, I really like that you can use it to highlight and take note of certain dates. I wanted my book to be soft and flexible so I choose scrapbook paper for the cover but you could use a thin card if you wanted a more sturdy notebook. Just remember your hole punch needs to be able to punch through it.

5. Line up your stack of paper with the covers on both sides and thread some bakers twine through the holes. Tie in a tight knot on the back of your notebook to keep the front looking neat and tidy and you're all done.

Pretty easy, right? I love that it's nice and thick and the pages rip out easily as well. I think it would make a great sketchbook although I'd probably need a thicker cover if I was going to carry it around with me. For now this one is sitting on my desk so we'll see how it goes. If I end up liking it as much as I think I will I can always make another but this time with a stronger cover and maybe even some watercolour or sketchbook paper as the pages.

DIY FOLDING ENVELOPE MINI ALBUM.

Ever since I made this Diy Instagram Mini Album I've been thinking about more ways of using and storing my printed photos. I thought about making another pocket notebook like this one but I wasn't quite sure and after a quick google for 'envelope albums' I found a couple of great tutorials for making accordion folding albums using envelopes. You can find them here and here.

The thing I love about this accordion mini album is that no matter how much you fill/stuff your envelopes with photos this album will keep expanding. No more overstuffed albums.

So, let's get started.

Supplies:

• Envelopes

• Scrapbook Paper - I used the Close Knit range from Crate Paper

• Card stock or chipboard

• Double-sided sticky tape

• Ribbon

• Glue

• Scissors.

1. Decide on how many envelopes/pages you want.

2. Open up your envelopes and lay them flat. Using either glue or double sided sticky tape you're going to stick the inside of the envelope flap to the back of the next envelope.

3. Keep going until you've stuck down all your envelopes. Fold like an accordion and put to the side for later.

4. To make the hardcover for your mini album you need to cut a piece of card stock or chipboard slightly larger than your envelope. I made mine a couple of millimetres bigger on each side. You need to make your cover slightly larger so it can protect your pages/envelopes from being damaged.

5. Stick your hardcover pieces down onto your chosen scrapbook paper leaving a 1cm border. Cut triangles into the corners. Leave a small gap at the corner tips (about 1 mm). This gap will fold around the depth of the chipboard.

6. Fold and glue down each flap and leave to dry. Depending on what type of glue you've used you may need to press your cover pieces as they dry as pva and mod podge can warp the card.

7. To make the closure cut and glue down a piece of ribbon to the back of each of your cover pieces.

8. To finish the back cover, glue down the final envelope flap along with your piece of ribbon. Cover them both with another piece of scrapbook paper.

9. Repeat for the front cover except this time you'll need to glue the whole envelope down.

10. Once dry decorate and fill with your photos.

P.S. You can find more things to make and do on my diy/crafts page.