Valentine's Mini Album Swap

Hey Ya'll!

It has been a while but I have been really busy with my papercraft and cake businesses as well as working full time, so unfortunately I let blogging get away from me:( But I am back now and am so excited to share with you all some projects that I have been working on!

So recently I participated in a Valentine theme swap in one of the Facebook scrapbookers groups I belong to. You were randomly assigned a partner and you could make anything that was Love/Valentine's related. I decided to make a small mini photo folio. I used Valentine's theme paper pad by Recollections. Which by the way... they have really stepped up their game with their new paper pads. I absolutely love them! And the fact that they are a hot buy at Michaels makes it even better! But I digress... lol.. so yes I used their theme paper and design a small but very cute love theme mini photo folio.

 It measures 5x7 and holds about 20 photos. I used one of the bigger cut aparts to use as the front of the folio. I also used the coordinating flowers for this particular stack to adorn the front cover. I cut out a dark red heart and glued it to the front cover as well to create a tuck spot and put in a smaller cut a part from the collection. To keep everything together, I used a Tim Holtz elastic band which I also love!

 I use magents in this folio so I could more creative with embellishments. So I glue a dark red heart to one side of the page so when closed it looks like its in the center of the page but doesn't stop the pages from opening.

This is what that page looks like open. These pages can hold a  4x6 and some  3x3 photos.  

 This is the other side of the folio. You turn the red/pink damask page and this underneath a split mini flaps and a double pocket page. The split flaps can hold 4 4x4 photos. And the page with the vintage writing script can hold a 4x6 photo.

The double pocket page can 4x6 and 5x7 photos on the photo mats! So this folio may be small but can hold bigger sized photos. There is also another tuck spot I created with another dark red heart and cut out some more of the smaller cut a parts.

And there is still more! So you flip the page that the split mini flaps page and there is a pocket on the page that hold 2 more 4x4 photo mats and then a bigger pocket on the back of the folio. In the bigger pocket can 4x6 photos.

 Here are the photo mats that I made for the double pocket page. Once I just loved this paper! My swap partner got her folio yesterday with a few other goodies I included in the box and she just loved it!

I just started selling my albums and folios about 6 months ago so I am still very nervous when I make one if they will like it or not but it seems that so far people are loving them which makes me so happy. I have a few more to show off that I will be posting this week that were made months ago that I just am now getting to showcase. Until next time...

My 1st Photo Folio

Hey Ya'll,

So I did not intend to go soooo long without posting. You know the deal.. life happens between my full time job, being a wife and mommy, and owner of two part time businesses.. blog posting got pushed to the back burner. But I am going to make a greater effort to blog since most outside of my Etsy shop when I post scrapbooks, I don't get a chance to showcase them any where else. Which leads to tonight's post. Showing off one of my favorite designs for scrapbooks, the photo folio!

A photo folio is a low profile scrapbook that is more about the pictures than the embellishments but that doesn't mean that they aren't as cute. So with a photo folio paper choice is EVERYTHING!!! I like to use the paper packs/collections that have bold prints and lots of designs in the collection. Some collections you get maybe 6 to 12 designs which works fine for scrapbooks, but with folios since the focus is more on the pictures and thus you see the paper, having lots of coordinating designs is key (at least in my opinion and design style:)). Typically in my experience, the thicker paper pads the thinner the paper the design is printed on, so that is why using higher quality base cardstock is keep in creating a sturdy photo folio. You want it to last a long time and not tear after you put in all of those hours making it. I also learned that using a cardstock that folds easily will make your life easier and prevent cracking. The thinner cardstocks typically doesn't crack. The thicker ones or ones with glitter on them do.. so I tend to use those in some of my other scrapbooks.

So now that you have a general idea of what a photo folio is, let me show you the first one that I created:)

This photo folio has a magnetic closure since I wanted to keep it low profile and not use a traditional ribbon closure. Its size is  7 x 9 to hold a variety of photos. I put some embellishments on the front like keys and cut outs from the paper collection. 

This is a close up of some of the paper flowers I made and some of the keys I used. 

More coordinating paper flowers and a cut out from the paper collection finishes off the front cover. I used flat back pearls and rhinestones as the centers of each flower. 

I used the same paper pattern on the inside front and back cover of the folio and used cut aparts to make tuck spots for smaller photos or to write details about the photos you can place on the inside covers. 

This folio is full of flaps and different size pockets to fit a variety of photo sizes from 3 x 4 to 5 x 7 they can all fit in this folio. Since the folio is all apart being low profile, you can't add too many embellishments because it will bulk it up and it won't lay right so I used very few embellishments like the wooden arrow and heart that I colored with Spectrum Alcohol markers to match the colors scheme of the paper collection. I also paper clips for extra spots to tuck photos in. 

This is center portion of the folio. I created two sets of waterfalls in different sizes to add some interest. I used magnetic closures for to keep the waterfalls in place. 

I ended up giving particular photo folio to one of my best friends which she absolutely loved! I have a done a few more since this one, making modifications along the way. With folios you can create a number of them with each one being slightly different in terms of the number of photos it holds as well as interactive elements. 

Next post I will be show casing another photo folio but this one has some extra special features to it that I made for my son's teacher. 

Until next time...