Mini Baby Album in a Tin/Graphic 45 Tutorial

I'm so excited this week waiting for my friend ,Trina, to come back from Iqaluit . She will be bringing home her precious new daughter, Carlie, a little sister for Mackenzie. Two very lucky little girls who are blessed with such wonderful parents in Trina and Svein!

I warned you that I wasn't finished play with Graphic 45 's adorable Little Darlings line of pp. I found these gift card holder tins at Walmart a couple of weeks ago in the card section for $1 each.

The black card holder part was very easily removed  from the tin and I immediately thought " Hmmmm...this would make a cute little holder for a mini book......".And so I turned it into this!

 And this is what it looks like on the inside....an accordion style book with pages for photos and pages with little tag inserts for Trina to jot down little tidbits about her sweet little Carlie. The last page is adhered to the inside of the tin.

 Here's a view of the back side of the accordion book.....

This would make a very sturdy brag book to carry in your purse as the tin seals tight and protects all the contents.

So here's a quick little peek at how I made this little book.

As stated above, I first removed the card holder insert and discarded it. I then flipped the tin over and measured it to determine the size I would need for my page bases. My tin measured 11.5 cm long by 9 cm wide. I decided to cut my base a little smaller at 11cm x 8.5 cm and I knew I wanted to make it "accordion" style, so I marked my plain cardstock as shown on the next photo.

I cut out three identical pieces, adhering them end to end to make a longer accordion. I then rounded each corner with an EK Success corner rounder punch as the tin itself had rounded corners.

 Next I inked all edges and seams in between the pages both front and back with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

Eeeeewwww...looks messy doesn't it? Don't worry. It'll just have a little distressed edge showing when we are done.

 I then proceeded to cut out my actual pages , 8 cm x 10.5 cm . I used a variety of papers from the  G45 Little Darlings pps. I rounded all these corners as well and also inked all edges with DI Vintage Photo.  .

I chose five pages to be journal pages. To make these, I first cut out five baby pictures/blocks off the " Bundle of Joy" sheet . I attached them to their respective pages by using 1/8 th" skor tape on just the sides and across the bottom thereby creating a little pocket for my journaling tags. I used standard 4 3/4 x 2 3/8 shipping tags which I trimmed slightly in both width and length to fit in my pockets. I also punched the bottom edges with the Eyelet Lace punch by Martha Stewart and inked all edges.

Here's a close up of two finished pages.

 And here are all my "finished' pages:

 The 'bands' across the bottoms of the pages are only adhered on the back of the pages so that a photo may be slipped underneath.
 Now proceed to glue down your pages to the base in whatever order you desire.  I punched and inked a bunch of butterflies  with the classic Martha Stewart butterfly punch and added them nilly willy on my pages for a little additional decoration. One more note. I cut the' Rock a Bye Baby' piece from the "Bundle of Joy' sheet, punched the corners with the rounder, inked all edges and slipped it under the ribbons to complete the front of the tin and viola! a unique, sturdy little present for sweet Carlie!

 Of course, what's a gift without a card , right?  I whipped up this little card from my scraps to go along with this present.

 Thanks so much for popping by again today. I can't believe I've done a posting TWO days in a row.  Can I make it three???? ummmmmm...let me think about it ! LOL Toodles