Mini-Album Tutorial: Summer Favorites

Right now, the days of summer are lazy and long, but come September, we'll look back and sigh -- why did summer have to go by so quickly? With the help of this month's JBS Mercantile mini-album kit, I've compiled a mini-album to help me seize those summer days and make them last a little longer by documenting the highlights of the season. 

(JBS Mercantile Mini-Album Kit)

Just in case you'd like to create a similar project, I'm happy to share my process! 

Step 1. Prepare the chipboard. Since my intent was to add ink to the chipboard, I started by "priming" the chipboard pieces by brushing a layer of gesso over both sides of each piece, speeding up the drying process with a heat gun. 

Step 2. Add color. I added a spritz of color (paint, ink, or mist will work well) and, using an old credit card, immediately brushed the color over the surface of the chipboard. I repeated this with each piece, front and back. 

Step 3. Brush on glaze. This part may be optional, but to "seal" the surface and to add some shine, I brushed a coat of glaze over the front and back of each piece, once again using my heat gun to speed up the drying process. 

Step 4. Trim papers. I trimmed the papers from the mini-album kit (as well a sheet of ledger paper from the papercrafting kit) to be slightly smaller than the chipboard pieces. I wanted a few of the papers to peek out, so I trimmed those to be a little wider than the others. 

Step 5. Punch edges. Using a Fiskars Daisy Chain punch, I punched the edge of each patterned piece. I then used my Fiskars trimmer to remove the outer straight edge of the paper, revealing the punched floral design as the new outer edge. 

Step 6.  Create die-cut titles. Using my die-cut machine, I created the title of the album, sizing it so that it would fit within the "Favorites" frame from the papercrafting kit.  I used a very common font, Futura. I also created and cut titles for the "chapter" pages of the albums. The album title includes the year, but I left the year off of the chapter titles, so that I could accent them with stamped letters later. 

Step 7. Ink the titles. I placed the titles on a sheet of scrap paper, and inked some of them with aqua ink, and others with neon pink ink. 

Step 8. Punch holes in the paper.  I drew tiny dots on each page, and then used a hole punch to do what hole punches do best: punch holes.

Step 9. Layer and sew the papers for the cover. Once I had layered the patterned papers that I planned to use on the cover, I ran them through my sewing machine. I stitched vertically, in columns, not worrying much about precision (there's great charm in imperfect stitching!), and then I turned the cluster of papers 90 degrees and repeated the process, creating a stitched grid. 

Step 10. Stamp and stitch the "chapter" pages. I adhered the inked die-cut "summer" letters to each of the patterned pages, and stamped category titles under each one. Each page focuses on a different category of summer "favorites," including "movies," "songs," "eats," "treks," "vegging," "service," and "sun."

Step 11. Assemble the album. This is still a work in progress. I will add photos, accents, and journaling throughout the summer months. 

The mini-album kit includes a set of frames, which I plan to add to the album when I start to work in photos and summertime ephemera (like ticket stubs).  The frame will be placed under the chapter title.

Step 12. Look back at this summer any time you want, and savor those long and lazy days. 

That's it!  The album was prepared in a single day, and now I'm looking forward to filling it with sweet summertime memories. 

That reminds me -- one of the delights of this time of year is sweet summertime scrapping! The JBS Mercantile team has been adding to the kit gallery, and they will have more to share with you during the mid-month reveal. Usually the gallery updates are shared on the tenth of each month, but from now on, updates will be on the fifteenth. I've had a peek at some of the projects being added -- I know you'll love them! 

Thanks for stopping by today!