Accordion Album with Box - Chicago Trip

Good Morning Folks! Whew. . .I finished this project yesterday. It was a bit painful but it came out okay. I had a few problems altering the tin box.

JoAnns had a 70% sale on Christmas items and their Christmas tins were less than a dollar so I bought a WHOLE BUNCH of them. Craft tin boxes are expensive and I have a problem altering a plain silver tin box that cost several dollars. . . some running over $5.00 especially the larger ones.

Anyway. . .I altered the tin box with modge-poge and designer paper. After I was done, I accidentally tore the designer paper because it wasn't completely dry so I had to redo it. It was so frustrating.

This is the accordion album inside the tin box.

Album materials used:

Paper: Autumn Leaves designer paper, SU Cardstock Cranberry Crisp, Marigold Morning and Black
Accessories: Marvy Daisy punch, Black Buttons, Embroidery thread, Memory Boutique stickers, JoAnn metal tags, SU Hodge Podge hardware, Making Memories Acrylic Paint, Sizzix scallop tag die

I've been looking at different designs of scrapbook albums on 2 Peas and most of the projects are so busy looking so I decided to create a busy album.

As a cardmaker, I need to get over the uniformed look of cards and step into a scrapbookers mindset. I noticed that scrapbookers use lots of colors, textures, embellishishments. Many projects are very hodge-podge looking. . .you know. . .rarely uniformed or even symetric. I have a lot to learn.



Anyway, this is the front of the accordion album

This is the album opened up. The pictures are of my kids taking funny pictures of themselves while we were riding the trolley in Chicago.

Our trip to Chicago was one of my favorite trips. Chicago is such a fun city. I loved it. I hope one day, I'll be able to visit Chicago again.

Video Tutorial 5 - Mini Brag Book Scrapbook Album

Warning: There is music with this video. Please turn down your volume or use the video knob to adjust the volume as needed. It's a nice classical music and it goes well with the video. Click the "pause" button on the video player to read the instructions as you watch the video. Sorry for the poor lighting on the video.

Hi Everybody!! How was everyone's Christmas? Hope y'all had a great time! It was a nice Christmas for us. I actually got EVERYTHING I asked for considering I asked for only one thing! LOL! I got the 72 set Copic markers. Yay! But wait. . .my husband not only got me one set. . .he got me ALL of the sets! HOLY COW! That's nuts! I almost fainted when I opened my box. Afterwards, I was like. . .I really didn't need all of the colors but hey, I'm not complaining. I also got a flat screen TV/DVD player for my craft room, a new craft desk, a digital camcorder and a photo light box.

Anyway. . .check out the tutorial. I know the video is a bit dark but I didn't realize it was so dark until after I was done with the tutorial. Keep in mind, the tutorial is speeded up to reduce the time. Who wants to watch a long, long tutorial, right? Again sorry for the poor quality of the video. I'll brighten things up next time.

Here are the two completed mini brag book/scrapbook album that are shown on the video tutorial. It's a cute album. . .approximately 5 1/4" x 4 1/2". It's a great album to send to friends and family. Be sure to check out the tutorial and see how simple it is to make it.








This is the completed album that is shown on the video tutorial. On the video the album does not show a complete version of the album.




This is the first page of the album. This album is a horizontal view. There's a total of 6 double sided pages for a total of 12 pages. I just realized that I created the front cover with a vertical orientation. Oh well. . .that's okay.

The theme of this album is my daughter and her friends at Ala Moana beach in Hawaii. My daughther was part of a club in school that focused on technology and leadership. They had to design and create a boat using what available materials they had. They then had to race with the canoe in the water. Some canoes sank immediately.



This is a picture of my daughter. She was a paddler for the race but she fell off the canoe and they lost the race but the boat was the most sturdiest of all the canoe entries. I created a small journal to this page as you can see.

No journaling on this page. . .just a picture of my daughter and her friends. Check out the other mini album I created below.

The theme of this album is my cousin's Hawaiian wedding in Hawaii. We all dressed in Hawaiian attire because the wedding was at a Luau. It was so fun because wedding's and funerals, it seems, are the only time that all of my family get together in one place. It was really nice to see everybody.


I wanted the album to be about the
pictures and the journaling. I'm new to scrapbooking so I'm not quite ready to jump into the overly busy, overly embellished albums and layouts. I prefer the simple looking albums right now. Maybe next time I'll do a busy looking album with all the chunky embellishments and such.

Try out the tutorial! Let me know if it's hard to follow. I'm thinking of creating a written version of it for those who may have problem following the video. Stay tuned.

Envelope Scrapbook Album

Good Morning Folks! Boy, I've been so stinkin' busy and I'm so behind on everything! This weekend was crazy busy but it's over! Thank goodness.

Anyway. . .I managed to squeeze in time to make this "Envelope Scrapbook Album". If you haven't had a chance to stop by my "Stampin Inspirations" blog site. . .I had posted that I had recently bought a CombBind binding machine. I decided to buy the CombBind rather than a Rubicoil for various reasons. One, I already have a Bind It All binding machine and the other reasons are posted on Stampin Inspirations.

Anyway. . .this album was created using "greeting card" size envelopes (the larger size envelopes. . .is it A6? - not sure). You don't need a binding machine to create this album. You can punch holes to the side and use ribbons or book rings to bind the album together. I decided to bind the album using the CombBind.

I decorated the envelopes with designer paper and various sticker embellishments. Most of the embellishments I used are by "Jolee's Boutique". The designer papers are from DCWV Christmas Collection. After designing the envelopes, I tucked the flap into the envelope and using a 1" circle punch, punched a notch at the center top.

Inside the envelopes are scrapbook pages with a scrapbook layout. So far I made 3 pages. I plan to add more pages when I have the time to do so.

Here are the envelopes that I used to create the pockets of the album.

Until later, folks. . .today will again be a busy day! I wish time would slow down a little so I can catch up. . ..

Another Mini Scrapbook Album

Good Evening Everyone! Am I scrapbooker now. . .did I abandon card making and rubber stamping? No. . .all my "rubber stamping" projects are all now being posted on my Stampin Inspirations blog site and all "papercraft" projects on Card Inspired.

I'm still making cards for Card Inspired but it will be cards using paper craft materials as opposed to "rubber stamps". I do still do some rubber stamping on my "paper craft" projects but it's only limited to the sentiments because the truth is I don't have too many "sentiment" stickers and I don't want to have to type and print them out all the time so rubber stamping the sentiments is the easiest and fastest way to do it.

So why are you seeing a lot of scrapbooking on Card Inspired? Here is how I see it. . .since I've started crafting I've rarely kept any of the things I create especially handmade cards. I either swap them, RAK them, or sell them. I never get to keep any of my stuff. . .why should I keep them. . .cards are meant to be given away, not kept.

Scrapbooking and making different projects besides cards are stuff that I can actually keep for myself. Furthermore, I have all these pictures stored in my computer and nobody gets to see them, not even my kids or husband because they're all in my computer. I could do an online photo gallery so they can access the photos but I don't want to do that. The best thing is to print the pictures and create albums so they can look at the pictures. They get a kick looking at pictures of themselves, especially when they were younger. The pictures bring back wonderful memories for all of us.

Anyway. . .the scrapbook album is a mini album created with thin chipboards covered with designer papers and cardstock and embellished primarily with stickers. It was really fun making this mini album but the final album wasn't what I originally had planned to make. The album was suppose to be a vertical flip album that opened up with a stand in the back of it so I could display it in the living room. Unfortunately, without thinking of the orientation of the album, I had laid the photos out in a manner that requires that the album be opened horizontally. When I finally was going to attach it to the flip stand, I realized that the orientation of the photos were done horizontally by mistake.

I wanted to scream!!! No problem. . .I can make another one but the next one will be a "Christmas" album. All is not lost, I punched holes to the side of the album and created a traditional horizontal binding with book rings instead. The album is 5.5 x 5.5" with a total of 10 photo pages.

Materials: 5.5 x 5.5" chipbord, 2 Book (leaf) rings, DCWV Fall Designer Paper Stack and DCWV Textured Fall Cardstock. Stickers on the front cover are all by Jolee's Boutique. All ribbons on the album are Ribbon Rubons, Grosgrain Ribbons, and Organdy Ribbon. Stickers and materials are listed below for each page.


All of the photos were taken in 2003. I chose these photos for this album because we were all dressed up for Halloween. Typically only the kids dress up. We've dressed up in previous years but this is the only year that I have a "group" picture of us.

Materials: Jolee's Boutique, Dress it Up Scaredy Cat, Colorbok Doo-Dads

I was dressed up as "Foxy Cleopatra" from the Austin Power movie. . .I thought DH was a "frankenstein" but he corrected me and said he was a "zombie". On the album, I had stated that he was a "frankenstein". Oops.

Materials: Jolee's Boutique, SU Slit Punch, 1/8" punch


Materials: Dress It Up Scaredy Cat, Colorbok Doo-Dads Spooky Tags, Provocraft Alphabet Punch Out, Jolee's Boutique

Materials: Jolee's Boutique, SU Slit Punch

Alexis was "Samora" from the movie "The Ring" and Anton a "Devil". I had captioned on the album that he was a Dracula but when I showed them the album, they corrected me and said he was a "devil". Okay, he looks like a dracula with horns in my opinion so I guess he was a "Devula".

Materials: Jolee's Boutique stickers, Dress it up Scaredy Cat, Colorbok Doo-Dads

Daily Special - Anything But Cards - Mini Coaster Album

Good Evening Everyone! Today's Daily Special is "Anything But Cards - Mini Coaster Album/Holder". I created this album holder using cardstock and designer paper. I wanted to create an album holder to store my mini album so I came up with this holder. I need to tweak it a little but I think it came out pretty well. The only snag in the process is that I made the mini album a little too bulky. The album holder is 5.5 x 5.5". The diameter of the album is 3.5 x 3.5 which fits into a CD Envelope inside the holder.

Anybody interested in a tutorial of this project? If there's enough interest, I'll create a tutorial.

Comment on this post if you're interested in a tutorial for this project.

The envelope that holds the album is a CD sleeve/envelope. I cut a 4" inch circle on the designer paper and adhered it to the front of the CD envelope.

I didn't have a vintage colored prima flower so I rubbed Tim Holtz Distress Ink on to the large prima flower to give it a "vintage" look.

Materials: Target large prima flowers, Office Depot swirl clip, JoAnn Brad, Artsy Collage Metal Collection, 3 1/2" coasters, Autumn Leaves Designer Paper, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, 3/4" Book Rings


On my birthday. . .celebrating at Nick's Fish Market in Hawaii.

I found the poem on one of my scrapbook programs. It's a poem by Hallmark. I stamped the journaling lines using SU Journaling Fun stamp set and I wrote the poem with gel pen.

I read that it's important to sometimes write the journaling rather than typing it because adding your own writing personalizes your album.

Materials: Office Depot swirl clip, Gold Organdy Ribbon, Got Flowers Prima Flowers, JoAnn Brads, Black and Beige cardstock (unknown), SU Journaling Fun


July 4th photo.

Materials: Making Memories Definitions, Office Depot Swirl Clips, Organdy Ribbon, SU Cranberry Crisp Cardstock, Black Cardstock









Picture was taken during our Chicago trip. . .we were riding in a horse carriage when this picture was take.

Like the first page, the poem is by Hallmark.

Materials: Got Flowers Prima Flowers, JoAnn Brads, Black and Brown Cardstock (Unknown) , SU Journaling Fun

At home in Hawaii. DH's birthday.

Materials: Making Memories Definitions, JoAnn Photo Holders, JoAnn Brads, SU Cranberry Crisp, Black, Got Flowers prima flowers

Daily Special - Mini Accordion Album II

Click Here for the Tutorial

Goood Evening Everyone. Here is another mini accordion album that I created. Check out my previous post to see the other one that I made as well as my "Stampin Inspirations" blog site. I made one for that blog site using "Stampin Up" products.

What's great about this album is that it's cute but also very quick and easy to make. You can actually make this album in 30 minutes to an hour depending on how simple you create the design of your album. I wanted to keep the design of the pages consistent so it has a "theme" to it. I also wanted to keep the design simple so not to take away from the pictures which is supposed to be the focal point of an album. Again, I used primarily "scrap" designer paper and cardstocks to help reduce my scrap pile.

I didn't have enough of the 2 designer papers so I had to split them in halves and it worked out well. The papers constrasted one another really well. I'm slowly reducing my scrap pile. Yay!!

This is the album opened up accordion style. The design is really simple because I didn't want it to be too bulky and over power the pictures because the pictures are small to begin with. Remember the album is only 4x4".

This album is dedicated to my good friend Rita. These pictures were taken in 2003. We had a going away BBQ at my house and the pictures were taken in our backyard. My friend Rita and her family were moving to Tennessee and we had a little get together to wish them off. Rita and I met in college and despite the distance, we still keep in regular contact with one another. We usually talk on the phone or email one another. It was sad to see her move so far away but with real friends, distance don't really matter.

To the left is Rita and her husband. To the right is a picture of Rita's daughter and my dog Dakota kissing her. I really miss our house in Hawaii. We had a lot of good memories there. I especially loved our back yard. It felt really tropical, with a waterfall and all. It was sad when we sold the house when we moved to California. It's a good thing I love our house here in California, otherwise, I would have been REALLY sad.

To the right is a picture of Rita and her daughter and to the left is my cousin and my daughter.

Well, I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow. I'll bring my laptop and camera so I'll post pictures of our vacation. I can't wait. It'll be really fun!!

Hope to see y'all when I return. While I'm away, try out the tutorial and tell me what you think of it!!

Daily Special - Tutorial Day - Mini Accordion Album

Click Here for the Tutorial

Good Morning, Friends. Today's Daily Special is "Tutorial Day" I've been really neglecting the "tutorial" aspect of my blogs. I'll try to do one once a week starting after I return from my trip to San Francisco.

I've been on this weight loss journey and although, I have a very schizophrenic, disorganized, sort of flighty way of dealing with life, you know. . .jumping from one project, idea or task to another but I'm not not a multi-tasker. You know. . .I can't do different tasks at the same time. I can do it one at a time but not for very long because I get bored really quickly; thereby, I have difficulties finishing projects. I always do it sort of half way and move on to another, not really finishing a project completely. Are you thinking ADD? Ha!

Anyway, since going on my diet, well. . .my focus has been on just that, my diet, exercising, etc. . .unfortunately, crafting has become secondary. You may not think so because I blog and create stuff regularly. . .but believe me, I used to make a lot more things. I need to come to a happy medium.

Okay. . .enough of my rambling. Ha! Today's tutorial is "Mini Accordion Album". It's a really, really easy project. I saw this project in a book but it had no instructions. I looked at the pictures and realized how simple it was to make it so I decided this was great tutorial. As you should know by now, I'm on a mission to reduce my scrap pile and this project is a great way to reduce your designer paper pile. This album is 4x4" made with chipboard and if you have a lot of cut up designer paper, this album is small enough to accommodate smaller cuts of paper.

I made this album using only scrapbook paper and cardstock. I cut out the trees from the scrap paper and punched the snowflakes using cardstock. The only none scrap items on this album are the chipboard, ribbon and glitter. I did not have to cut up any additional paper or cardstock! Whoohoo!

I'm planning to make a whole bunch of mini albums to help reduce my scrap pile. I've been wanting to do this for a long time anyway. I love mini albums because you can give it away as gifts or bring it around with you and show them to your friends and family.


Anyway, this particular mini album focuses on our Christmas as a family. Unfortunately, I could not find a "group" Christmas picture of us after 2005. It sort of coincides with our move to California. I think now that our lives are settled, we'll start taking group pictures again this year.

I made another mini accordion album and tried to post it together with this album but I think I overloaded Blogger so I had to remove the other album. I'll post it on my next post.


Anyway, try out this easy project and tell me what you think. Okay.

Hope y'all have a wonderful day!

Altered Tin With Accordion Album

Whew. . .I actually completed this project tonight. I started this afternoon but kept putting it off because I didn't know where to start. I've recently started scrapbooking and it's a little difficult for me to create a layout without it looking like a card. I guess it's the same concept but I feel scrapbooking is a little more complicated. My problem is deciding whether I want the layout to be busy with all sorts of embellishments or make it simple. I see a lot of scrapbook pages with all sorts of embellishments and complicated layouts and I really like them but when I do it, it kinda looks messy or cluttered. It's the card-maker in me fighting against it.





Remember the DVD size tins that I had bought at Big Lot for a dollar each a few weeks ago and had altered for one of my TICs (Tuesday's Inspirational Challenge several post back). I had planned to create an accordion album for it and just today I decided to finally sit down and make it.



The photos are of my daughter. I know, I know. . .she has a ton of make-up on. My husband isn't too thrilled about it. She typically don't wear make-up but I had asked her one day to be my "subject". I wanted to take "artsy-fartsy" types of photos of her. My daughter really loves listening to "garage alternative bands". . .you know, non-mainstream undiscovered bands. Well I wanted to create the "emo" look so I put make-up on her and the photos I took of her were primarily with her not smiling and looking "emo". For this album I chose a couple with her smiling.





I'm planning to create a "rock-n-roll" themed album with the "emo" pictures I took (similar to the last picture). You'll see what I mean when I create the album.



I actually like this picture of my daughter. I love her smile.














I took this picture while she was "whooshing" her hair from side to side. I have a bunch of pictures with her hair in mid air but this one was the more "mellow" shots This suppose to look sort of like a fashion shot. Looking at it now, it sort of looks a bit provocative but that wasn't the intention. Oops. . . remember. . .the pictures are suppose to look artsy-fartsy.

This picture below is the "emo" look I was trying to achive with most of the shots I took. I like it despite all the make-up. It's okay. . .my daughter is 16 years old. She never wears make-up. . .my husband won't allow her to wear make-up but I don't think there's anything wrong with wearing make up especially when it's for fun. Anyway, I'll stop apologizing. I think the pictures look "cool".

Anyway, I really like how my album turned out. I think I balanced simple and busy and ended at a happy medium. I'm excited to make more of them. Stay tuned.

Album recipe:

K&Co Chipboard Stickers, JoAnn Brads and Eyelets, American Craft Elements Ribbons, Sizzix Folder Die, DCWV Textured Cardstock, SU Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa, Autumn Leaves Designer Paper, SU Key Tag Punch, Slit Punch, Word Window Punch, 1" 1/4"square punches (photo corners), Fiskar's "Cloud Scissors, KiCreations Tin Containers, Sakura Gel Pens, SU Classic Ink (Close to Cocoa, Baroque Burgundy, Bordering Blue)

Daily Special - Anything But Cards - Tag Scrap/Brag Album

Today's Daily Special is "Anything But Cards" and the project is a "Tag Scrap/Brag Album". This album is dedicated to my grandmother and my daughter Alexis. The pictures are of my daughter from age 2 to 4 years old.

I haven't posted any cards or projects for the last few days because I've been busy making this tag scrap/brag album. I've also been sketching and drawing. Why am I drawing? Trust me, it's not by choice. I'd rather be making cards.

I've restricted my kids from playing on the computer and video games. In order to play on them, they had to draw or write a poem on a subject that I chose or they don't play. They complained that I should also have to draw something. . .so I did. I'm almost done and I'll post a picture of my drawing once I've completed it.

Working on the drawing and this scrapbook, took away from my card making. Arggghhh. Anyway. .I'll be making few more of these mini album in the next few days. . .one for my son, my husband, and me.

Sorry. . .the pictures didn't come out too well. . .my OTT light don't work as well in the day time for some reason. . .I think because it competes with the natural sunlight shining in my room. Scroll down for the rest of the tag album.

The sentiment to the left is "Definitions" by Making memories, the metal alphas are by Colorbok - from a scrap value pack I bought from JoAnn. These scrap value packs are great because they're very cheap with tons of goodies in it.

The coin envelope to the left has a tag inserted inside with my journaling. I posted a picture of another coin envelope located at the end of the album. . .it also includes a tag with my journaling. . .scroll down for the sample.

The flower was created using a Marvy flower punch, the sentiment to the left by Making Memories, and the epoxy stickers are from a scrapbook it by Ki Memories. The rhinestones are by Darice.

This is a picture of my daughter at age 3.

The sentiments on the envelope to the left are stickers. . .the sentiment "Perfection" is by Making Memories and the flower charm hanging off the sentiment is also by Making Memories.


My journaling on a tag inserted into a coin envelope that I decorated with designer paper. The sentiments are stickers. The ribbons are by American Craft Elements.

The last page. . .my daughter the little devil.

Looks like the button at the bottom slipped off the flower. Anyway, the sentiments were created using SU Everyday Flexible Phrases