Hi Daisies! I am so excited to share some of the details of the mini album I made using the fabulous Story Time kit this month. This September kit is my all-time favorite kit from Cocoa Daisy- so far. I say that nearly every month, but that just proves how great Christine is at pulling together items, colors and designs that work together and inspire creativity too! It definitely rubbed off on me as I opened my kit this month. As soon as I saw the exclusive floral paper I knew it was going to be a cover for something. Here is a peek at the process and the end results of my mini album.

I got the Main Kit, the Fairy Tale add-on and the Day in the Life kit and used a bit of my personal stash for embellishing this album. The DITL album arrives in an adorable canvas bag each month. Included in the kit are some 6×6 papers as well. That is what jump-started the mini album for me. I took the floral paper and folded it in half. As soon as I did that I realized how cool it would be to use the bag as the inner pages. I just had to figure out how to make them work together!

I am very carefree when it comes to my process, so nothing is ever measured or done precisely or with straight lines. I simply eyeball and cut and I folded the cloth into thirds til they seemed to be about the same size. I knew I wanted this mini to have lots of ‘feel’ to it, so I left some of the edges ‘raw’ and a couple of them I stitched across the bottom so that they were single pages. This is the kind of project to just go to town on and see what happens! I bet you will love the results you end up with too! If you cut something ‘wrong’ or something doesn’t line up just right, well to me that is always a chance to find a way to improvise or ‘cover your error’. It’s part of the fun I think! Once the pages were stitched I ran a single straight stitch through the center of them and the paper cover. Then I added a transparency to the front as well with a zig-zag stitch. A little corner punch and this is what it looked like so far…

Next came the fun part…filling up those blank pages! I had so many photos from a single day-trip to Chicago that my husband and I went on for our 19th anniversary, so I made mini collages with the pictures at picmonkey.com. If you size the background at 800 x 1200 you can then save your collage(s) as jpegs and print them as 4×6 photos wherever you like to print your photos. I just uploaded mine to my local Walgreens one-hour service because I wanted my pictures fast. They were a pretty good quality for 19 cents a print, I believe. I printed 4 or more photos on each print, so it turned out pretty cheap and fun to have various sizes of tiny pictures. So that’s one handy tip for you!

I found that using fabric for pages was a little bit tricky. I love the texture so much and it just adds a cool element to a tiny book like this. Some of the techniques I used for attaching photos and trims and other details were: machine stitching, stapling, Therm-o-web super adhesive strips and fabric glue. The packaging of some of the products made for sweet tags in this book too. This is the kind of project where it works well to just play around and use up bits and pieces of all sorts of things. Ribbons and pom-pom trim and stamps and washi tape all add fun details and texture to the pages.

I found that a few of my photos were too large for the width of the page. You’ll see I cut one into the shape of an arrow and used it across both pages and it makes a fun element all it’s own. You would think I planned it out like that all along, right?! =) Other pictures and elements I simply left to hang over the ‘edge’ and figured it would just add a bit of bulk to the design. I love that the pages aren’t perfect in this…and yet they absolutely are because of that! Does that even make sense?! =)

I loved cutting and punching the papers and using up the embellishments in Story Time so much! I stuck with similar colors and that makes a project flow and seem very cohesive no matter if you are making a mini book, a page, cards or any other projects. I didn’t have a lot of room on these pages for journaling, so I found ways to add a bit more punch- like stamping on the wood ampersand to make a cute point.

I got to the final cloth page and realized I had more photos and things I wanted to share. So I put my thinking cap on and made a flip-out page by taping a piece of acetate to the back cover with washi tape. I then clipped a glassine envelope to the back that holds extra photos. I also made a tiny envelope with the exclusive star paper that I loved so much too. That holds extra bits like a receipt, business card from the place where we enjoyed some fine dining, and our parking ramp ticket.

Here is the final project~ front and back. It is such a sweet little album to mark a great day and occasion. It’s not every day that you celebrate being married for 19 years afterall!

Hopefully you have been inspired and maybe even picked up a tip or trick to use in your next scrapping endeavor. I am already looking forward to making my next mini and I hope you love digging into your Cocoa Daisy kits as much as me. Happy scrapping, everyone and if you have any questions about this mini or a technique used, feel free to leave a comment and I will be sure to respond back!