Maine Mini Album

This may be a long post so I ask for your patience....  I recently saw this cute, cute little, little mini album made using 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 coin envelopes by the fabulous Mary at CardzTv and here are the links to the instructions:  http://cardztv.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-itty-bitty-mini-album-part-one.html and http://cardztv.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-itty-bitty-mini-album-part-2.html .  I knew I HAD to do one of these for my sweet sister.   I went to Staples to get some coin envelopes but the smallest box they sell was 100 of them.  You only use 2 per mini album so that would be enough for 50??  I might need 8 or 10 but not 50!!  So I went home and went through almost 400 images of envelopes (thank you mycutsearch.com ) and found several that I thought would work well.  There were lots of the right kind of envelope but they sealed on the sides and due to the stress I figured the album might get, I knew it needed to be an envelope that sealed in the middle.  I ended up using the envelope from CTMH Artiste on page 33.  It has a little "dip" on the backside of the envelope and doesn't go straight across like Mary's did so I did not use the little half circle punch on it.  But you will need to use adhesive very close to the edge of the rounded area so that your little tab inserts don't get stuck.  I did a little half-hole on the mat only.  Because of the size, I used Design Studio to manipulate the size to 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 but you wouldn't have to do that... you could just use whatever size you tell your machine to cut.  This is the cut but not taped envelope.  Hope this helps...

This is the outside of the album held together with a small bit of ribbon.  I stuffed it a little more than I should have but I took 1600 pictures on this trip and it was a killer to choose just a few.  I put a small circle of blue beads and a lighthouse charm from my stash on the tie, just to dress it up a little.  I plan on doing one for each of the ladies who went on the trip but will use some of the same pics, some different.  I have Picasa as my web-based photo storage so I just ordered wallet size photos through Wal-Mart.  They have to do two of each (can't do only one due to the size) and I did a lot of cropping to get the pictures to fit but it was so much fun!!  I used white paper to back the photos but since the photos on the inserts of the little pockets were so small, I did not mat those. 

This is the album with the ribbon off

This is the top layer, flipped up with the little inserts in the pocket

 

And this is the album with the little inserts out

These are the inserts for this part--first the front, then the backside

Open up the mini and this is the center.  I used the Don Juan Cricut cartridge for the letters and welded them in Design Studio.   First with the tri fold closed, then with it open:

 

And this is the backside of the mini album

This is the backside flipped up with the inserts and then without the inserts:

 

Here's the inserts front side and then back side: 

 

I used Tags, Bags Boxes and More for the double sided tags.  Mary shows how to do two of these for the coin envelope mini but I had to do three... one is just loose and not inserted into a slot.  These pics are the front side, the middle and the outside.  I broke off the prongs on some seashell brads and attached to the tabs with pop dots to help pull them out easier.  I just had so many favorite pics that I had to do three tabs!!!!

 

I will be entering this mini album on the Fantabulous Cricut blog challenge #169 at http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/2013/07/challenge-169-set-scene.html

 

And here's the box I put it in.  The sentiment is a stamp from Impression Obsession and the Seaglass cutout is the label from a wine bottle.  I scanned it, had a wallet size photo made of it and cut it out.

ADDENDUM:

After submitting my project, I had a "DUH" moment... instead of using a cut out from the scrapbook paper of the state of Maine, I should have used my 50 States Cartridge!  I did the state and shadow at 3 3/4 inches then another shadow at 3 7/8 inches.  I did the Maine at 1" but shrank it in Design Studio to very small (don't even know the size) and also shrank the shadow, too.  I like how this looks so the other two mini albums that I do will have the cricut cut out for the state of Maine and wording.

 

 

THE END!!!   FINALLY!!!!   :o)