Envelope Mini Album with Kiwi Lane and Fancy Pants Designs

Hey there!  It's my turn on the Kiwi Lane blog today with a simple album using my Kiwi Lane templates, Fancy Pants Designs Nautical collection and manilla envelopes.  Yep, as in office supplies.  

I've always been a fan of using office supplies in my scrapbooking, and I've found that using manilla envelopes is a fun and inexpensive way to make an album.  An added bonus is the extra storage you can get by using the envelopes as pockets.

For my album, I wanted storage for some of the larger memorabilia that we picked up on our trip to Tybee Island (maps, brochures, post cards) and I didn't want to glue them in an album or cut them apart. I considered a few different sizes of envelopes to use that would fit the bulky papers and finally settled on 10" x 13" cut in half.  Like this:

I cut the envelope in half so I had a more manageable album size that would still have pockets large enough to store my maps, etc.  (Don't worry about things falling out of the cut through the middle of the envelope- it will be closed off enough after you bind it to keep larger items in the pockets.)

After deciding on my envelope/album size, I set to work building one page at a time.  I used just one pair of border templates through the whole album and just a few tiny templates for some embellishment and color.  I only put the paper and photos on the album pages at this point.  I used patterned paper from Fancy Pants Designs' Nautical collection, along with some of the pockets, flair and stickers from the same collection. I loved that I could get a slightly different look for each area of the island we visited and I was still using the same collection!  

After all the paper and photos were on, I used my Zutter Bind-it-All to punch the pages for binding.  It looked like this:

I could have done holes down the entire length of the book, but I kind of liked the look of two different sections of binding.  

When all the holes were punched, I bound it with some wire binding and the Bind-it-All once again.  

When my book looked like a book, I added my "hard" embellishments like buttons and brads.  The reason I wait until my book is bound to do this step is to avoid accidentally placing something hard where the holes for the binding needs to go.  Let's just say I've learned that one the hard way and I want to pass on my knowledge. ;)

Now my book is done and I can add my memorabilia to the pockets like so:

Here's what the entire book looked like, page by page:

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day and Happy Scrapping!

Templates used:

Sunnybrook Lane 1A & 1B

Tiny Brackets 1T, 2T, 3T, 4T

Tags 2, 4

Tiny Tags 5T

Adventure 1,2 

Tiny Sweetheart 4T

Cards with Kiwi Lane and Fancy Pants Designs

Howdy peeps!  I just thought I'd pop in with a few cards I made... if you're here from the Kiwi Lane blog for a few more details on the "how-to", keep on reading... :)

This month for Kiwi Lane, I was able to work with the super versatile Nautical collection from Fancy Pants.   I love the colors in this collection- it's filled with red, orange, yellow, navy blue, black, sky blue, turquoise, gray, white, cream... do you see why it's so great?!  And I love that, even though there are a lot of different colors, they all mix and match really well.  Now, don't be put off by the "Nautical" title... some of the papers have a very nautical feel to them, but others are summery, some are beach-y and all of them are fabulous!  It was a fun collection to work with!!

Here are the cards I made:

"Happy Travels"

Card size: 5" x 7"

Supplies: paper, letter stickers (Fancy Pants Designs); washi tape (Freckled Fawn); twine (Lillybelle's Paperie on Etsy); pearls (Doodlebug); button (craft supply); ink (Ranger)

I used the airplane that was already printed on the paper to my advantage, making sure to leave it in the top left corner of the card when I was trimming my paper.  I then used a large Floral template to do the bottom layer of the sun (the orange with white dots).  I took of strips of washi tape, folded the strips onto themselves and used those for the next layer of the sun, followed by a yellow sun shape from the Tiny Accents accessory templates.  I made a washi "flower" on top of the yellow sun (you can watch THIS YouTube video to see the gist of how), then finished off my layers with a button and twine.  I made my "sun" look like it was setting over the ocean by using the wavy border from the Sincerely template set.  Note:  the card border template sets are only 5 1/2" long and this card is 7" long. To elongate your borders, match up the ends of a set to make one longer, continuous border.  I then added the tiny alphabet stickers that were in my packet of Fancy Pants goodies and some golden colored pearl dots and.... TA DA!!  One card that has lots of layers, but not as much bulk as you'd think.  And super cute, no? ;)

Templates used:

-Floral 1

-Tiny Accents 4T

-Sincerely 3A & 3B

"Enjoy"

Card size: 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"

Supplies: paper, sticker (Fancy Pants Designs); flower (Prima); pearls (Doodlebug, Pebbles); ribbon (Offray); ink (Clearsnap); die cut machine and embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

This is a gate fold card and opens in the front- to achieve this look, layer your flowers and only adhere half of the bottom flower to the front of the card over the seam to open the card.  For the ribbon, I figured out how much I needed and cut that amount.  I started layering my flowers and tied the ribbon around the card after I'd adhered the two red flowers but before the white one was attached.  I tied the ribbon around the card, adjusting until I had the bow where I wanted it, then adhered the white flower over the ribbon, thus attaching it to the card without a ton of adhesive.  Make sense?  I hope so!  If you're ever confused about my instructions, please feel free to email me!!  glo(underscore)owens(at)man(dot)com 

Templates used:

Tiny Bracket 1T

Tiny Accents 2T

Tiny Floral 2T

"Oh, the Places You'll go!"

Card size: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Supplies: paper, stickers, flair (Fancy Pants Designs); pearls (Doodlebug, Pebbles); ink (Clearsnap)

I used the edge of the chevron template in the Delight template set on the card base to create the chevron bottom.  Here's a little bit of a better view:

To make sure the chevron design on the edge stood out, I used the leftovers from another cut to add to the inside of the card for another layer of interest.

I could have used just a straight edge on the inside of the card, but I already had this cut, and who doesn't like to use every little bit? :)  I used some more of the tiny stickers to spell out "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"  I thought this card would be a great one for graduation- 'tis the season, right?

Templates used:

Tiny Brackets 1T

Delight 4, 6

So, even though this "Nautical" collection of scrappy supplies is "supposed" to be focused on water-related events, you definitely don't have to use it for that!! In fact, we should probably try to use our scrappy supplies beyond the invisible parameters set for them a little more, doncha think? 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!