Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Paper Bag Album

Happy Crafting Tuesday!

Haven't you visited other crafter's blogs and wished YOU could make something as delightful as they did? Are you inspired when you see all of that beautiful stuff? I sure am. In fact, every time I am at Dee Dee's blog, Brown Paper Packaging, I drool over the fabulous paper bag albums she makes. She is such a talented lady with such a great writing ability, you can't help but enjoy the things she shows you. Right now, she has a beautiful Santa paper bag album on display and it's gorgeous! Perfect gift for someone special. Go check it out.

Then, Sandy of Details by Sandy did a beautiful album made from envelopes! She'd found a tutorial on You Tube and you should see what she created! I loved it.

So, inspired, I set about You Tube and looked for the video she mentioned. I think my brain was too excited because at first I couldn't find it. There are a ZILLION videos about crafting on You Tube, which is a good thing but not all are tutorials - more showcases, which is fine, but not when you want to know "HOW". *smile*

Unfortunately, the mess I made did not turn into an album at all. It was called frustration packaging. So, I remembered that Dee Dee's albums were paper bag though I thought, no, they don't look anything like a paper bag. So I scoured the many tutorials and finally found ten or so that helped me put one together. YES, I actually did it! I made myself get out of my comfort zone and tried it. Oh, it was NOT easy. When you look at Dee Dee's and you see mine, just keep in mind, it's my first one (and probably last - jk!).

Now, it was fairly easy to put together and I'm changing the ribbon ties to the rings so that it would be easier to open and lay flat when putting photos in it. As you can see, the front is sort of plain...I was "craft brain overload". I did this over the weekend but should have rested more in between. Thinking of tags and dressing it up...that took a lot of mind power.

So, you decorate the page with tags so the person can put small photos on or do journaling. I added Prima flowers to help make it look festive..

The fun part about the paper bag albums are the pockets where you can put more tags. ;p

I made a pocket on the tag on the left. You decorate the front and back of the tag.

This is a tri-booklet that I should've taken a pic of so you can see the three places to put photos - it came out really cute (another You-Tube tutorial). Then there's that small insert with a plain blue tag (at this point, I was really getting tired).

The book was three sets of two bags which equals four pages front and back and two insert pages - 15 pages to decorate! Notice, I had to fix my paper sizing errors (added paper lace, strips so the paper bag didn't show).

All and all, I really had fun and plan to make a smaller Christmas one and one for a friend I met through my husband's best friend who lives in Morocco. On her visit there, the two of them thought of me and my upcoming birthday and sent me a really nice gift card to my fav restaurant to celebrate. I'm going to surprise them with a mini album of the photos they sent us when she went to visit him. I will take my time and rest in between thinking of what to decorate each page with. :D

I hope you enjoy this new venture I went on. ;p

3 comments:

Leah the Orange said...

terry, your album is beautiful! love those warm, rich colours!

psssst, stop by my blog (you might have to back a couple of posts, but you really should visit!) :)

Heather said...

This is really gorgeous! you really put a lot of work into it!

The Freebie Gatherers said...

Goodness Terry this really is a work of Art and I just love it!!!! You can see all the hard work that you have put in and who wouldn't be pleased with a gift like that...xx