In the spotlight at ABAC! Meander Mini Album Challenge

I am in the spotlight over at Anything But a Card this week for our Design Team.  It has been a pleasure to be involved with ABAC, and blast seeing what everyone creates to enter into the challenges for each month.  The full blog post is also here as a separate page, A little bit about me.    

My challenge for this week is to make a mini-album or mini book of any style.   My sample made for the challenge commemorates the year 2014 in photos and is done with a Meander Album. 

Actual size is 3" x 3".

It didn’t take long to scan through the year of photos and plop my favorites into Photoshop.  Then I pared them down and selected the photos that I wanted at 2.5” x 2.5” for the main pages of the mini album, and those that I wanted as 2” x 2” to go on the tags.  In my format I selected 26 photos. I selected twelve photos for the main pages, and 14 photos for the tags, with one for each side.  These were put together on two Photoshop files and printed on 8” x 12” prints at Costco. 

Front cover and tag.

Pages 2 & 3

Par for the course one of my hurdles is deciding what paper to use for a project; in this case I went with a collection from SEI, Penelope’s Potpourri.  The reverse of Tiny Tulips was a nice muted green, and Delightful Dots was a great complement to the color scheme. 

Pages 4 & 5

Pages 6 & 7

The Meander Album at Split Coast Stampers in this tutorial gives excellent directions to create an album from a single sheet of 12” x 12” paper.  The accents were cut from the scraps.  The tags were all cut from a second sheet of 12” x 12” paper.  I used my Coluzzle Tags template to cut the tags to 2 ½” x 3” including the notched section.  This fits perfectly into the pockets with just the notch protruding.  I did not cut notches in the pockets, or add covers.  I have the original Bind-It-All, so I could only punch about half of the pages at one time.  Careful finagling of sections of the album cut through all the pages.  I adhered the edges of the pockets, and then applied the binding.  

Pages 8 & 9

Pages 10 & 11

 All the edges are inked with Tsukineko Memento Luxe Nautical Blue.  The front and back die cuts are Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Two.  The front images are Studio G sentiments, and Rubber Cupboard numbers stamped in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Nautical Blue and embossed with clear embossing powder.  The back image is Technique Tuesday also stamped in Tsukineko Memento Luxe Nautical Blue.

Pages 12 & 13

Page 14

I love this little album and plan to carry it in my purse to remind me of all the wonderful events that happened for our family in 2014.  My Dear Husband likes all of the photos, but wants them in digital format to share with his friends.   Memory keeping at it’s best!  Have fun creating your mini book and album and make sure to jump over to Anything But a Card and post your submission for the challenge.