A ‘how to’ for you

Big sigh………ahhhhh, Christmas is over and we can finally take a deep breath.  I don’t know about you, but I was still wrapping presents at midnight on Christmas Eve.  That’s par for the course in our house! 

Now that things are settling down, I’d like to share my last Memory Works Guest Designer project with you.  I’m more of a layout girl usually, but I made a few of these mini albums as Christmas gifts this year.  Here’s a paper bag mini I made for my Mom. Hard to believe there’s paper bags under there, huh!  The tutorial is below.. keep scrollin’!  I used some cool branch and leaf stickers as masks for the canvas on the cover.  I sprayed the canvas heavily with lots of Glimmer Mists and allowed it to dry.

The ends of the paper bags are where I have lots of tags, with both journaling and photos.  This little album can get thick pretty quicky, so I try to keep my page elements and tags flat.

 

Here is how I made them.  I started with 8 small paper bags {mine are 4×8″}, strong tape adhesive such as Provo Craft Terrifically Tacky Tape or your ATG, chipboard, patterned papers, ribbons, ink, canvas {optional} and Glossy Accents.  My chipboard covers are cut to 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″.  I used Bella’s Finally Fall line, some Simple Stories, Bazzill and Simple Stories Ribbons along with some accents from a past Express Kit, and canvas that was masked and spray heavily with glimmer mists and allowed to dry. 

Step 1:
Put 1 paper bag on your work surface in front of you with the open end on the right.  Lift up the flap (which is the bottom of the bag) and place adhesive as shown in the picture.  I marked the bags with a green maker where adhesive should be placed.  Then fold that flap over and crease the fold very well. Repeat this step for all  8 of you paper bags.  Take two paper bags and set them aside.  These two bags will be your front and back. 
NOTE: you can make a thinner or thicker album, 8 is my preference for overall thickness.  Just gather an even number of bags for you album.  My numbers and directions are based on an album using 8 paper bags.

 

Step 2: 
Next, take 3 bags and while the flap is folded over, put adhesive as shown, then put additional tape adhesive to cover the rest of the flap.  Take the other 3 bags without adhesive on the flap and one at time line up an adhesive covered flap with a non-adhesive covered flap. Adhere two bags together to create whats shown in the third photo.  This will create 3 sets of two bags that are attached by the small flaps in the middle. 

 

Step 3:  Next you’ll need to adhere the sides of your bags so they don’t open up completely.  These pockets created by adhering the sides of bags will be homes for you journaling and photo tags.

          

Step 4:  Next, you’ll want to start assembling your paper bag sets to create your album.  Take your paper bag sets and cover the backsides of them (opposite the flaps) with adhesive as shown by the green marker lines.  Adhere the paper bag sets together on the backsides, and press firmly together.  Then take your 2 bags that were previously set aside and adhere them as shown to the two outer bags, leaving the flap on the outside of the album.  The two flaps on the outside of the album will be where you attach your chipboard covers.  **NOTE: You may want to cover your chipboard before adhering them to the album.  This will make decorating easier.

  

Step 5:  Cover the outside of the flap, similar to in step 2 and adhere the chipboard cover as shown.  You can continue to decorate your album as desired, or you can add a canvas cover over your chipboard.  Don’t forget to ink all the edges!

  

Extra step: To cover your album in canvas, just cut your canvas about a 1/4″ wider than the width of your chipboard covers.  This is too allow for the canvas shrinking if you paint it and for the fraying of the edges, which looks pretty cool too!  I don’t always cover the chipboard completely, as in the Fall Mini Album.  I like the combination of canvas and the patterned papers, so I usually wrap the canvas around the spine of the album and cover about half of the chipboard.  The canvas shown in my example was painted with acrylic paint, using some stickers as masks for flowers.  To adhere the canvas to the cover, I used a strong liquid tacky glue.