A Mini Album for Marion Smith Designs

Good day nice people!

I rarely make mini albums because I'm not particularly good at them. But when myprize pack of Um Wow Studios goodies won at Scrap Around the World came, there were these cute little mini albums just screaming out and begging to be altered. So I picked out some of my favourite lines from Marion Smith Designs and tried to work some magic up.

Journey Mini Album

This is the cover where I've used mostly papers from Nirvana, layering my cut-outs and popping them up for a 3-dimensional effect. I die cut the flowers from Garment District papers and shaped them for a more gentle contour using the Bloom Impressions Tool. Jazzing up the flower are the new MSD stamens and a piece of bling from Junque and Gems. I put in a little bit of texture with some 13@rts acrylic modeling paste over one of their stencils to fill out the space. There is also a piece from the Petite Frames set from Blue Fern Studios which I've tucked under the balloon and used it to secure my trim. For that, I've covered it with some Shimmerz Dazzlerz.

Some tips I found useful:

1. Your cover can be as layered or as three-dimensional or as cluttered as you like. But remember to do the reverse side first if you're going to make it chunky, as it can be little tricky if you can't lay the base of the album page flat on your work space.

2. I usually try not (but tend to forget) to clutter the pages in the mini-album or make it too chunky, but you can always make each page more interesting by using accents. I used cut-outs from Garment District to spruce up each page and the 6x6 pad size is just perfect for a mini.

3. Instead of adhering them flat on the page, layer different accents (I used up to 3 layers) and pop up the topmost one using the thinnest 3D foam dots so that the album can still close nicely. Don't forget you typically have a few pages in one mini album so the trick is not to overdo the 3D effect for each page.

4. It's ok to have bits sticking out of your pages - not everything must fit. I do this a lot as I like the "messy" and "out of the box" effect it creates.

Finally, here's a look at the inside pages of the mini and you can see the above tips in action.

One of the pages feature the "Blue Fern frame" from BFS as well. I painted it with Ayeeda's matte paint (Pink) and also Pearl Mist (Sap Green). 

For the back cover, I used the MSD Stamp and randomly went over the patterned paper. The rose was fussy cut out, and I used my finger to spread some Stickles over the petals for a shimmery effect. I also tied one of the Junque and Gems monocle pieces to my twine. Inside is a motif I cut out from Garment District.

And that's all for today. Thanks for dropping by!

love,