I want to make a set of small albums for Finn’s firsts…His first Halloween, Christmas, Easter and birthday. I thought it would be fun to make a box to hold them and will make a follow up video showing how to do that. I will be making a second video showing you how I decorated this album. I found this on MayMay’s site, here’s her video link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXBYIXhHKec

You’ll need three pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. I buy mine on Amazon, and here’s the link. https://tinyurl.com/ypazx39f The first piece will be the mechanism of your album. You’ll need to score it at 2 3/4″, 3″, 9″ and 9 1/4, then turn your paper one turn and score at 2 1/2″, 3″, 9″ and 9 1/2″. Once you’ve scored it, you’ll want to cut out all four corners at the second score marks, making sure you’ve also cut out the score lines. Your other two 12 x 12″ papers, I find it would have been easier for me if I had cut them in half at 6″ and then put it in your score board at 12″ and score at 6″. (When I have 12″ long paper in my score board, I have trouble keeping the paper in the scoreboard, so my lines aren’t always straight, and for this, your lines need to be straight.) Do this with three of the four pieces you’ve cut, then take the last 12 x 6″ piece and cut it into two 5 x 5″ squares to become inserts for the pockets I’ll make. Fold and burnish all of the scores. The 6 x 12″ pieces, you’ll fold in half and they need to match perfectly, and if they don’t, trim off the little bit that is offset.

Take the piece that has all of the corners cut out (that now looks like a plus sign) and lay it so the 1/4″ scores are on the left and right side as it faces you. Take one of the 6 x 12″ folded pieces and put it with the open side facing in and the folded side facing out. On the piece that looks like a plus sign, on the right side of the plus, put glue or tear tape on the edges and closest to the score line. Then lay the 6 x 12″ piece on the glue again with the open side almost on the score line, but not quite. Rub the glued areas so they set up. Now do the same to the left side of the plus sign but this time put the folded side closest to the score line and the open side facing to the outside left side. Put glue on the two sides and close to the score line to adhere it. For the bottom, put glue all over the plus sign up to the score line of the bottom section and with the folded part of the 12 x 6″ piece to the outside and the open part closest to the score line. When you glue these pieces together, if anything sticks out, even a small sliver, cut them off, as you’ll see them in the finished product.

I rounded the corner of the top part of the plus sign as it is our flap to close it. My corner rounder is a Kadomaru Pro from Amazon and I love it. Now is when you will put your magnets on. Put two of them about 3/4″ from the left and right side and about 1/2″ from the bottom of the flap, then lay the other half of the magnets onto the ones you’ve just attached and put glue dots on the back of these magnets and close the album to adhere the second half of the magnets to the bottom flap of the album. Make sure that you fold the album so the bottom and top are at 90 degrees before adhering these magnets, so the album will close properly.

Cut four 4 3/4 x 4 3/4″ patterned papers and adhere them to the 5 x 5″ pieces you cut, as these will fit into your pockets that you created when you glued the side flaps in.

Cut several (I think you’ll need 16-18 of these) 5 3/4″ x 5 3/4″ pieces of patterned papers to cover the outside and inside of the album. On the front cover, you’ll need to have two of the same pieces of designer paper, as one will cover the entire front and the other will only cover the top flap. Measure yours, but I think I cut mine to 2 3/8″ tall and 5 3/4″ wide. This piece should be identical to the piece under the flap. The easiest way to do this is to cut from the same spot on your designer paper, so if you used the top left hand part for the full 5 3/4 x 5 3/4″ piece, you’ll only need the top left hand 2 3/8″ x 5 3/4″ if yours measures the same as mine (and it should.) Round the bottom corners before gluing it in place. Glue it so the bottom is even with the bottom of the top flap. The pocket is 2 3/4″ tall, so cut your 5 3/4 x 5 3/4″ piece 2 3/4″ from the bottom and glue the top piece to the pocket page making sure the bottom of this piece is right up to the pocket, then glue the 2 3/4″ tall piece to the top of the pocket as it will give you a small border, as will the top piece you glued so the bottom is at the opening slot of the pocket.

In my next video we’ll decorate this album and then I’ll make the box in an upcoming video.

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