MINI TAG MERRY-G0-ROUND ALBUM TUTORIAL-PART II

OK, guys! I am finally getting around to finishing my tutorial on the Mini Tag Merry-Go-Round Album that I began on May 13, 2013 which is posted HERE. I'm sorry I'm so late. This post mostly shows my finished little album with a few ideas for decorating it.

Here's my finished album:

The front turned out a lot different that the one I showed in my first tutorial! I made a BIG boo boo on the front, which I show you below how I fixed it.

This is the back.

Below, I'll show the inside pages and what I did to each. I'll try to keep it brief! (but knowing me, that is always hard to do!)

Left page is left blank for a photo. I distressed all the edges of the book and papers with brown distress ink. On the right page, I stamped with the CTMH Quick-Cards Butterfly (A1120) stamp. I stamped some of the other pages with partial images of the Butterfly stamp.

There is a little pocket at the bottom of the right page. I made this by cutting a little piece of paper 2x3 inches and glued each side edge and bottom edge with a tiny bead of quick dry glue. I inked the edges with my Hollyhock ink.

I filled the pocket with two tags I printed out from my computer. There are MANY sites where you can download free tags to print out. Awesome! I got both of these free tags from Sweetly-Scrapped.com.

I left the next left page blank for a photo. All of the papers I used are from the CHANTILLY paper pack which I absolutely ADORE. This paper pack will carry forward for another six months into our new Idea Book which comes out August 1st(!!!) and I am so happy about that!  I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEW IDEA BOOK!

On the right side (see above right), is a little "belly band". I used the zip strip from one of the Chantilly papers and wrapped it around the entire tag BEFORE it was mounted onto the accordian binding. I didn't glue it down anywhere. This allows little tags to be slipped in.

Here's the next page that shows the same "belly band" which wrapped around. I made the tag that slips in by using another free downloaded tag (can't remember where from!). It was originally gray, and I printed it out with a pink tinge so it would match better.

If you search for "grunge tags" you'll probably find it somewhere.

I love having a supply of tags in my pictures folder so I can print a sheet out whenever I want something special.  

You can use any photo editing program to "colorize" them any color you want to. I use ACDSee for most of my photo editing, or Picmonkey.


 

On the left page here, I added another little pocket at the bottom for a couple of tags.

On the right side, I made a "faux" belly band which is just a little piece of paper 3x2 inches that I scalloped with scissors along the bottom and put a tiny bit of glue on each edge, leaving the middle area open. 

I then put another little band across, gluing a tiny bit on each edge and leaving the middle open (see below) for the extra band I added.

Here's the little extra band I added to the right page. I used a leftover piece of paper from the "grunge pink" tag I cut down for the previous page. (nothing wasted, right?)

Now I can add another sweet little tag from Sweetly-Scrapped.com.

 For the last two pages, I left the page on the left blank for a photo or two.

On the right, I used a little doily that I bought from a craft store, distressed the edges with my Hollyhock ink, and glued partially around it so that there would be an opening for a couple of little tags for journaling.

I also did some more stamping with my Butterfly stamp. 

 I wish I would have used "second generation" stamping so that it wouldn't have been so dark, but oh well, it can't always be perfect.

"Second generation" stamping is where you ink the stamp, then stamp once on scrap paper, and then stamp on your good page... that way, the image comes out lighter.


One final word. We almost always make boo boos!  Below is one that I made!  I had my little album all put together, and then decided to put my butterfly stamp on the front. But as you can see, there was too much bulk underneath, so the stamp missed almost the whole area!  Let's say........ I was NOT happy!  Lesson learned: DO NOT TRY TO STAMP OVER AN AREA THAT IS BUMPY AND NOT LEVEL!

But there is usually a way to fix just about anything!  After I little thought, I came up with this:

I found some green paper that matched which I had already embossed. I just distressed it with my brown ink, on the edges and the surface (since it was a little too bright) and cut it to fit on each side of the lace and lower border that I had already adhered.  And voila!  doesn't look too bad!

So once more, here's the finished front. I used a little shabby paper flower that I made (maybe I'll add a tutorial on this cute flower!), added a few buttons, some little pearl strands and a little title called "Moments in Time" since I figured this is a nice little "photo and journaling" album to capture some sweet little moments.  The Moments in Time was a stamp that I already had.

I really had no idea what theme this little album was going to have!  It just kind of took on its own theme as I made the pages and tags.  I think I've decided not to put anything in the holes at the tops of the tags. I'm just going to cover them with little circles of paper that coordinate with the pages.

Hope you enjoy making one of these darling little tag albums!  Let me know if you have any questions.