Tuesday, May 13, 2014

8x8 Botanical Tea Mini-Album/PDF Tutorial


Good morning! I've got a new Graphic45 Botanical Tea Mini-Album to share! This is an 8x8 album with 10 pages and more room for photos than possibly any of my previous albums so far. I think you could easily put 100 photos in this one!

I played with a few new ideas on the closure and interior flaps in the page design of this album. I love those little Tim Holtz buckles and while they look great on their own on the cover, I'm always looking for a slightly different twist on using them while still keeping the closure adjustable for expansion. I've used larger leather pieces on this closure and the buckle opens from the side of the album vs. the front of the cover. I'm sure I'll be building on this idea in the future:)

I've used a LOT of magnets in this album. I love the finished look they help give by holding all the little flaps in place and this album has a TON of flaps! Lots of interactive elements with a combination of swing tabs, magnets and pockets with tags/photo mats. 

The colors and images of this collection are just beautiful! I love hummingbirds (though I'm terrified of their needle-like beaks when they whiz past)!! It was a much needed burst of Spring working on this one:)

Just a little info about the cardstock and embellishments I've used:

The cardstock I'm calling "green ochre". This is a textured Paper Studio brand cardstock at Hobby Lobby and I'll need to check the next time I'm there to see what they actually call the color, though I expect it's just "green". It's a really different green and I've used it on one album in the past. You could easily use a green that matches the colors in the papers, but I wanted a slightly different contrast and well, couldn't really find a green that I liked better than this one.

**UPDATE: I stopped in to the store yesterday and the color of the cardstock is called "dijon". Much nicer sounding than green ochre:)

All of the flowers are Petaloo "Botanica" collection and I'm thinking these 2 companies are now working together to produce complimentary products because these are an absolute match to the look and feel of these papers. 

As far as other embellishments on the pages, I've pretty much used all of the extras in this G45 collection...pockets/tags, banners, chipboard tags and stickers. I've tried to use a lot more of them to get more bang for the buck and not end up having quite so many sitting around unused. One day I'll actually go back and use my scraps and extra embellishments on cards and I'll probably be glad I have so many left:)

I have the PDF Tutorial of this album now available in my Etsy shop HERE.

This completed album is listed on eBay ending Sunday night May 18th HERE.

Please stop on by my YouTube channel (link in the sidebar) to see a video of this album.

I hope everyone's getting out there and enjoying some beautiful Spring weather and you take lots of photos:)