My first ever mini-album

I know this is nowhere NEARRRRR the talent of the mini albums I have seen (and been inspired by), but I am pretty excited because this is my first attempt!  After seeing The Bug Junkie's albums, I decided to try to put one together myself once I got my Gypsy!!  Sooo, here it is.  I am going to make these for my nieces and nephews for our vacation in 2 weeks to Ocean City, NJ.  I intentionally left the pages very plain and basic, because I want them to decide what they want to do with them, be it photos or journaling.  So, once I give them their books, I will have photo mats and journaling mats ready for them to choose.

OK, down to the nitty gritty details!  I used Life's a Beach and Plantin Schoolbook for all of this.  It was actually much easier than I thought.  I just copied and pasted the pages (rectangles), and just made them slightly wider for each page.  The new layers feature in the Gypsy make these SUPER easy to make now, and I used it to my advantage when lining up pages.  I welded each shape to the rectangle, and then just cut out the shapes and layers later.  All of the papers are loose sheets I hand picked, with this project in mind, from Joann's.  Some Divine Swirls on the crab, googly eyes, button eyes and glitter glue, and it was done!  The gems on the treasure chest came from Michael's, and they are all Recollections brand.  I also inked the inside of the shell slightly pink and used Stampin' Up! Sanded stamp on the shell.  Whew, I think that does it for details.  How about some pictures?!?!?!

Jen asked me what I cut this out of, and I felt so stupid for not mentioning it originally!!  The base for the pages is, believe it or not, the backing material that comes in the packages with Stampin' Up designer paper!!!  It is absolutely PERFECT for the mini albums and shape albums.  So, if you buy SU designer paper, do NOT throw away those cardboard-like backings!!!  Put them to good use!

If anyone wants the Gypsy file for this, I will certainly e-mail it to you. Just leave a comment with your e-mail address.  Hope you enjoy, and thanks for enduring so many pics!!!