My Mini Album Structure

It has been a while since my last post. Somehow I missed May altogether. I will work on posting more regularly now that summer is almost here. Today I have pictures of my latest creation, a mini album. I invented the page structure and sewed the spine so that the pages lay flat when open. I used Graphic 45 Bird Song 8 x 8 papers to decorate the pages and I used Japanese handmade paper and black book cloth for the covers. The best thing about the page structure is that the folding process creates pockets and corner tabs as you will see in the pictures. It also creates a between-the-page pocket for a large photo mat. I folded the pages two ways to get side and top pockets, but you could make them all the same way. I will post a tutorial for making the pages on You Tube as soon as my editor (son) has some free time to do his technical magic. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures and descriptions below.

Thanks for visiting.

Gina

 Picture one shows the book with the pages sewn to the accordion folded grey paper.

Here are all of the pages laid out before they were decorated with G45 paper.

A side view of the pages and accordion fold binding.

Two page spread with side and top/bottom pockets.

Two page spread with corner tabs showing.

Good view of sewn accordion fold spine.

Finished book cover. I used Japanese paper for this along with black book cloth. The grey spine paper has a 3 inch end that I glued onto the book cover.

Inside page spread with G45 Bird Song papers decorating the pages. Notice the tabs at the top and sides of the pages. These are the photo mats.

Here is another two page spread showing floral patterns. I just love the florals in this set.

Here I have pulled out the photo mats so you can see that they match the pages and pull out from the top or the side depending on how I folded the pages.

Another two page spread showing off the greens from this collection.

Another page spread.

Here you can see that sometimes the pockets are both the same (in this case from the top of the book).

More photographs of the pages decorated. I love the way the papers work together.

This is a photograph of the binding sewn to make the book sturdy. I did sew the binding loosely so that when photographs are inserted they won't make the open end of the book bulge. I used scrap book board as spacers when I was sewing to keep the spacing between pages consistent.