I think this is my final summer project that I want to share before moving onto my Fall and Halloween themed layouts, and this project is a little different from my norm. 12×12 scrapbook layouts are my true love, but I’ve been adoring the mini albums I’ve been seeing and wanted to give one a try.

For a short time Close To My Heart was offering 4×4 mini albums and page protectors. I thought this was be the simplest way to start out my mini album adventure since I’m already using albums and page protectors for my 12×12 layouts. I think one day I will venture into the mini albums made entirely of paper, but for today we will stick with the safe and familiar world of my pages being tucked into an album! HA!

I used a the 4×4 denim colored chipboard album from CTMH and adhered the Shimelle Starshine Marquee Alphas to the outside cover. This album documents our trip to Chicago when we visited Navy Pier and went to see the Broadway production, Aladdin. I thought the marquee alphas were perfect because they remind me of the marquee signs you see outside of shows.

I was really inspired by Paige Evans for the intro page. Paige includes a lot of hand stitching in her albums, including stitching the country or place she visited.  I grabbed a scrap piece of acetate and used my Cricut Explore and .04 Black Cricut Pen to draw a miniature USA map on a piece of printer paper. I used washi tape to hold the printer paper to the acetate and used my paper piercer to create holes in the acetate for hand stitching. After the hand stitching was complete I used a puffy heart to signify where Chicago is on the map. The intro page overlays a picture of the city.

To add a little extra fun to the album I also included little see through elements. Where you could see photos from the future pages showing through openings. Like the photo from a future page is showing through the 2×2 heart insert or through shaker pockets and acetate pieces pictured below.

For a majority of the pages I used the retired mini album inserts from CTMH. The inserts consisted of full 4×4 designs and also 2×2 designs to fit into the 2×2 pockets. I also included memorabilia in the album, including the tickets to the Broadway show.

The thing that I love most about mini albums is the ability to work outside a page protector and to add tactile extras between the pages. I did include a few acetate pieces from the Heidi Swapp Serendipity Collection and also created a couple of my own inserts using acetate.

For the first insert I used White Modeling Paste and mixed blue acrylic paint to create a dusky shade of blue. After I had the color to my liking, I used the The Crafter’s Workshop Mini Urban Stencil to create the background of a city skyline. Once the blue paste was dry I went back over the skyline using the same stencil to add detailing with white modeling paste.

For the second acetate insert I used white modeling paste and The Crafter’s Workshop Mini Believe Script Stencil. After the modeling paste was dry I then adhered ribbon along with coordinating colored buttons.

I’ve included photos of a few of my favorite pages in this blog post, but you can view the entire mini album in my flip through video!

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