Mini Album Instructions

Hello and happy crafting. Today I thought I would back up a little and give some directions for my Hawaii mini album. I don't have a youtube account and I've never made a video so I'm going to attempt these instructions with pictures.
Here is a picture of the envelopes I used.

The envelopes are made by Recollections and are 4.1" by 9.5" in size.

I used 8 envelopes for my mini, but you could use more or less. The first thing you need to do is seal the envelopes.

After sealing the envelopes you will need to cut off a thin piece from each end. This will allow each end to be an opening for a tag.

After making your openings you will need to score the envelopes at 3 1/2" and fold.

On the short end of the envelope you will attach some strong adhesive. I use Terrifically Tacky Tape. It should be about 1/8th of an inch from the edge so that there will be a little give at the binding. This short end will be attached to the back side of another prepared envelope.

This next picture shows my envelopes that have been put together and have decorative paper attached. The bottom 2 envelopes that have been adhered together demonstrate where your pockets will be located.

After preparing all of my envelopes and sticking them together I cut blue cardstock to make my flaps. The blue cardstock is cut at 6" x 4" and scored at 3 1/2". This piece has the longer end slid into the short half of the envelope on the back side and then folded over to the front. (I hope this makes sense)

This picture shows the back side of the first envelope and where the blue piece will go.

This is a side view showing the blue flaps adhered to the envelopes.

Here is a picture from above that shows how the flaps fold around to the front of the pages. When you open a flap there is a pocket inside.

The first and last envelopes are attached to chipboard to create the front and back covers.

I added one last flap to my front pocket and my mini album is complete other than the decorative papers and embellishments.

The paper I used is Surf's Up by Recollections. I also picked up a pack of solid cardstock to go along with it. I cut each of the pieces 1/4" smaller than the sections of the envelopes so that the pink edges of the envelopes would show.

I hope my directions are helpful and not too confusing. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that I followed. The one that helped me the most is by Follow the Paper Trail. Here is a link to that video if you'd like to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekF2IDb9cHY

It really is an easy album and fun to make. I will definitely be making more. I will be back in a couple of days to show some of the inside pages as I get them finished. Thank you for looking, Cindy