Monday 1 July 2013

Captured Memories - rubber band mini-album for Our Creative Corner

Hello friends and a special welcome to those who have popped over from Our Creative Corner.  Its really nice to see you here again.  Linda on our Design Team set us a lovely challenge this month.

Captured Memories
Memories are fleeting but photographs help us hold dear those special people and times. Our project this month is for you to share with us how you capture your cherished memories. All types of art are welcome: cards, tags, canvases, mixed media, etc., but your project MUST INCLUDE A PHOTOGRAPH. 


I wanted to make a mini-album to hold some treasured photos and I really enjoyed putting it together.

I was captivated by the examples shown by Paula Phillips (JournalArtista, Mixed Media mini books) and really liked the way she used the rubber bands to hold the pages which could then be pulled out to view the pictures like this.


So if you'd like to know how I turned an empty dishwasher tablet packet and four elastic bands into a super-easy album, read on.  But you'd better grab a cuppa first - its a long post!  First of all, I used a big craft knife to cut the empty packet slightly bigger than I actually needed then opened it flat and trimmed it with a ruler to the size of back and front covers I wanted  (12cm x 10cm) using the narrow side of the box (6cm) as the spine.

(Other brands will work just as well! )
You also need 4 rubber bands but more about them later on.  Next, the pages.  I made four concertina pages by joining strips of card and folding each length to make four 10cm x 10cm sections as below.
The super-easy bit is once you have decorated the cover (I used TH Kraft resist paper but I'm sure my artistic teamies would make a lovely job with paints and texture pastes) you just add the rubber bands to the spine as below.  I did use all brown bands in the end but used the red one in the pic so it would stand out.


Next, I decorated the pages.  Now, if you use 4 lengths of card as I did, that gives you 32 little squares to decorate and that's a lot of work!  I've actually only done 16 so far but will finish the rest later on!  A tip I really appreciated from Astrid was to cut a piece of card slightly smaller than your page, decorate that, then attach it.  This makes life a lot easier and you can juggle with the arrangement of your pictures before you stick them down.  I rubbed Rub'n'Buff round all the edges for that old fashioned look.  Here's all 16 decorated sections.  They include pics of my grandma, mum, auntie and a cousin as well as some "borrowed" family images.


My favourite picture?  Its this one of my Mum styling her friend's hair in their tea break!  Long, long time ago.... Look at her shoes!!

When you're all done decorating, you can slip the first section of each long page under its elastic band to hold it in place then concertina fold the rest of the sections into the cover.  I numbered my pages just so I could see where to pull them out.  This is one of the pages waiting to be inserted into its band.

Well, if you've got this far, I do hope you will be inspired to make a mini-album for yourselves.  The nice bit is you can add as many pages as you can fit in the cover - just keep adding rubber bands!

Thanks so much for visiting - I'd love to know what you think of my album and I also hope you'll join in this month with the Captured Memories challenge at Our Creative Corner.   Margie x



15 comments:

  1. Hi Margie, your album is just stunning and your how to is fabulous. What a great way to recycle too. Love how the elastic bands hold the pages, it means you can add more or change them - very versatile. This is such a clever make! Love it. Sorry I have been MIA, trying to do catch up. Hugs, Anne x

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  2. My, Margie,

    your album is so adorable! I LOVE it! You can definitely see all the love and thought that went into your gorgeous make! Beautiful!

    Hugs,
    Claudia x

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  3. What an absolutely sensational make, Margie - gorgeous mini-pages, and the construction of the album is great... And all that out of a dishwasher tablet box! Thanks so much for the how-to details too.
    Alison x

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  4. This is just a beautiful project! Love your blog! :)
    Have a nice day, Margie!

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  5. Couldn't wait for you to post. Love it ....but you knew I would.
    It's beautiful Margie looking forward to seeing it in real life x love brenda

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  6. I don't think I will ever be able to look at an empty box in the same way ever again. This is so adorable! I know it will be something I have to do. I've been trying to come up with a way to keep past Christmas cards and you have given me just the inspiration I needed to tackle that bit as well. Thank you!!!!! What a wonderful and creative post!

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  7. Oh my, this is absolutely sensational, Margie! What a super cool little album. I love all the wonderful photos. Thanks so much for sharing with us all the details on how you made it and I'm sure our readers are loving learning all the details too. Super piece of work for our Captured Memories challenge!

    Hugs,
    Linda

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  8. What a stunner Margie. Fabulous tutorial will have to try this one. Mum's photo of styling her friends hair looks very special and you have captured the page perfectly. Off to read more about it.

    Crafty hugs from Shirl x x

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  9. Wow Margie, so much work in this little beauty!! I love that you've used family photos inside too. The step by step tutorial is perfect and I'm sure there will be a few little albums already under construction thanks to you! I love your Mum's shoes and would love a dainty pair just like them!! (must be my age but the clumpy shoes of today don't do a thing for me!). Fab project Margie.
    Hugs, Juliaxx

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  10. Well this is certainly an inspiring mini album design. What a great idea.

    Regards diane

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  11. BRILLIANT, love your use of the box,wonderful recycling and the beauty you created with it is amazing, fabulous photos, beautiful backgrounds for them, the cover is gorgeous, I love the pic of your Mom doing her friend's hair, thats when life was, better, it was so much more personal then. I love it, thanks for sharing and have a wonderful week..

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  12. HUGE apologies for not having visited earlier Margie. My goodness I adore your mini album and the way it all goes together. The use of elastic bands is so clever. Love the vintage colour scheme which suits the photos so well and your tutorial is really easy to follow. Another fantastic DT piece for OCC. Hugs, Jenny x

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  13. This is SUCH a wow project!!! I just love it and can't wait to make one! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  14. Wow what an awesome mini album, love it and will certainly be giving this a go. You have decorated it so beautifully, thanks for sharing x

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  15. Ah Ha - Now I know what to expect at the next C&C meeting! As with everything, beautifully put together. Lesley D

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