Hi, folks! Tonight’s post is all about an envelope mini-album that I made for my grandson, Austin’s, 18th birthday in January. I posted a video on my YouTube channel, so you might want to have a look there, too. What follows below are photos of each step, along with a few words of explanation.

I was glad to finally find a use for a stack of business envelopes that I’ve had since the pre-e-mail days.

I started by folding them in half, to create the pages and pockets that will be formed when I glued the edges together.

Next, I covered the two halves of the front side of the envelope with black card stock. I chose black because it worked well with my theme. You may choose whatever paper suits your theme. I continued this way until I had a total of five envelopes. These would be the pages of my mini-album.

This photo shows the binding for my mini-album. It is simply a strip of cardstock, scored at one-inch intervals. I then folded the cardstock accordion-style on the scored lines.

Next, I put strips of heavy-duty tape on the peaks of each fold (one strip on each side of the peak, as seen in the photo). This is what holds the pages solidly in the mini-album. By taping just at the peaks, it allows the binding to expand so that the pages can open fully.

In this photo, I have added a strip of tape to the top and bottom ends of each “page.” I inserted the first envelop into the first accordion fold, making sure that the top and bottom were even with the edges of the accordion. Next, I inserted the second envelope into the second accordion fold and pressed firmly it to the first envelope to make a pocket.This red tape is incredibly sticky and will hold the edges of each pocket securely. The pockets that are formed are used to hold tags with photos and special messages. (Please see my YouTube video for a better look at the finished pages)

For the cover, I used a piece of heavier cardstock–just a piece I had saved from a 12″x12″ stack of designer paper. I never throw anything away that might come in handy for albums and other paper crafts. I cut the card stock to fit the size of my folded envelopes, being sure to add enough for the spine. It is important to make the spine fairly wide–mine is about two inches–because once you add all the embellishments to your pages, you will need plenty of room for expansion.

Covering the outside and the inside of your book cover is fun, because this is where the creative part begins.

I lined the inside of my cover with this playing card paper because my grandson is a talented magician. However, after I got the book assembled, I decided I wanted a different look. If you watch my video you will see the final look.

I covered the outside of my mini-album with a masculine brown patterned designer paper, which you can sort of see in this photo.

Unfortunately, got so involved with the project, that I kept forgetting to take photos at every point along the way.  I was able to do screen-grabs of the cover and the first page from my YouTube video. You will see them much better in my YouTube video.

To the left is the front cover. It’s a play on words…Austin’s working name is Auzztino the Great (he works at birthday parties, parades, grand openings and other special events as a clown. He rides a unicycle, juggles, balances everything from chairs to 10-ladders on his chin, makes the best balloon animals and does amazing magic tricks!) Anyway, I called the mini-album “Austin the Great…est.” And he is!

Here is the first page. I used a film/theatre theme because he is also an avid film-maker. He writes the scripts, makes professional-looking props, directs, acts, does unbelievable special effects make-up, films, edits, lays the sound tracks and…well, you get the idea! I’m just a wee bit proud of this amazing young man. Okay, so here is that first page I mentioned all so long ago!

In case you’re wondering what it says on the first page…

“The Book of Austin. Created with loving joyfulness and unmitigated disregard for chronology.”

So written because I couldn’t decide in which order to put the pages!

I didn’t take photos of each individual page (darn it!). But, again, they can be seen in detail in my YouTube video. Envelope mini-album for Austin’s 18th birthday

Although this post is not very detailed in describing the steps I took to create my mini-album, I hope that it helps you a little and inspires you a lot!

Please come back and share your  mini-album with us.