Ship to Shore Archives - Kathy by Design

Photoplay Ship to Shore Easy Mini Album Project Share with Tips for Make & Take Tuesday

Hello, Friends! It’s Make & Take Tuesday, and I have a really fun Photoplay Ship to Shore Mini Album Project Share for you. This is wedding week, and I have a bunch of little loose ends to tie up before the big day. So I didn’t have time to create a details tutorial for you. But I will share lots of tips in the video. Honestly, this cute little mini album is so easy to make, I think you’ll be able to figure it out from the project share video and the tips.

Card Base Mini Album: How it Happened

In the process of re-organizing a few things in the studio, I ran across a huge stash of multi-colored 5 1/2″ square card bases. I vaguely remember buying them in bulk at a super reduced clearance sale years ago. But when they arrived, I discovered they were super flimsy…maybe 45# weight…and not suitable for supporting the heavily layered and embellished cards that I make.

Over the years, I’ve moved them here and there, contemplated tossing them, given them to the grandgirls to play with and thought to myself, “some day, I’ll know just what to do with you.” Well, this is that day! Lo and behold, they work perfectly for a quick and easy mini album base!

Shipshape Stacked Card Base Mini Album

Look how cute it turned out! And when I say easy to make, I am not joking. Here’s how I assembled the album base.

First, locate a stack of unloved card bases. Mine all matched, but mix and match would work too. They should all be the same size, however.
Cut one of the card bases into 1″ wide strips.
Next, score each 1″ x 5 1/2″ strip in half from top to bottom. Now you will have a whole stack of 1/2″ wide hinges or gussets.
Now adhere each gusset to the back side of each card base. My fold was on the LEFT, so I glued the folded edge of my hinge/gusset against the left hand edge of each card.
Then, glue the back side of each hinge/gusset to the front of the next card base, also on the left.
Continue until you have as many “pages” as you desire for your album.
Now cut liners for each page. Since my album is 5 1/2″ square, I cut 5 3/8″ liners. The liners will cover up the hinges!

Hidden Pocket Pages

The hidden pocket pages are equally easy to make.

Before you glue down your designer paper liner, create gussets or hinges for the sides and bottom of the album base. These are identical to the hinges you cut to join the card bases together, but just cut them a little shorter. I cut mine 1″ x 5 1/4″.
Once your gussets are in place, adhere your paper liner to the gussets, forming a lovely pocket.
Create the pull out page for the pocket by cutting the 5 1/2″ card base down to 5″ x 5″.

Quick and Easy Pocket Pages and Tip-In Pages

To make the pocket pages, simply fold the right hand side of a page back 2″ and crease. Add gussets to the top and bottom of the page and voila! Instant pocket!

Create a tip-in page by cutting your designer paper wider than the base page. Because I wanted a 3 1/2″ flap , I cut my paper 3 1/2″ wider than the base page. Then score at 5 3/8″ and fold. Easy peasy!

Waterfall Pages

The back side of the “short” pocket pages are sized perfectly for waterfall features. So as you can see, even though this album is on the small side, there’s lots of room for 4×4 photos, journaling and photo booth sized pics.

Photoplay Ship to Shore Easy Mini Album Project Share with Tips on YouTube

If you’d like to join me for a sight-seeing tour of this new Photoplay Paper collection and a walk through of the mini album with tips, please enjoy this Ship to Shore Easy Mini Album on my YouTube channel.