Completed Paperbag Album

Well, I finished up my paperbag album, and my hubby has given it a thumbs up. You can see the cover in my previous post. These are so easy to create, and they go together pretty quickly since they're so small.

I made this by folding two white lunch bags in half, then gluing them together in the middle. I tied fuzzy red yard around the spine as an accent. You can use the bag parts to tuck in journaling tabs - I've pulled them out slightly in the photos so you can see what I mean. No stamping at all on this (gasp!) as I was trying to keep things pretty simple. The ladies at MOPS will be making these this morning, but unfortunately I am home tending sick kids. Hopefully they'll have as much fun with theirs as I did with this one!

Paper Bag Book

I know I haven't posted anything in awhile - lots going on here and I haven't had time to stamp. I thought I'd post pics of the Paper Bag Album I made for my daughter earlier this year, though. I'd been wanting to make one of these for quite some time, and I must admit it was a lot of fun! I deliberately kept this one small and quite simple, but you could get so much more creative with the pockets, pullouts, etc. Here's the completed book:

And the pull outs (inserted into the open bag ends; there's additional journaling on the back):

Tags that go into the pockets (made from the bag bottoms), and again there's more space for journaling on the backs:

And now for some specifics...

I made this book with only two bags (remember, I said I wanted to keep it simple!) I just folded them in half, added a teeny bit of glue down the fold, and then laid them together, the bottom one (which was the outside) with the open end on the left and the second one with the open end on the right. Hope that makes sense! I then folded them together and glued a bit of patterned paper along folded edge. I only glued it on the front, then pierced three holes, strengthened it with some mini brads, then once I fanned out the back of the brads I glued down the remainder of the paper spine on the back. The patterned paper is somewhere between copy paper and cardstock in weight; sturdy enough but not overly heavy. I used PVA glue for everything as I wanted a strong but flexible hold. I let that dry for about half an hour, then folded back each page along the paper spine so that the pages turn easily. After the creases were made, I used more PVA (with a toothpick), cramming it into the center between each page for added strength.

Some of the text was computer generated; I printed it out on regular paper, then once I was happy with it, I'd tape down my "real" paper right over the sample and run it back through the printer. Every thing else is from SU (much of it from the Winter Mini or Sell-A-Bration): Small Sayings and So Very stamp sets; On Board Simon Lower chipboard alphabet; Loves Me paper; Flirty ribbon; Sweet Nothings accents and elements; chocolate chip, close to cocoa, pretty in pink and cool caribbean cardstock; ticket corner punch; pewter hodgepodge hardware; soft subtles brads; markers and inks.

I promise to be back with more eye candy next week!!