GDT Sunila & Aditi: "Bestie" Mini album tutorial - Part 1

Hello lovely crafters,

A very lovely Welcome and a warm Good Morning in this cold winter.

Today in our Teaching and Learning Program we have a beautiful mini album tutorial which our Guest DT Aditi using the theme ''Bestie''. In this tutorial she has shown every details beautifully with the pictures and instructions. Its a long post today so grab some hot snacks and coffee and enjoy the tutorial. To ease your learning we have divided the Tutorial in to two parts, Please check the link at the end for 2nd & Last Part.

Over to you Aditi,

Hello everyone,

This is my first post as a guest designer for Rainbow Craftykari and I am super excited :)

For this tutorial, I have created a mini album and my theme was ‘Bestie’ something you can gift your best friend and treasure memories of times together.

Before I begin the step by step tutorial, here is the final album,

Let me warn you, this is going to be a long tutorial :) !! The trick in this album is first getting the measurements right and next preparing the entire base structure.

To begin with, lets cut all our cardstock and chipboard pieces. I have used a 270 gsm black cardstock and 800 gsm chipboard.

To work easily lets divide this album into four parts- the base, the pages, page inserts and the hinge system.

For our pages we need 6 pieces of 6”x6” cardstock; for the inserts we need 6 pieces of 5 3/4” x 6 3/4” cardstock; for the hinges we need 2 pieces of 5 7/8” x 6” cardstock to cover the chipboard we need 2 pieces of 8 1/2”x12” cardstock.

For our front, back and spine we need to cut our chipboard. Measurements are as follows: Front covers - 2 pieces of 6 1/4”x 3 1/4”, Spine- 2 pieces of 6 1/4”x 1 3/4” and back- 1 piece of 6 1/4”x 6 1/2”.

Once you’ve cut all these pieces you’re good to begin.

Lets begin with our pages for the album. Keeping the 7” side, score 1/2” on both sides. That means once at 1/2” and once at 6 1/2”. Fold along the score lines.

On the folded lines apply glue and stick the 6”x6” cardstock piece onto this to form a pocket that opens from two sides.

Complete all six pages in the same manner.

Once your pages are ready, put them aside and lets begin working on the hinges. The hinges are the most important part of an album, as they are going to hold all the pages in place and the entire album intact.

 

Begin with the 5 7/8” x 6” cardstock cut for the hinges. Keeping the 6” side on the score board, score at 1 1/4”, 1 3/4”, 2 1/4”, 2 1/2”, 3”, 3 1/2”, 3 3/4”, 4 1/4”, 4 3/4”

Flip over the scored sheet and keep it vertically. Start folding upwards at the first line. Open and fold on the second line. Skip the third line, and fold up at the fourth line. Fold up on the fifth line and skip the sixth line. Continue the same upward fold on the last to lines and open them. Turn over and fold up on the third and the sixth line you skipped earlier. These are the 1/4” scored spaces that will lay flat to form the hinges. The 1/2” scored lines will form mountain peaks and 3 hinges on each piece.

This seems difficult, but isn’t. You need patience while doing this. Once the 1/4” lines have been folded, you’ll see peaks emerging.So pinch together pieces, the first and the second1/2” parts folding on the second line will form the first hinge. Once you get your three hinges, go over the 1/4” lines with a bone folder to have then lay flat as a support between each hinge. Go over the folds as well with the bone folder to get crisp peaks. Once this is achieved, turn over and glue the hinges together. I used paper clips to hold the pieces together until the glue dries.

Once the glue is dry, remove the clips and turn over your hinge, and go over the score marks with your bone holder. Like this you need to make two sets of hinges- one for the left side and one for the right side of our album.

With this done, you’ve completed a major part of this album:)! Feel proud of yourself!

From here on-wards, I'm continuing the tutorial to 2nd & last part, Please click at http://bit.ly/2gU3iCh

If you have any questions please leave comments here, we'll get back to you!

GDT Sunila & Aditi: "Bestie" Mini album tutorial - Part 2

Continuing from Part 1 http://bit.ly/2hgY6LR

Next lets get our page inserts ready.

Take the 6 3/4”x 5 3/4” cardstock sheets and keeping on the 6 3/4” side score at 5 1/2”. Fold along the score line and press with the bone folder. This forms the flap. I wanted some design, hence I die cut the flap. You could use nay decorative punch or die for this or leave the flaps as it is.

With our pages, hinges and inserts complete, we now only have our base of the album to do.
For this pick the two 8 1/2” x 12” cardstock pieces and attach them together. Apply glue on the last 1/2” on one sheet and place the second sheet on top and press nicely.

Keeping this long sheet as the base, we now need to stick our chipboard pieces. The arrangement goes this way- front, spine, back, spine and front. Between each piece leave a gap equivalent to the thickness of the chipboard. 

Trim the sides of the cardstock and fold all sides inwards and stick them to cover the pieces (like a look binding). The placement of the hinges is the next important thing to ensure the pages alternate when opening the album. Before placing the hinges, cut them at an angle. This will help are pages slide in smoothly.

The first hinge is to be placed 1/2” away from where the first spine piece starts and the second hinge is to be placed 1/2” from where the second spine starts. By hinge I mean the peak point and not the beginning flat part. Notice the marking on the page and the hinge placement in the picture below. Stick these hinges down and press firmly with the bone folder. Go over the score lines, as well as the gaps between the chipboard pieces so they fold over easily.

This is what our base should finally look like.

With this done, you have completed most of it. Next, comes the decoration bit and then attaching the pages. It would be good to first design the pages and then stick them. It’s easy to work this way. I wanted to add a flap inside on the back of the album. So for that take a 6 3/8” x 5” cardstock and keeping on the 5” side score at 4 1/2”. Put some glue on the fold and stick it onto your album on the back piece inside. You can also die cut the edge. I wanted to make it magnetic so i stuck two pieces of magnet- one centre of the flap and one on the chipboard piece where the flap would close.

Now we can begin sticking our pattern paper. Start by sticking at the back of your album- front, spine and back pieces and then inside. I haven’t given measurements for this as it depends on how much of a black border you would like to leave.

For the pages, you can use a paper sized 14.5 cm and 14.5 cm front and back and for the inserts 13.5 cm x 13.5 cm both sides.

I’ll teach you two styles of pockets for the pages of this album. You go do more styles too :)

A simple pocket- Cut a piece of patterned paper measuring 7” x 3”. You can increase the height of the pocket.  Keeping the 7” side, score at 1/2” and 6 1/2”. Turn the paper 90 degrees and score at 2.5”. Fold along score lines. When you open them you will see two mini squares at the corners. Cut them out and stick the bottom fold onto the side folds. You pocket is ready to stick to your page.

A mini envelope- Cut a piece of pattern paper measuring 5 1/2” x 5 1/2”. I used the envelope template given with my scoring board and scored at 2”; turned 90 degree and scored at 2.5”. Repeated this again. Fold along the lines and open. Cut out four mini triangles fired at the line intersection, fold the sides and then stick the bottom. I cut the pointed edges of the top and bottom flap. I then stick this onto my page, and used some left over paper to form a band to secure the envelope.

Once you have decorated your pockets, you need to stick them inside your album. For this apply glue on both side of a hinge, slide down your pocket and press firmly and hold until it sticks together.

Stick all your pages like this. They would alternate, from the bottom- first the right then the left. So when you open your album your first page will be the one from the left. I decorated the album with some stickers, brads, buttons, tags, die cuts, flowers, charms, metal embellishments, etc.. going with my theme. You are free to decorate it the way you wish to :)!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Here are some pictures of the album inside.

Materials Used

Black cardstock 270gsm

Chipboard 900gsm

Tacky glue

Fevicol

Kaisercraft PP 6*6 - Kaleidoscope

Scissors

Scoreboard and Bone folder

Ruler

Paper Trimmer

Embellishments - flowers, metal charms, stickers, die cuts etc.

Lock.

Above listed Materials are available at Rainbow Craftykari Store or you can pre-order.

Regards
Aditi
Blog- https://dotstolinesblog.wordpress.com/