"Let Freedom Ring" Mini-Album

Disclosure: As a member of the Deflecto Crafts design team, I received the Deflecto products for free in exchange for my design ideas. 

The July 4th holiday may be over, but now you have to get all of the photos that you took at the cookouts, parades, and fireworks displays scrapped! Why not create a mini-album using Deflecto flexible pouches and pear clips?

Materials:

• White and blue cardstock
• patterned paper in patriotic colors 
• July 4th-themed stickers (I used American Crafts stickers)
• Buttons Galore Patriotic Mix buttons
• tape runner
• adhesive dots
• adhesive foam squares
• scissors
• paper trimmer
• ribbon
• Deflecto large flexible pouches 
• Deflecto pear clip

How to:

1. Using a paper trimmer, cut 5 pieces of white cardstock to 5" x 7".
2. Using patterned paper and blue cardstock, create layouts on both the front and back of each piece of white cardstock. 
3. Embellish each page with stickers and buttons. Use foam squares to "pop up' some of the stickers to give your page dimension. Attach buttons using adhesive dots.
4. Once all pages have been completed, place each page into the pouches.
5. Use a pear clip as a ring to hold the pouches together in an album.
6. Cut 6" lengths of ribbon. Tie around the pear clip. 

Now you have a simple mini-album that you can easily carry to show off those favorite holiday moments!

Using patterned papers effectively

Are you sometimes intimidated by certain scrapbook papers? Do you like the color or pattern but you think,"Wow, that's a little "busy"?  No worries! The key to using patterned papers is to use in moderation.

In my early days of scrapbooking, I would use just one sheet of patterned paper as a background, no matter how bright or busy it was; now looking back, I see that my pictures were overwhelmed by the papers. I have learned that by pairing patterned papers with solid cardstock or with a related but smaller/cleaner pattern, I can use the "busiest" papers around, yet still have my photos be the focus.

A great example of a company that has wild patterned paper is Sassafras Lass. I love their paper and embellishments. It makes my heart sing to look at them. However, I know that I have to use their products in a different way so that my layouts are not overwhelmed. Here's one of my favorite layouts that I made using Sassafras products:

By using a black background and by using the papers as borders and accents, I was able to still get the fun, whimsical look, but my photos are still front and center.

Another company that I love is American Crafts. They too have some awesome papers that may need a little tweaking.

If I had used an entire sheet of the stripes, my pictures would have been lost. However, by breaking up the stripes with some solid cardstock, I was able to still get the fun pattern but without all of the clutter.

For more examples of patterned paper layouts, go to my "Gallery" page here on the blog!

So don't be afraid of those wild papers! Just use them in moderation and you will have a layout that you are proud of!

Christmas accordian mini-album from BoBunny, made from 1 sheet of 12X12 paper!

BoBunny's Halloween accordian mini-album

12X12 layout from Creativity Inc. using Stampology inks,

Autumn Leaves papers, and Scrap Metal embellishment.

Card from American Crafts using their Zing! embossing powder and Flair embellishment