Florida Vacation Mini-Album

 Masculine Card Challenge Update
I made this tie rack card last month for Father's Day and entered it in CutCardStock's masculine card challenge. If you want to make one yourself or see the link to the origami fold, please go here. I ended up winning the viewer's choice award, so I wanted to say thank you to everyone who voted for me.

Tie Rack Card

As an added bonus, CutCardStock asked me to be a guest designer for them this month. I made two projects using their cardstock and invitation sets which will be shown on their blog today and next Saturday.

The Supply Base

For being a guest designer, CutCardStock set me a Priority Mail Box filled to the brim with their products. I was so surprised by their generosity and loved the versatility of their products. My favorite item was the brown bag A7 (5 x 7") folded invitation set. It really does feel like a brown paper bag, being softer than Kraft cardstock and that cut out on the flap is super cute. I decided to create a project featuring the brown bag set. 

Brown Bag Card & Envelope

This month from Pages from the Heart, I worked with two new Echo Park collections - This & That (Charming version, which is boy themed one) and Enjoy the Ride (which is a mini-theme featuring travel).

Echo Park Collections

I paired the solid paper bags with fun images from the patterned papers to create an interactive vacation mini-album. 

The Reveal

I bought a small three ring binder from Big Lots for $2.00 for my album's exterior. I decorated it with the Echo Park papers and stickers, along with some photos and Glossy Accents. 

Orlando Vacation Album

For the inside cover, I covered it with light blue airplane paper and adhered my itinerary for the week. Each page inside the album consists of an envelope. I have 7 pages total, one for each attraction I visited plus a bonus envelope to house unused items like extra postcards. 

Inside Cover and First Page

Inside each envelope is the matching folded card, which can be taken out and opened up. This allows for six surfaces to be decorated - the front and back of the envelope, the front and back of the card, and the interior double panel of the card. This is a lot of room to work with, so I actually used everything I brought back from my trip - photos, brochures, pressed pennies, souvenirs and other memorabilia. 

Envelope Opens with Pull Out Card

The Interior

I'll show you one complete page in my album. This one features a trip to Gatorland. Here is the front of the envelope with has a group photo, description of the park cut out from the brochure, a pressed penny, admittance wristband and real alligator teeth I adhered to the alligator photo. 

Front of Envelope

Real Gator Teeth

The flap opens and you can pull out the card. I brought some 3 x 4" journaling cards with me on the trip which I filled out each day. I cut them in half and adhered them to the inside flap on each envelope. This way, I didn't have to try to remember the details weeks or months later, especially when I'm in the middle of designing a page.

Inside of envelope and card front

The card opens up and I can place the larger items inside. Here I cut out the map of the park, attached a photo with an arrow pointing to the location where the photo was taken.

Inside of Card

The back of the envelope is the perfect size for a 5 x 7" photo, and the back of the card can hold a collage of mini-photos. I used 10 photos, a map, journaling card, brochure, souvenirs, plus my regular embellishments on one "page" of my album. Anything else leftover from my Gatorland visit, I just tossed as I'm never going to use them again.

To see the rest of the pages, they are spread out on CutCardStock's blog and Pages from the Heart's blog. 

This gave me a good feeling of utilizing everything I brought back and a sense of completion regarding scrapping my trip. It was a lot faster than scrapping a 12 x 12" album and turned out to be a fun and interactive album that people might enjoy browsing through. 

You can use any card envelope you have lying around, an empty small binder and a piece of cardstock cut to fit inside your envelope. If you want to use the brown paper bag set that I used, you can purchase the envelope here and the card here. I actually liked them so much, I later purchased the A2 and square set. If you want to see the album in person, please visit Pages from the Heart. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,