Summer Themed Mini Album

Hi friends.  Today I have a summer themed mini album to share that I made using some of each of the different ribbon styles in the June Ribbon Club Assortment from Really Reasonable Ribbon along with some Burlap String for the tops of my tags..

The June Ribbon Club Assortment is a pretty summer themed collection of colors.

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The June Ribbon Club Assortment contains 9 styles and a total of 18 yards of ribbon.  Each monthly assortment is a color or holiday themed collection of ribbon.  What a fun way to build your ribbon stash and try new ribbon styles.

So, this is my first attempt at a mini album with this type of binding and overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results.  For those of you with mini album experience, I would love if you would hop over to my post on my Make Time to Craft Blog and give me some feedback.  I will be posting some questions over there on places where I had some problems.

You can see on the photo above that I used a variety of ribbons on the book binding for a colorful touch.  I then added a little summer saying near the top of the binding.  As you can see in the photo below, I had added the pages before I decided to add the ribbon to the outer book binding.  Next time I will add the ribbon first and then it will be tucked under where the pages attach to the binding.

Of course I didn't have any design paper in the colors I want.  I have about 300 pounds of design paper, but I never have what I'm looking for - perhaps a slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean!  So, I pulled out my Distress Ink pads and made some paper in the colors I wanted.  I love the look, but I have to caution you that it was a LOT of work, so think hard before you set out on this path with making your own design paper...

Since it was my first album with this type of binding, I tried to go with the easy way on many of the steps.  I did not completely cover my chipboard covers - meaning wrapping the paper around to cover the edges.  I just cut paper the size of the front, back and binding and glued it on.  I inked the sides of the chipboard, but I'm not really liking that too much, so I will do it differently next time.

I was also pretty repetitive on the pages.  All the pages were folded the same way with slightly different edgings.  I also made all the pull-outs and tags the same shape and changed up the colors and the small beach themed embellishments for a little variety.

I used little snippets of all the 3/8" ribbons from the June Ribbon Club Assortment on the pull-outs in the pages.  I did stagger where I added the holes on these pull-outs so I would not have too much ribbon bulk in one spot.

For the tops of the tags that will slide in from the top, I used ivory, pink and light blue Burlap String which matched the ribbons very nicely.

I also added some bands of ribbon on each page near the binding of the book to add some additional interest and color.  You can probably see that a little better a few photos above this one.

I topped off the front of my mini album with a pretty bi-color bow made on my Bow-it-All V3.0 using Peony and Copin Blue Delicate Stitched Satin from the June Ribbon club Assortment from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  I also ran some layered ribbon across the center under the name plate.

For a video tutorial on how I created this pretty bi-color bow, please click HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you like my mini-album.

If you are a mini album maker, I would love to have you swing by my Make Time to Craft Blog.  
I will be posing some questions for you seasoned mini album makers and I would love any tips or tricks you would be willing to share.

~ Bonnie ~