C is for Cookie - Gina's Accordion Mini Album

Hello Crafty Friends!
Gina has a wonderful weekend project for us today...... a mini album just perfect for recording your special baking moments (or any other memories!) Love this so much!!

June is almost over and next month brings two weeks of school holidays, yay. Since we will have to do a lot of indoor activities and my daughters love to "help"in the kitchen, I thought we might bake some desserts together. I plan to take a lot of pictures and for us to sit and write down the recipes that we liked together. This accordion mini album is perfect for us to put our pictures and recipes in and gives us another indoor activity for the next day.

To start, cut 4 pieces of Bazzill Licorice Twist as 8 cm x 23 cm. Then stick two together to form the front and back covers.

For the inside cut the Bazzill Wax Lips to 30 cm x 22.5 cm. On the 30 cm sides, mark it at 7.5 cm, 15 cm and 22.5 cm on both sides and draw a line joining the points. On the 22.5 cm side mark the sides at 7.5 cm and 15 cm and draw lines across. In the end you should have twelve 7.5 x 7.5 com squares. On the left and right centre squares, mark 3.7 cm from the edge and draw a line as shown in the picture. I have shown this on a piece of white paper so you can see all the markings. If you don't understand, the video might help.

Score all the vertical lines, including the two vertical lines made at the 3.7 cm mark, and cut the two middle horizontal lines from the 3.7 mark to the 3.7 mark.

Starting from the middle vertical lines, fold the top and bottom lines upwards and the middle line downwards, and the rest in opposite directions to make accordion folds as shown in the picture. This parts a bit fiddly and you will see me struggle with it in the video too as its the first time I've made one. Make sure you are looking at the picture as you do this.

Now it's time to attach the covers that we made. Cut 2 pieces of patterned paper at 7.5 cm x 22.5 cm. I've used the off-cuts from my previous projects. Stick them on the inside of the covers and then stick the covers onto the front and back of the album. The white tape shows where to put the glue.

This is what it looks like now from the inside. There was a strip of patterned paper peeking out under the red. I went over that with a black sharpie.

Cut two more pieces of patterned paper for the front and back of the covers at 7.5 cm x 22.5 cm and ink the edges with black ink.

On the front cover, I used one of the Echo Park Good Day Sunshine brads to make a closure. I then stuck the patterned papers on. I used one of the cut aparts from the 8x8 paper pad, stuck it on some of the black cardstock and then stuck that in the bottom centre of the cover. I die cut some flowers and leaves with the Tim Holtz Funky Florals dies which I stuck on the right and the bottom of the cut apart. And to finish it off, I stuck one of the stickers from the Authentique Ingredient Sticker Sheet towards the top centre of the cover. I wrapped a piece of the Sew Easy fancy floss blue and white bakers twine around the album and closed it by wrapping it around the brad.

I cut 16 squares, from the Authentique Ingredient 8x8 paper pad, at 7 cm x 7 cm. I also cut 4 rectangles at 7 cm x 3.3 cm and used two of the cut aparts which were about 7.6 cm long. I left the length as is and cut the width down to 3.3 cm. I've inked all the edges with black ink.

I then stuck them onto the album. The picture below shows the inside. The two larger cut aparts go on the middle ends.

This picture shows the back of the album.

Starting from the inside, I will now decorate some of the squares. The first and third squares in the first row, the two middle squares and the second and third squares in the third row are for my pictures so I will be decorating the rest of them. On the second square, I used one of the cut aparts from the 8x8 paper pad. I inked the edges with my black ink and stuck one of the Dress it up Christmas Cookies buttons on the side, after removing the back button.

I did the same thing for the fourth square on the top.

For the middle row, I cut out the stamps from the cut aparts, inked the edges with black ink and then stuck one each on the little 3.2 x 7 cm rectangles.

I fussy  cut the kitchen cabinet from one of the cut aparts which I stuck on the first square of the last row. I then cut out the quote that comes at the bottom of each sheet, inked the edges, and arranged it next to the cabinet.

On the fourth square is another fussy cut image from the cut aparts and an arrow from the sticker sheet.

Here's a look at the completed inside.

On the back I have kept one square in each row for pictures and decorated the others. In the middle, I have made a pocket. I have cut a piece of patterned paper at 4.5 cm x 7 cm and used a scallop punch to cut a little semi circle. I have inked the edges with black ink and stuck it on to make a pocket. I used one of the cut aparts which said holiday favorites and stuck it in the middle of the pocket. I have stuck stickers from the sticker sheet on the top and bottom squares and the tag stickers on the 3.2 cm bits.

Now all that's left to do is add our pictures :)

Hope you enjoyed this album and see you again soon for my final project for the month. Till then stay warm and stay awesome.

Gina xx