I started August with the idea that I would stash bash an old Recollections 6×6 paper pad to make a mountain of tags to give to family as gifts. I started to feel a bit overwhelmed by the idea of die cutting a ton of tags, then lining up all the dies to cut out paper to match, and then putting them all together and decorating them. And when a crafter feels overwhelmed by one project, 100 other projects get completed. Welcome to my first Halloween post!
I have quite a few Halloween items in my collections. Most of my collection comes from Recollections brand, but I also have some Carta Bella Happy Halloween, Simple Stories Frankie and Friends (retired), and a Graphic 45 collection that is Halloween adjacent, the Master Detective design. I have the 8×8 paper pad, ephemera, and cards. Rather than pulling out my Recollections paper pads, I chose to work with the Simple Stories 12 x 12 collection, and the things I had from Master Detective. I had already used a bit of the Frankie & Friends paper on a cute paper bag mini album I made a few years ago, and I wanted to see how much more I could use up. The answer is…I still have a lot of paper and stickers to use up.
I ended up making two mini photo albums using a mini album design from Bourbon Creek Crafts. It was incredibly easy and so fun to put together. The instructions are in the linked video and it’s such a quick process, you’ll end up making more than one. Like me!
Left side 
Right side
Each page in the album follows the same structure as the one pictured. There’s a left side and right side for photos and a pocket in the middle. I included a cut apart in the pocket with the idea that someone could use the cut apart to journal about the two photos on those pages. Each side is cut from a 12×12 piece of cardstock. If there were design elements already on the paper, like on the right side, I didn’t add anything. If it was plain, I added stickers as embellishment. I left the decoration for the Simple Stories album pretty basic.
Left side 
Right side 
Left again
For the Master Detective album, I went a little more ornate with my decorations. I have a small collection of metal pieces and ribbon that I like to use on projects using Graphic 45 paper. Graphic 45 has a Victorian/Edwardian/1920s vibe I love and I really get into decorating in a way that is a little extra. The structure is exactly the same. Two sides of the page with a pocket in the middle. I used cards from the ephemera as journalling spots. I also created tuck spots by only gluing down the bottom and one side of the ephemera I used.
You can see in all the photos there are metal accents. They are glued down. All of them come from an online shop called Butterbee Scraps. They have a plethora of wonderful filigree metal pieces, gears, leaves, drawer pulls, charms…Everything you could ever want if you are a metal magpie like me.
The third photo also shows off some organza ribbon I picked up on a mini roll from Michaels some years ago and only bring out for Graphic 45 projects. Only because I don’t know if I can get any more of it.
I enjoyed my Halloween projects and will have at least one more Halloween post to share. I made some Halloween cards, but apparently I hid them from myself. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull them out before the spoopy season is done!
CraftyAs 