Well, it's a Bank Holiday Monday so I thought I would show you what I was up to last week (unless you really want to see the payroll I've been running today instead?).  As you know, I love the Project 365 kits by Digilicious Designs, and I have been able to make good use of the April kit.  Just take a look at all that gorgeousness wrapped up in one lovely bundle (I've linked the image to the shop if you want to take a closer look):



It is so scrummy, I could hardly wait to get my hands on it and I was originally going to make another altered folder/smash book, but thought I would try something different instead.   I don't know if you ever go to Paper Phenomenon and see what Kathy Orta gets up to, but she makes some amazing things.  I've seen her videos for making a Tim Holtz paper bag album and since I managed to find some reasonably priced paper bags on the internet a while ago, I really wanted to try this out.  Of course, I hadn't factored into all my workings the different bag and paper sizes between here and the USA.  Why, oh why, do they have things a slightly different size?  It is so frustrating, especially when I was following the video and Kathy said the measurements were x by y, so I cut the paper out that size only to find out at least one side was too short as I had forgotten about the different sizes! 

Anyhow, I managed to make do with what I had, increased some things, reduced others, and this is what I ended up with (please bear in mind this is the first time I have ever made anything like this):



I used six paper bags for the inside pages, printing off pages and elements form the kit as necessary for decoration, and made the covers from empty cereal boxes. The binding is some fibre I have had for ages and had actually though I would never end up using it, but it turned out to be ideal for this.  All the papers and elements are from the kit,  and the only things I added were the bags, brown envelopes,  binding fibre, cardstock and the gem in the middle of the yellow flower on the cover.  Oh, not forgetting my distress inks as well  Mind you, I did use rather a lot of ink to print all the papers, etc. out and don't even mention the double sided tape - I'm just glad I had plenty in!

Each page was set up so that the right hand page had a bottom flap for holding tags, mini albums, photographs, etc and the left hand page had a flap with tag holder underneath it and then another tag holder along the right hand side under the flap: 




 The above photo is the inside front page.  I've kept the inside cover blank for now, but I reckon I could easily add another envelope/tag holder there.  You will see on the right that there is a pocket on the bottom and inside that is a mini album.  This is actually back to front in the above picture and when it is the right way round, this is what you get:




Isn't that neat?  The belly band was plain cardstock which I punched out and when you open the album up, you can see there is an inside pocket with two tag holders in and a large tag.  The tag holders/covers each have two tags inside, one of which has a band at one edge into which you can place more photographs, and so on.  

I made large tags to fit into each paper bag, and just take a look at how they turned out:






And how could I not  include that cute bird and bird house in the album?!!!







This here is another journalling mat but this one folds out:


Et voila.....!!!


Neat eh?  Kathy has some brilliant ideas and I love her work!

This is another little mini album within the main album:



I still need to add tags to the pockets between each page but isn't that cute?  there are so many spaces for tags, journalling, and all sorts in this album, it is a real treasure trove with lots of hidden pages.  










I am so pleased with how this turned out, even though I can see all the flaws and faults in my crafting.  I definitely want to make another of these, but as with all things, I need to find the time as this one took absolutely ages to make.  But it was definitely worth it!  I could let you see all the other photos of the album, but reckon you have probably had enough for now!  Hopefully you weren't too bored.....

Anyhow, I can hear a glass of red wine calling my name now, so I'm off to celebrate finishing the album.

Happy Scrappping!












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