more shared projects – MINI ALBUMS!

donna was nice enough to send me some more projects that she had recently finished – 4 cute and adorable mini albums!

the first one is of max. the album tells the story of how max came to live with tiffany – the daughter of one of donna’s best friends, as well as some of max’s likes and dislikes. donna said she chose the green theme for the album because it is tiffany’s favorite color…

next, are 2 “name board” mini albums that donna did to give to her boss for Christmas (hope her boss doesn’t read this blog! LOL!). her boss has 2 daughters, age 1 and 4, the albums are all ready for photos to be added! what a thoughtful gift idea!

the last album is a Spurs mini album, great for filling up with pics taken at the games!

something i noticed about all 4 of donna’s albums is even though they are all unique and different, they all have a “color scheme”. she chose a predominately green theme for max’s album because that was a favorite color of the recipient, the 2 name boards are done in “girly girl” colors pink and purple for her boss’ daughters, and of course, the spurs album is in the team colors!

mini albums can be intimidating to some when it is for a gift, or when a random selection of photos will be included. how do you decide what papers to use? what if the colors you chose don’t match the photos? should you try to use different colors on each page? what kinds of embellishments should i use? etc…

using the same color scheme throughout a mini album can simplify the process. keep your paper choices within the range of 1, 2 colors and then add a few “accent” colors. use a variety of papers, just mix and match them – the color sheme will tie them all together. embellishment choices are simpler that way too, just pull out things you have in those colors and see what you like.

i wanted to make a mini album for my husband’s birthday, i knew i would be using just random photos of he and the boys. initially, i printed all my photos in black and white, assuming that that would make them all tie into my color scheme. i had decided on black and white as the main colors with aqua, lime green, red, orange and yellow accents. but when i was working on the album, i didn’t like how the black and white photos looked – and i am a BIG black and white photo fanatic! it just wasn’t as “playful” a look as i wanted for the album. so i reprinted in color, and viola – it looked great (at least to me! LOL!) the color scheme tied all the pages together, so the book looked pulled together, but still colorful and playful.

here’s a peek at my project….

i used all kinds of assorted bits and pieces to make my mini album, i pulled out stuff i’d had for YEARS! but it was fun to see what all i could use! i’m SURE you have some “old stuff” laying around, why don’t you pull it out and give it a try! if you want to make things even easier, go with a monochromatic theme, like donna did for the girl’s books. pull out everything you have (don’t forget your printed paper and cardstock scraps) in one color, it doesn’t all have to been the exact same shade, just pull out all your lime greens, or all your pinks and go from there! if you do make a project and want to show it off, please send me pics – i’d love to show off YOUR work!