Over the years I have made many of these mini baby albums for gifts! They are easy, not too big, and a nice place for new parents to keep at least a few photos of their precious child. Of course this kind of fold-out album could be made for any occasion, not just babies! You do, however, have to PRINT OUT some photos off your phone or camera to get the full effect! It’s great having photos on our phones, but it’s not the safest place and sometimes it’s better to have a little album to show someone or look through ourselves.
The only difficult thing about this album is that you need 12″ x 12″ paper. Stampin’ Up! just carries assortments these days, which is fine for most things. You can also purchase a full pack of Whisper White 12″ x 12″ cardstock and use that for the base of the album and then decorate to your heart’s content!
You’ll start with a piece of cardstock 12″ x 5″, scored at 3 1/2″, 4″, 9″ and 9 1/2″. This makes the back and the fold over front top and bottom pieces.
Cut two pieces 12″ x 4 3/4″ also out of the base color, which will be the pieces that open out to the sides of the album. Score these at 4 3/4″ and 9 1/2″. Crease all score lines on all the pieces back and forth. You will figure out which way you want the sides to fold in after you get them assembled into the album.
With the first 12″ x 5″ piece placed vertically, adhere the two side pieces into the center (the part that will be the inside of the back of the album). This will be the 2 1/2″ section of each piece that you will adhere just inside the score lines of that back piece. Then adhere a piece of 4 3/4″ x 4 1/2″ over that two ends to cover them up.
Now you are ready to start decorating! Determine which way you want your album to fold…..the shorter piece on top or the bigger piece, depending on how you are going to decorate it so you have your inside patterns going the right direction. Now use whatever designer paper, stamps, cardstock, stamping, embellishments you want to decorate each of the pages and the outside cover. On this sample you will see some retired paper and stamps, but when I make a gift or custom order for someone, I use whatever I have in my current or past stash that I think works!
These next two photos show the back sides of the fold out sections.
I made a belly band to hold the album closed. When you fit this around, whatever width you like, you don’t want it to be too tight because, after all, you have scored a 1/2″ space to make room for photos.
This is a really easy and fun album to make so I hope you will give it a try. Use what you have. Order some 12″ x 12″ paper from Stampin’ Up! and you will be all set to make these little mini fold-out albums!