Oh Baby! An Artbooking Mini-Album

Last month, I took my Cricut and brand new Artbooking cartridge on vacation.  It wasn’t any exotic vacation; we went back to our hometown to see family, attend a wedding of my not-so-little nephew.  While there I created this album using some cardstock that I brought along.  I used Lagoon, Gypsy, Cotton Candy, Buttercup, Sweet Leaf and Crystal Blue. 
This album is for an upcoming baby girl.  I know her mom isn’t too fond of pink or frills but loves purple, teal and other bright, non-pastel colors.  The baby’s room is beach themed.  Our Under the Sea stamp set worked perfectly for the simple album that I created. 
It was so SIMPLE!  I started on page 50 & 51 of the Artbooking handbook with the 8x6” baby album.  I set my Cricut dial to 8” and started cutting.  I cut every mini-album element on page 50-51 aside from the lion and giraffe.  I started assembling the pages and creating the book.  I then went back and added elements from other pages  to fill in the “gaps” and add personality to the book.  
I’ve explained what I added to each below:
On the cover I added this cute banner that I found on page 85.  I believe I cut it at 8” instead of the 11” suggested for a 12x12 layout in the handbook.  I used scraps of paper to fill in the banner. 

On page 2, I added the scalloped film strip that I found page 27.  I say 27 because I love how we have all the shapes shown in a quick view guide at the beginning of the handbook.  It ultimately led me to pg 78.  It’s for 2x2 photos on a 12” layout.  The handbook indicated that I could cut it at 11” (NO real-dial-size) and it would be perfect!  I know that there’s a couple of these film strip cuts.  I picked this one to keep the scallop theme.  The cute tags, pocket, and lattice were all cut at 8” because they were already part of the baby album.  I grabbed “Sweet” from page 49 and cut it 8” as well. 

The borders and overlays fit perfectly!  No trimming required. 

The palm tree is from the 12” beach layout on page 67.  I looked at the example layout on that page and decided it looked like the perfect size for my album.  I moved the dial up to 11” and cut it.  I didn’t want to use  real dial size since the trunk and the palm fronds have to be cut in proportion with each other. 

I cut “family” from page 67.  I used “fit to length” on this one to get it to fit on the tag.   This was probably the most difficult part of the whole album.  I wasn’t really sure what size I wanted.  Decisions, decisions!  I really liked having those decisions made for me!

For this scalloped page, I jumped to page 40 of the handbook and found another 8x6” mini-album!  More fun pages to cut and they matched exactly! 

The wave frame were cut from the beach 12x12 layout on page 67.  It was for a 5x7 picture on a 12” layout which would be way too big for my little 8x6 album.   I wanted it only 4.5” wide so I used fit to length at 4”.  I also cut additional waves from the border feature on that very same page, also cut in the same way.  I added Stardust Glitz to the top most layer. 

For the back page I used that same frame but cut even smaller. 


I bound the album with Lagoon baker’s twine.   Don’t bind it too tight so the pages tear! 
This album was truly a snap to put together.  I can’t wait to make more!  It was the perfect project for being on vacation because it was simple!

I’m continuing my pre-order sale through August 17th!  Get $10 off the Artbooking bundle & receive the August Stamp of the Month for free!