Artbooking Made Easy: Family-Inspired Mini Albums

Happy 2014! I hope you all had wonderful celebrations to ring in the New Year! And I hope this year will be one of making memories, achieving objectives, and cultivating creativity! To that end, let's jump into the New Year with another episode of Artbooking Made Easy!

Today's Artbooking Made Easy is filled with plenty of inspiration to build your own mini album using the inspiration-themed keys on pages 44–45 of the Cricut^® Artbooking booklet. These pages are meant specifically for mini albums, and there are so many creative ways to piece together the shapes for your perfectly personalized photo book. And who better to feature in your photo album than your family? 

Whether your album captures memories of your family, vacations, friends, parties, or whatever else, these clever ideas can be a springboard to get those creative juices flowing! 

First off, don't you love how Monica documented her family vacation to San Diego? The 3-ring album is a perfect fit for the 8" x 8" pages, but remember, you can always use the Real Dial Size to scale down your cutouts to be used as accents on a page. What I love about this album is all the little extras that take you right back to the beach—exactly where we would all love to be during winter!

Look at those little wooden seagulls flying at the top of the page here. I think the wooden shapes add such a nice touch! Monica used the same element on the next page with the wooden wave. The chevron overlay mimics the look of the waves perfectly, and I love the little Aqua Dots scattered throughout the album like little water droplets. And all the sanded edges give this album a weathered, just-came-from-the-beach look. I can almost smell that salt water!

This "All the details" page is one of my favorites. It really shows how you don't have to use up a lot of space for all the little memories and you don't have to use the cutouts in the Artbooking cartridge exactly as they're displayed! Monica used the dovetail cutouts from the inspiration keys and instead of using them to look like ribbons peeking out from behind a picture, she made them into arrows to label each picture. So clever! Try experimenting unique ways to use the cutouts. You might be surprised by what you can come up with!

Whenever you don't know where to start with a color palette, sometimes your inspiration can come right from your photos, as you can see with this photo. Monica got her color palette from the blue sky, white clouds, and orange rocks in this picture—so beautiful! Another fun idea you see here is layering cutouts in two different colors to make them really pop.

If you feel like your pages are lacking some detail, try some pen stitching! I love how such a simple detail can add so much, and it really gives banners a more realistic look. Bonus: it's a lot easier than actual stitching!

Leaving the beach, let's take a look at Monica's glitzy and glamorous 6" You Inspire Me Mini Album. You can never go wrong with adding a little sparkle, can you?

I'm amazed at how well this classy, foot-poppin' album comes together using repeated patterns, especially damask. You see it in the Background and Texture paper, the stamps, and even the background of one of Monica's photos! Using larger stamps to pattern your paper can also really help tie those kinds of themes together. 

Since this album is all about documenting how her family inspires her, Monica left plenty of space for journaling. I love how she used the little paper clips from the Artbooking cartridge to hold down these journal entries. And the Flip Flaps are so adorable, don't you think? I love how it adds so much more room to list what Monica loves about each of her children.

Just because words come together in the cutouts doesn't mean they have to stay that way! Monica split up the "capture" from "the details" here to make it work with her page layout. I think it looks fantastic! I especially love the jewel dotting the i! It even matches Monica's jewelry! 

So there you have it, friends! This year, make a goal to document what inspires YOU! The inspiration keys in the Cricut^® Artbooking cartridge will be a big help in inspiring you to create your own unique albums. 

Recipes:

8" x 8" Vacation Mini Book Kraft Album

Z1906 Cricut^® Artbooking Collection (stamps and shapes)

Z1686 Cricut^® Art Philosophy Collection 

Z1871 My Creations^™ Kraft 3-Ring Album

C1561 My Acrylix^™ One-Way Borders

D1555 My Acrylix^™ All the Details

E1027 My Acrylix^™ Framework Alphabet

D1559 My Acrylix^™ Geometric Backgrounds

D1574 My Acrylix^™ A Typeface

X7171B Sarita Paper Packet

X7168B Surf's Up Paper Packet

Z1853 Aqua Dots

Z1825 Keyboard Kraft Alphabet

Z1844 Color-Ready Trinkets Wooden Shapes

Z1837 Mini-Medley Accents Wooden Collection

Z1891 Base & Bling Teal Jewels

Z1921 Baker's Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment

Z1751 Baker's Twine Harvest Assortment

Colors: Colonial White, Sorbet, Lagoon, Desert Sand, Pacifica, kraft

6" x 6" You Inspire Me Mini Album

Z1906 Cricut^® Artbooking Collection (stamps and shapes)

C1568 My Acrylix^™ The Party Is On (Hostess)

C1506 My Acrylix^™ Family Love

D1571 My Acrylix^™ Sweet & Lovely

C1565 My Acrylix^™ In the Moment

X7175B Frosted Paper Packet

Z1848 Red Shimmer Trim

Z1701 Baker’s Twine Neutral Assortment

Z282 Black Hemp

Z1806 Green & Blue Epoxy Bubbles

Z1862 Mini-Medley Accents Black Collection

Z1861 Mini-Medley Accents Ruby Collection

Colors: White Daisy, Black, Ruby, Cashmere