Have you ever had a huge stack of pictures and wondered how in the world you were going to create a layout with them? This project uses a total of 20 pictures. Yes, I said 20! My family has a cabin that is about 1.5 hours from Boise, Idaho. It was built by my Grandpa in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He did probably 90% of the work himself. We go there a lot in the summers and it is a great place for pictures, hence my insane amount of pictures! This is a great way to keep those special memories all together!
CC Materials Used:
Designer Photo Sleeves (4x6 Vertical) (12 x 12)
EP Splash (yellow/teal)
Cosmo Cricket (Be Good: Ornaments) (Fleuriste: Maize)
Making Memories: Shimmer Alpha (Black)
Silhouette Cameo, Cabin diecut & The Wilderness diecut
Non CC Materials:
Close To My Heart: Hinges, Piercing Tools
Adhesives (wide variety)
Assortment of cardstock, from my stash
Ribbon
Xacto Knife
Here’s how it works:
I took a class about using photo sleeves in unique ways. Did you know you can cut them apart? It’s tricky, but if you do it right, you have a world of possibilities at your fingers!
Step 1 & 2: Using a ruler or other straight edge, cut off the part of the photo page where the holes are at. Trust me, you won’t need them! Be careful not to cut right on the little dot perforation thingies, or you will have to start over.
Step 3: Using the same technique, cut down the middle of the page dividing your photo sleeves into 2 columns of 3. Again, be careful where you are cutting, you want to make sure that your able to get into all of the pockets!
Step 4: Using a bone folder or other folding tool, fold each side of your sleeves into an accordion fold.
Next step is the hinges. I purchased mine from Close To My Heart a while ago, unfortunately they are no longer available (keeping my fingers crossed they return) but you can find small hinges at some craft stores, and even hardware stores. Cricut and Silhouette have some that can be cut out, your main purpose for these is attaching the accordion folded halves of your photo sleeves to your page protector.
Steps 5 & 6: If you have a small cutting mat, or a piercing mat, you want to put that inside of your 12x12 page protector and decide where you want to put your soon to be photo books. This is important or your page protector will tear! You must pierce through the page protector with a piercing tool or if you have it, an eyelet setter (does anyone even use that anymore?) You can use a pen to mark where you want your hinges to go. Once you have attached your hinges the booklet, attach the other side of the hinges to your page protector. If you are unsure of where to place your photo book, make your layout and use that as a guide.
Now, if you don’t mind your mini photo books flopping around on your page protector, you don’t have to do the next step, but trust me, you want them secure! Again, it is really important that you pierce your page protectors with the eyelet setter tool (if it has the hole maker attachment on it) otherwise your page protector WILL tear! I used some ribbon to secure my photo books. You want to put a piercing pad or small cutting mat behind your layout, but inside the page protector. Pierce your page protector and layout with your handy, thrown in a drawer and forgotten about eyelet setter. Thread your ribbon through the holes and there you go! Your photo books are set! I had mine filled up before I did that.
Here you can see all of my photos that are involved with the sleeves. I used some of the spaces for journaling. If you look carefully where the hinges are, you can see that I cut a small strip of paper to cover the backside of the brads ( you know those pokey parts). This protects your page protectors.
There you have it. Aside from the flash glare, I thought it turned out pretty well!
1.) Anyone remember this? “This is the song that never ends It just goes on and on my friends! Some people started singing, not knowing what it was And they’ll continue singing it forever just because….” (and repeat as many times as it takes to annoy everyone around you!)Now be honest, you were singing that in your head right? When I was teaching 4th grade, the mother of one of my students ran a scrapbook store. At the end of the school year, her daughter made me the coolest card! You can find a lot of patterns and instructions online. This is called a Never Ending Card. These are very simple to make. I tried out a few different patterns and settled on this particular one that I found in many places online. Since our theme this month is “Grandma’s Quilt” you will be piecing paper together much like you would a quilt!
2.) First off, here is a look at how the card looks as you are going through the steps. I wanted to make sure I could see which panels and areas were shown on each step. Really in part 2 and 3 are the only overlapping areas of your card. Something to keep in mind when you are selecting paper. Honestly, using one of the paper kits that Crop Chocolate has put up recently is a great way to coordinate each panel of this card.
3.) First off, cut 4 pieces of cardstock 3 x 6 inches. You can make 2 card bases out of one 12 x 12 piece of cardstock. Next, get your trusty scoring tool. You will score each of the 4 pieces the same. The “hot-dog way” (with the 6 inch side vertical) score at 1.5 inches (this will score the paper in half. The “hamburger way” (with the 3 inch side vertical) score at 1.5 and 4.5 inches. (or you can flip it around and score at 1.5 again either way.This card requires a lot of flexibility. Make sure you fold on your score lines in both directions.
4.) Now you are ready to assemble your Never Ending Card.First, lay 2 of your scored panels side by side, vertically. Now you will put glue in the upper right corner of the right panel and the upper left corner of the left panel. Very carefully, lay your third panel on top of the first two, but make sure it is horizontal. Line up your corners carefully and make sure your bottom panels are not overlapping. Repeat the glue on the bottom left and right corners and carefully line up the fourth panel. Make sure your horizontal panels do not overlap each other. Here’s a hint. One one sample I made (that fell apart) I used my Xyron runner, and the hold wasn’t strong enough to hold the card together through several run-throughs. Make sure you use a strong adhesive. I used the Scotch glue for this, my card has yet to fall apart!Now you are ready to create!! I used the BE YOU papers from Fancy Pants, the strips page with the different sayings made it easy to add some text to the card. Just be sure you don’t overlap any folds or the middle. If for some reason your card is getting caught, you can trim the edges as needed.
5.) There you have it, here is the final product! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and try it yourself, it is a fun way to make a unique card!
6.) Thanks for checking out my card :)
