Countdown to Christmas! Day 12 – A Quick Christmas Album!

Aloha, all!

     While I promised that I would post every day between December 1st and Christmas Day, I am about to be the recipient of a surprise gift from my dear husband, who is whisking me off to the island of Kaua'i tomorrow.  I've known about this for over a week, but I really thought (in this busy season, no less!) that I'd have time to make projects and post them while I was gone.  Hah!  I can hear my dear late mother saying that as I say, "I've got another think coming!"

     So I will be absent from my craft room and my computer desk until Thursday.  I'm even probably going to miss the Diva Coffee Break Challenge this week, but I'm still not certain about that.  Depends on how quickly I can pack this evening.

     For today, though, I thought I'd share a new take on an old pattern, which some call an "explosion" album.  I'm not sure what's exploding, but it sounds fun!  I'd thought of it as an Accordion Album for a long time.  So now I've decided to call it an Accordion Explosion Album, and I've had the tutorial here on my blog for quite some time.  I even updated it a bit last spring. 

     For this week, I've used my quickly dwindling supply of the Candy Cane Lane Designer Paper set to make an album that will be cute to hold Christmas photos of my grandchildren (assuming I can pry them out of my children's cameras!)  There is space for six photos on this album, 4 on the inside folds and 2 on the outside.  With five grandchildren, I may even be able to squeeze in a photo of our pets if I can get them both in the same place at the same time (not that pets are the equivalent of grandchildren; but they do make cute pictures).

     I made the little bird on the cover with the Two-Step Bird Punch, even using the wing part of the punch to make the little santa hat that makes him look like the other little birdies printed on the paper.  The papers that I placed on the inside squares of the album (and the outside, but you can't see the back of the album) are the reverse of the same paper that I used on the cover.

     I really do like making a cover for these little albums, more than just folding the album and using it without a separate cover.  The light cardboard with which Designer Papers come packaged are great for this purpose – just cover them with some matching or coordinating paper, and you've got a project that seems a lot more elegant than the plain album.

     If you'd like to try one of these yourself, the one-page tutorial is right here!  Lots of fun to make and even to give as gifts!

     I hope you're going to have as much fun this week as I plan to have on our little mini-vacation!  I won't be doing much crafting, but I'll make up for it when I get back!  Have a great week!