Happy Anniversary To Me!

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow I will be married for thirty-seven years. Thirty-seven wonderful years with my one and only. I met Rick when we both worked at JC Penney. Honest to God, the first time I saw him, I told one of my friends that also worked there that he was my future husband. Rick would come over to my department at the end of the evening and make small talk . One day he hung around after we closed and said "When are you going to go out with me?" and I responded "When are you going to ask me?" We had our first date at the end of Janauary. He asked me to marry him in May, and we married in September. I have had the most wonderful, blessed life with Rick. We both say our struggling years have given us our most happiest moments. I found a sign and we have it hanging in our living room. "If I had my life to do all over again, I would meet you sooner, so I could love you longer." 

When I saw the "Beautiful Life" paper collection by Laura Passage in the Flamingo Scraps online store, I knew I wanted to make a small mini album for our upcoming anniversary. I wanted to keep it simple with lots of room for pictures and journaling. I started with a 12" x 12" piece of designer paper and cut it down to 9.25" x 11". On the 9.25" width I scored it at 2.50" and 6.75". On the 11" width it is scored at 5/8", 7", and 7.75". After trimming away both two opposite ends on the 5/8" score line and removing both sides starting at the 7" score line to the ends, I rounded the corners of both opposite flaps and folded the center section together using the scored lines, and then brought the 5/8" tab up pressing firmly after applying adhesive.

The liners for the outside and inside cover measured 4" x 1/2", 3" x 4", and 4" x 6 1/8". 



For my inside pages, I used the coordinating solid card stock measuring 12" x 12".  I trimmed five of these to 7" x 9.25" and then scored them on the 9.25" width 2.50", and 6.75". On the 7" width at the 5/8". My liners measured 4" x 6 1/8" and followed the same instructions as the cover.



 Once assembled I used a 1 3/8" circle punch and cut a half circle out from each page for each 4" x 6" mat that was inserted into each pocket.



I inked the edges on all of the liners and mats. On each mat I used a small double hole punch and tied a bow using several pieces from the seam binding sampler. I then used my Bind It All and bound the mini with a brown coil.



I used the plentiful supply of coordinating stickers to decorate the mini using mount tape and then one magnetic closure for the cover.

This was a very easy, non fussy, non complicated, but sweet album to make. The papers were so pretty that other than inking the edges using my favorite Prima Dark Rust chalk ink, the seam binding, the coordinating stickers,  the Heidi Swapp Banners, and Fancy Pants Cork Hearts the paper collection spoke for itself.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting the Flamingo Scraps blog today. While you are here, please subscribe by email. I would also ask that you "like" their Facebook page click here, or if you are interested in buying this paper collection, or anything I used to make this mini, you can find it here in the store.

HAPPY SCRAPPIN!

 Cheryl