Accordian Album - Whoops A Daisy

I love making these little accordian albums. They have 8 sides and fold up like an album or stand up as a display. I am making this one as a gift and I wanted to share the instructions with you. It would take the length of my blog to explain each page in as much detail as I usually do so I'm going to give you measurements and hope that the pages are fairly self explanatory. There are a couple of tips to using this type of album, one thing is that you want to make sure that all your pages are going the same way so keep checking that as you go. Make sure that your first page opens on the right. I have had friends who put it on with the opening to the left, whoops. Another tip is to use Tombow or glue dots to attach your paper, since this book gets handled a lot and doesn't have page protector. You really want the paper to be on securely. Complete the whole page before gluing it to the book. I used the retiring paper Whoops a Daisy. It's the best paper for this book because when you cut your 12 by 12 papers into fourths it has the most beautiful decorated corners. Make sure you distress all the pieces of paper in this book so that the pattern papers don't compete with each other.

For the cover I cut three papers, one pattern 6 by 6, one pattern 4 by 4 and one 3 x 3 cardstock. You can see I tipped the second paper into a diaogonal. These three papers form the background for either your title or a pretty flower.

For the flower I used hydrangea ink and my Endless Friendship stamp set. Yes, you can stamp directly on paper flowers. Stamp your image randomly around the flower, not overlapping too much, a little goes a long way. You can distress the edges of the flower with a sponge tool and the hydrangea ink.

Punch out a 1 1/2 inch and a 1 1/4 inch circle out of cardstock, layer them in the center of the flower and add a circle window charm. (The square window charms are being sold dirt cheap in the clearance sale right now). Use Tombow generously on the back of the flower and press it down dead center on your page.

For page two cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper, 5 1/2 by 5 3/4 cardstock, trim one edge with a border punch. Glue the cardstock to the left side of the pattern paper so that it will have good balance when you attach 8 to 10 brads down the right side. I put mine right in the lacy border. Stamp a nice little phrase down at the left hand corner. My theme for this book is friendship. I used our January stamp of the month (this is a sneak peek) True Friends stamp set.

For page three cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper and a 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 piece of cardstock. Notice how that Whoops a Daisy paper has the beautiful flowers perfectly lining the corner. Use a corner rounder on the cardstock and distress. Stamp a pretty complimentary design (again from Endless Friendship) along the opposite corner and attach with hydrangea ink. If you have the wiry sponge tool, make tiny hydrangea specks all over the mat. Add three sparkles to the right and bottom of the mat.

For page four cut 6 by 6 pattern paper, 4 1/4 by 4 1/4 cardstock, 4 by 4 pattern paper and a light colored cardstock 3 by 3. Stamp an image randomly over the light colored cardstock, Endless Friendship here in ocean ink.

Attach that piece 1/8 inch from both top and left hand side of your 6 by 6 paper. Add the 4 by 4 pattern paper to it's mat then attach them 3/4 inch from bottom and right hand side. Stamp a pretty flower in watermelon ink with a hydrangea ink stamped center and cut out. Attach with a pop dot to the upper right hand side of the page. Add a window charm to the middle and three waxy flax threaded buttonst to the bottom left of the page.

On page five you can use one of the pretty quotes and frames from the True Friends set (once you get it in January!!) as your title. Stamp in watermelon and hydrangea then carefully cut it out.

Cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper and two 2 3/4 by 2 3/4 pieces of light cardstock. Tilt those two pieces across the center of page as shown. Add your framed accent with pop dots to the upper left side of the page and decorate with six sparkles.

Page six requires a 6 by 6 pattern paper, three 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 cardstock squares. I textured mine with a dotted template and a Cuddlebug. You also need to cut a 4 by 2 piece of cardstock (I didn't emboss this piece). This piece is turned on it's side but basically you want to lay the strip down on one side 1/2 inch from border then layer the three squares over it, turning one diagonally, leaving room on one corner for the flowers.

Using the Endless Friendship stamp set, stamp three flowers with hydrangea and ocean, cut them out, put them on with glue dots (not pop dots) in the center of the flowers only so the petals slightly curl up. It's a very pretty 3-d look. Add circle window charms to the center. These photos don't do this page especially, justice. It's so gorgeous to layer cut out flowers like this.

On page seven cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper, a 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 pattern paper and two 6 by 1 inch strips of cardstock. Put the strips as shown, 1/4 inch from the sides of the page. Stamp another of the cute friendship phrases from True Friends with it's frame on some white paper. Use your wiry brush to add speckles, cut out and then use pop up dots to attach it to the upper left hand side of the page. Add a couple of sparkly brads to the upper right strip.

The eighth pages is very easy, cut a 6 by 6 pattern paper, 1 by 6 cardstock strip, and a 5 by 5 cardstock square. Stamp those pretty leaves from Endless Friendship on the corners in hydrangea ink. Attach strip to left hand side about a 1/4 inch from the edge. Put mat right in the center of the page and add five small sparkles at the bottom right. When you are finished you will have a beautiful book already for photos. What a great gift!