Mini Matchbook Album

One of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is we get a monthly magazine called Stampin' Success.  It is full of all sorts of stuff demonstrator related, but it also contains some awesome papercrafting ideas.  In July we were lucky enough to get pictures and instructions for a Mini Matchbook Album.  When I received an email from a local organization for new parents (mostly Moms) asking me to go and share scrapbooking ideas with them, I knew instantly that I wanted to share this super little album with them.  Being new parents, they are understandably overwhelmed with day to day living, and adding scrapbooking into their busy lives just piles on more stress.  So to keep things simple and easy for them I came up with this idea.
First, here is a picture of the front of the album.  It is based on our Grandson, James (of course!).  In agreement with our DIL and Son I do not show his face in any pictures I post on my blog, so I placed a sticky note piece on his face in each picture.

and here is a picture of the album open showing the inside with one of the pages ....

I used a bashful blue and daffodil delight colour scheme and added some texture to the background papers with various embossing folders.  Here is a picture of the open album and all 4 of the pages I will carry inside it ......

Then, as he gets older and I get more pictures and want to share them in my "Gramma's Brag Book" I can turn the older pages into scrapbook pages with minimal supplies and time.  Here is one of the pages turned into a 6x6 page ....

I just used the page as it came out of the album, matted it with some poppy parade and added a strip of bashful blue with a strip of daffodil delight cut with the Tasteful Trim die.  Then added a bit of journalling.  If 6x6 is not the size you are looking for, you can turn the pages into a 12x12 page as well ....

I matted these in poppy parade as well, added a strip of bashful blue and another tasteful trim die cut in daffodil delight.  How easy is this?  Then because I always like to add journalling to my pages, and hiding the journalling is fun for me, here is what is hidden behind the top picture ...

Just pull out the daffodil delight "handle" and you have a whisper white piece to journal on.
Well, what do you think?  The mini album, printing the pictures, and creation of 4 pages only took me 1 hour.  That's right - ONE HOUR!  I did it during my soapie (The Young and The Restless of course) which is a good length of time for a small one to have a nap.  Moms will be able to whip up 4 pages once or twice a month, then the alternate weeks, take the older pages and turn them into scrapbook pages in under half an hour.  Not to bad I am thinking.  I sure hope they like the idea.  I know I do, now I will have a brag book to carry with me in my purse, it slips right into one of the small ziplock bags and will be safe and sound.  And I now have the start of a really special album or two.
Since I got the invitation to visit these special ladies, it got my but in gear to finish off the mini album I created for our trip to Hawaii in Jan 2010 that I created but never got around to putting pictures in.  And I finished James' first year scrapbook too.  All in 2 days, whoo hooooo.
Thanks for visiting, I hope this inspires you to get some scapbooking done.
Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'  .....