There are so many uses for leftover scrapbook paper. There is no need to throw away your scraps. I have made use of my scraps to make an envelope album. You can also include tags and additional photo mats.
Make a mini envelope album
Here is the process I took to use up some scrap paper, make use of found (free) items and end up with a cute, handmade gift or album for some future use.
Gather the base for your album
First, I gathered my base for the album which happened to be blue envelopes that came in the newspaper with some advertising inside. I opened them carefully, discarded the contents and ended up with 4 perfectly useful blue envelopes for my envelope album. The white envelopes pictured are some junk mail items that I added to use for ready made pockets in my album. You can use as many envelopes as you like. I had four so I went with four.
Gather your scraps
Next I grabbed my scraps. Okay, my scraps are currently in two 12 x 12 clear folios. I read so many posts about organizing scraps by color or by product line and I keep promising myself I will get around to it one day, but here they are:
So the process I took was to find coordinating patterns and draw my inspiration from there. As it turned out, I had a lot more of the red, blue, green and cream patterns so I went with that. Once I set all of my coordinated papers aside, I was able to sit down and put the book together.
Get your album base ready
I decided to glue the blue envelopes end to end except the fourth one which I glued the opposite direction, just to keep it from being too bulky once closed. So once I inked them and glued them, this was my base for my album (there are four but the third one pictured is covering the fourth envelope):
Next I cut the white envelopes into two different sizes so that I can cascade them on the page. Just to note, if you don’t want to cut and cover the white envelopes you can take the envelopes apart, use them as stencils to make pockets in any pattern or color you like, and now you have a stencil for future projects.
Scrapbook as usual
So you have your scraps and they are organized. You have your base inked (or not, totally personal preference) and you have it glued down the way you want your album to flow. Here are a few photos of what I came up with. Hope you like it. Once you have your base there are so many ways you can go. The fun part is, there are lots of places to put tags, hidden journal spots, and additional photo mats in the various pockets of the envelopes and any additional envelopes you add.
