[ Jenni Bowlin Circle 4 inch Minibook; Creative Cafe Clear Sheet Dots; Little Yellow Bicycle Flocked Grey with White Floral Paper; Ali Edwards Love Circles; Ribbon: Narratives, random other pieces ]
Part card, part minibook this little circle creation is a great way to celebrate someone you love this Valentine’s Day (or any day of course). This project uses my new Love Circle embellishments from Designer Digitals that you simply download and print (or use on digital projects). I showed a simple card idea with them last week here.
Here’s a look at the interior:
A short note opens the card/minibook with the following pages cut (using a Creative Memories circle template) from a thick transparency from Creative Cafe. Each transparent page has a photo on one side and one of my printed Love Circles from Designer Digitals on the other side.
The great little “handmade book” stamp is from Cats Life Press. Ink is from StazOn.
• Cover the Jenni Bowlin 4 inch circle chipboard minibook with Little Yellow Bicycle textured patterned paper on the front cover and the back cover and painted the interior chipboard covers with cream paint. I love the flocked texture paper for the covers of little books like this – gives it a nice soft feel (fabric would also be a great cover). I ended up not using the interior circle lined-pages for the minibook itself but will hang on to them to use them in a future project.
• Cut out 5 circles (or as many interior pages as you want for your book) from the Creative Cafe white dot transparency (I used this Creative Memories circle cutter). This is a very thick transparency which works great for interior pages of a minibook. I also love to use Hambly overlays for projects that really need a thicker sheet.
• Choose, scan, and print your photos. I scanned in some of my favorite photo booth pictures (I have used these in projects in the past) and organized them to print on one 8.5×11 sheet of photo paper. The photos were scanned (and enlarged) to be about 2.5 inches wide.
• Punch the photos using the Marvy Giga Scallop Circle Punch and a McGill circle punch. I wanted both regular and scalloped circles to work back to back with the Love Circles (available here):
• After punching out my photos and the Love Circles I simply adhered them back to back on each of the interior pages. I chose to do photo on the front, Love Circle on the back. Very simple and quick to put together. I am planning to give this to Simon on Valentine’s morning at breakfast with a couple other little goodies.
To finish off the book I added one circle to the cover and a gathering of ribbons on the metal ring that holds it all together.
Enjoy your weekend!
[ Past weekend creative projects can be found here. ]
totally fun!
I’m making little portable books for my kids as well.
Happy weekend.
Love this! Thanks for sharing….
Many thanks, Ali for sharing a creative mini album. It’s very nice & truly inspiring.
A wonderful weekend to you & your family.
SO FUN!! Wonderful little treasure for my kiddos!
Thank you !
Hope you are feeling well!
So cute!! Thanks for all the great ideas!
Hi Ali,
this is a really cool and sweet project.
I’ll have a creative week end for sur… Thanks for sharing and inspiration.
Ophélia
Cute. I love the transparent pages in-between.
Gorgeous!!!
so very adorable….enjoy your weekend! i’m sure you are expecting baby “A” any time now. yipeee…best of luck to you.
Wow! Thats such an awesome idea.
Thanks for sharing. 
Smart idea to do it now considering you might have a little lady around by then!
Cute idea, I’m loving the mini books more and more. Planning on working on one this weekend myself.
Wow! I love your mini album! It’s super cute. I just ordered two albums to do, I can’t wait to get started.
Thank You once again for your great ideas!
Enjoy your weekend, maybe it will be filled with lots of excitement!
great idea… definitely playing with that on Saturday with my scrappy friends at our Valentine’s scrap…
great idea… definitely playing with that on Saturday with my scrappy friends at our Valentine’s scrap…
Hello Ali,
weekend 2 U & your family.
Thank U 4…being so creative, sharing and the BEST.
p.s all your projects are cool and awesome.
Lovely….I love your ideas…
Ali–I love it. How did you take the photos—a photo booth, or did you use a camera on a timer? The idea is so creative!
i know this is a really basic question but how do you organize random photos to all print on one page?
So sweet! I have to get that Marvy Uchida punch and your digital designs, Ali! That is a SWEET SWEET project. LOVE IT!
Great book Ali! I think I’ll make little ones for my kids and stick in their Valentine mailboxes. Have a great weekend!
That is so cute! I love your new circle/scallop circle designs!
This is sooo cute and wouldn’t take much time at all…instant gratification!!
-Sarah
So pretty, Ali! One silly question…. Are those pics from “real” photobooth or using the photobooth feature on your mac? Just curious as I haven’t done much with the photobooth feature on mac yet and wonder what the quality of the pics are. thanks!
Love the mini-book and such a great idea to give to Simon on V-day morning. He will be so thrilled. I will have to use this when my kids get a little bigger.
Good luck with Baby A – sending healthy labor vibes your way!
LOVE it!! So,so sweet.
What a fun and creative mini album! I really like the idea of having “clear” pages for all of the interior pages of the album. I’m sure Simon will love this little treasure!
This is so small and adorable! I made something like this for a book call. maybe you’ll see it in there. Hey, good luck on the coming of baby #2
So cute. Such a great idea.
always inspiring & awesome. love it. thank you for sharing.
This is a great project. Love that it is simple and could be made quickly for many family members. I’m sure Simon will love it!
Love it, think I will do one this weekend.
Ali, I absolutely love this. I have two boys and was thinking about doing something like this for them individually. To show them that I love them both, the same, and differently. Thanks for the inspiration!
Oh my gosh, so cute!
Just love this idea, Ali! So CUTE!
I’m not one to make mini albums (I barely have enough time to work on my family’s full-size albums!) but I’ve ordered some materials to make two of these for my sons…LOVE the idea! And they’ll each love having an album all for themselves!
Take care,
PAM
LOVE this. Sweet, sweet celebration.
Your minibooks are always so adorable and so doable!! Thanks for the inspiration, as always.
LOVE IT!
I never though of cutting the transparency to make a mini-album page! Thanks for the inspiration!
I love love love this!! I actually just finished sewing up your little red felt book project last night for my family (3 in total) But I will be keeping this archived for next year (or maybe just to say I love you…really do we have to save it for Valentines?) I’m new at this and still collecting all the gear but I love your ideas!
ps – my daughter’s an “a” too! Hope yours comes soon!! You have definitely inspired me with all the initials. I feel a project coming on!!
Very cute! I love that it is so simple and quick to make.
ADorable!!! LOve the ribbon on the ring as well. SImon is a very lucky little guy.
Ali – could you please share what you printed your digital circles on – Photo Matte Paper or standard cardstock? They look great!
Love the mini book! I have one of those little transparent mini books and as soon as I figure out how on earth to use it, I’m going to make one too!
Also, I noticed in your picture of the Creative Memories circle cutter, you’re using only the bottom of the blade. To make it easier, you can place it, blade out, in the lid before you cut. It just gives you that much more to hold onto.
I love this minibook. How fun! And I’m sure Simon is going to LOVE this on Vday morning. I think I might just use your ideas to come up with a minibook for my 4 year old boy too.
Cute mini book!! I just bought and downloaded love circles. My question is do you have any other downloads on the designers digital site that are pdf and you don’t have to have PSE to use? If that is the only one, please consider doing more for the non digital scrappers out there. Thanks
Super cute book! I just bought the love circles and I love the .pdf. I tend to not use my computer when scrapbooking, so if you are going to be doing more products in the future like this, that would be so great.
Totally cute !!!
Hi Ali,
Very cute album. I noticed that you were using the old cutting blade for the Creative Memories cutting system…they have new cutting blades that are much easier to use, just a FYI.
Can’t wait to see pictures of your beautiful baby girl when she gets here!
A fan,
Terry Enge, Central Point, OR
I really like your little mini book. Ironically it a lot like one I made for my hubby in September. I used chipboard circles and covered them. Here are a couple of links if anyone would like to check it out. Thanks!
http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/83709/view/1932013/-1/0/1.html
http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=galleries&u=83709&m=view&id=1931981&page=1
Love it Ali – I truly love making mini-books now because of your inspiration. Finished off my Xmas book and just love it – it is already well loved by everyone in our house.
Have a great weekend.
I have a sweet story to share with you regarding valentines mini books: I made ones for each of my children last year, titled 10 things I love about you. (A play on the teen movie of the OPPOSITE title…) I used tin gift card boxes and did little accordion folds. My oldest, whom I’ve told you so many times reminds me so much of Simon, loved his, and called me several times to tell me so, as I knew he would. What I did not expect though, was when I was helping him move into his new dorm room last month, we brought in the first armload of stuff and before he left the room to get another load, he walked over to the bedside table, pulled that little minibook out of his pocket and positioned it just so next to his bed. “I never go to bed at night without reminding myself how much you love me and I love you” he said.
*sigh*
Ali- thanks again for another great idea that is also easy to create…and adorable. Simon is one lucky guy and baby A too! I keep looking each day hoping to hear some big news, and I must admit I can’t wait to hear her name. Have a great weekend!