Mini albums are becoming increasingly popular and make wonderful gifts for the special people in your life. This mini album, or squash book, is perfect for any occasion and can be made as small or as large as you like, depending on how much detail you wish to include. 

To create this mini album, I used 3 sheets of Pink cardstock, 1 sheet of White cardstock, 1 sheet of Purple cardstock, 1 sheet of scrap cardstock (it can be any colour as you will not be able to see it in the end), NRN Inspiration Paper Pack, Silver ribbon, Crystal Lacquer, white stamp pad, miscellaneous Heart stickers and Sandylion Precious Moments Little Girl stickers. 

To begin, take a square of pink cardstock. I have used a 12x12" sheet, but you can use any size you wish. Fold it in half vertically and unfold. When folding, make sure you are very careful to line of the edges and corners accurately.

Next, fold your cardstock horizontally and unfold. Again, be very careful to line of the edges and corners accurately.

Turn your square over so the folds are now forming mountains, not valleys. Fold the cardstock along one diagonal and unfold. Repeat these three steps with two more squares of the same size. If you wish your album to feature more pages, add more squares, but make sure your total number of squares is always an odd number (eg 3,5,7,9...).

Take two of the squares and lay them out in front of you as diamonds. The diagonal of the one on the left should form a valley while the diagonal of the one on the right should form a mountain. Overlap the two squares as shown in the picture and glue together.

Repeat this step on the other side with your third piece of cardstock. Make sure the diagonal of your middle square is still a mountain and the diagonal of the square on the right is a valley. 

You have now created your book. Fold it up to give you a feel for how it works and what you will see when you first open it. Now, have some fun and decorate it. I have chosen to decorate only one side, but you can decorate both sides if you wish.

You have now decorated the four main pages and focal points of your album. That just leaves the triangles. I decided to go simple on the triangles, but you can make them as elaborate as you like.

To recreate the effects I used, cut three squares of Tapestry paper. The squares should be a little smaller than the squares you cut with the Rosebuds paper. Cut each square along the diagonal to give you six triangles. Position them as shown above and adhere. 

Dab your white ink pad on the remaining triangles to add texture and interest. Add as much or as little ink as you like. 

Finally, tear out some more words from your Inspire Words paper and position around your album, and voila...Your album has now been decorated!

Now it is time to make the cover for your album. Cut two squares of cardstock slightly larger than your album pages. It doesn't matter what colour the cardstock is as it will soon be completely covered up. 

Take one square and cover one side with Inspire Words paper (makes sure you fold the edges over to cover a little of the back). This will be your front cover. Cover the other square with Rosebuds paper for your back cover.

Place your back cover face down in front of you. Before adhering it to your album, glue your ribbon across the middle (make sure your ribbon is long enough to wrap around your whole book). When you are done, adhere the back cover to the back of your book. The piece of ribbon you just glued down has now been hidden.  

Align your front cover and adhere to the front of your book. Wrap your ribbon around the book and tie with a bow. 

If you wish, you can now proceed to decorate your front cover. I would not advise doing so until you tie your ribbon so you know which areas of the cover will be effected by it. To decorate my front cover, I centred the Precious Moments 'Little Girls Are Precious' sticker near the top. I then added Crystal Lacquer over the letters to give it a more three-dimensional feel and help it stand out from the background paper. I then finished it off with two miscellaneous heart stickers. 

If you would like to have any of your designs included in our resource centre, please email them to us at rc@stickersnfun.com (please make sure all files are .jpg or .gif).