Autumn Minis

With fall in full swing, we thought it would be a fun treat to share some seasonal mini-book ideas with you. From holiday preparations to harvesting apples, cooling weather to baking up special treats, there sure are plenty of memories to document. Here are three members of the Fiskars design team with their creations -

Designer: Stacey Kingman
I have always wanted to make a mini-album to go inside a candy tin. As proof of this, I could show you the twenty or more candy tins I have stored away just for this purpose! My first question was what to put inside the tin.

There are lots of options, but I chose a little book that reminds me of the paint chip books they have at the home improvement store. At first, I thought I’d use patterned paper or cardstock for the pages, but I wanted the finished project to be durable and to stand up to repeated viewings, so I tried bare chipboard. I found that my Around the Bend Corner Squeeze Punch cut right through the chipboard with no problem.

My chipboard pieces are 2” X 3 ½” and I have eleven of them. I cut them all, rounded the corners, and then decided how I wanted to arrange the photos. Then I cut photos, rounded the corners, and adhered the photos. The patterned paper was last and I just mixed several coordinating patterns from one collection. I have never punched so many round corners at one time and I’m thankful that it was so easy!

To embellish, I used several punches to create a variety of pumpkins. I used the XL Oval ‘n Oval Again squeeze punch for taller pumpkins. I used that same punch to create short, squatty pumpkins by punching the oval and then punching it again to take about half of it off.

The Cameo Appearance squeeze punch makes a fluffy, scalloped pumpkin and the Circle Pop-up punch makes a great mini pumpkin (“baby pumpkin” in our house).

I added even more variety to the pumpkins by embossing various designs on the cardstock with the texture plates. Because I don’t want to emboss any extra, I add the embossing after I punched the shape. I kept the pages flat so they would fit in the tin, but I did add some shiny gems to the pumpkins on the front. The journaling is a mix of handwritten notes and computer printed phrases.

Notes:
1. It’s important to include your own handwriting on every project whether you like it or not!
2. Use “background photos” in place of patterned paper throughout. It adds to the feeling of “being there”.
3. I sanded the edges of most of my photos and patterned paper on this project, then I inked the edges with Ranger Distress Ink in Old Paper.
4. Mix in a bit of text paper (again, there’s that old dictionary!) where you need some contrast. I used it in place of brown cardstock for pumpkin stems.
5. This is a great project for far-away photos because you need smaller images. Don’t be afraid to crop in close, though. Who needs every arm in every photo?

Designer: Katrina Simeck
Fall is definitely my favorite time of year – and apply picking is one of my favorite harvest activities! Mini-albums are a great way to showcase a photos & details of all of your seasonal traditions.

I started with this cute apple-shaped mini album from Maya Road. Trimming paper around an album like this is the perfect task for the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife. After each page was covered with patterned paper (I used various papers from October Afternoon),

I added 2x2 photos. In keeping with the rounded shape of the album, I used Fiskars Round the Bend corner punch to round the corners of each photo.

One of my favorite new tools – the Lace & Lattice Border and Corner punch – makes it so easy to create cute photo mats!

I wanted to keep the back side of each page plain, but also interesting. The solution? First, I cut the shape of the album out of Core’dinations cardstock using Fiskars No. 5 non-stick scissors. I used Fiskars Texture Plates & Texturing tool to emboss the cardstock…then lightly sanded to bring the detail out. Simple, but cute!

It’s great to keep Fiskars squeeze punches & border punches handy when making a mini-album. That way, you’ll always have to tools to make the most out of your mini!

Designer: Kendra McCracken

Fall is our very favorite time of the year. My husband is one who thrives outdoors and the cooler weather and changing colors of Fall are like heaven to him. He has exposed this city girl to so many of the joys of the great outdoors and worked very hard at making sure our boys are immersed in activities that challenge the allure of video games and television. I wanted to create a book documenting the things we enjoy about "the most wonderful time of the year" in our lives so I've gone ahead and completed the book, planning for the addition of photos as we begin doing these activities this year. So when the fall season is over, I will already have a completed book!

To create this mini book, I used a book I found at a thrift store as my base. A lot of people frown on "destroying" old books in the name of creating an artistic project. My answer to that is always that I buy my books from thrift stores or garage sales. If I don't buy the book, it's likely to end up in a dumpster when it doesn't sell from the shelves of the thrift store. So which is worse, the book getting a little more life (and love) in a new form or being degraded by the elements in a dump somewhere?  I always do a check on the internet to make sure I'm not destroying a rare book. I haven't been lucky enough to find a valuable book yet!

I knew I would never fill all the pages in the book so I created 5 thick "pages" by binding the book pages together (88 pages per group) using lace trim and stitching .

The cover was made using scraps of patterned paper, covered with a layer of tissue paper. I added tiny details using the Heidi Grace Dreamer Stamps and the Fiskars Small Cassette Seasonal Punch Set. I love these Cassette Punches for adding details to smaller projects like mini books and cards when the size of regular scrapbook embellishments would limit someone like me who likes to use lots of "stuff" on their projects!

I kept the book simple using the exact same format for every page in the book. Keeping it simple doesn't mean it has to be boring!

I created pretty frames for each of the photos using the Fiskars Ultra Shape Express Tool and Frames Shape Template and added my journaling beneath using the lowly No. 2 pencil.

Come Thanksgiving Day, I will have a completed book documenting all the activities that made the Fall of 2009 a special time for our family.

By Fiskars Design Team