live. love. scrap.: Mini Album Monday #54- Album Made From Gift Bag

I don't know what the weather is like where you're at, but it's a stormy day here

which is great weather for crafting. :)

I have a cute and quick album tutorial to share today.

This album is made with a gift bag.

Since it's made with a gift bag, I think it would make a great gift

for birthdays, teachers, or even Mother's Day and Father's Day.

If you'd like to make one, it's really easy.

You need:
a gift bag

various papers- I used scrapbook papers, notebook paper, a map, handwriting paper,

kraft cardstock, and graph paper

one shipping tag

one round tag

two strips of decorative tape or two small strips of pattern paper

two office rings

hole punch

paper trimmer

To start, you need to cut your gift bag in half.

I left my handle on because I thought it looked cute, but you can cut yours off if you rather.

Then trim all your papers to fit.

Measure the size of your bag halves, then all your papers need to be trimmed
1/4" smaller than that.

Once I cut my bag in half, the two pieces measured 4 1/4"x 5 1/4",

so I trimmed all my pieces to 4"x 5".

Once all the papers are cut, you need to punch holes in them.

I lined all mine up and placed a clamp around them to hold them still.

Place your tag sideways- your holes should include both corners of the tag.

Then I punched holes with my Cropadile (it will go through quite a bit of thickness).

If you're using a regular hole punch, you will probably want to divide up your pages in half or thirds before punching holes.

Then bind your pages with the office rings.

Note: I always add page reinforcers on the backs of all my pages to make sure the holes will not tear.

For the cover, place two strips of decorative tape or pattern paper at a slight angle on the tag,

then adhere a small round tag on top of the tape.

This is where the title will go.

Here are what my inside pages look like:

The pages are pretty simple, but you can decide whether to add embellishments.
You can make it as fancy or simple as you'd like.

You could make one of these for your child's teacher.
Then take a picture of every student and have them write a note to the teacher.
On each page, you'd place a student's photo and note.

You could do this for a birthday.
Take photos of the guests and have them write a note to the guest of honor.
Then adhere both a photo and note to each page.