Patriotic Mini Albums

My grandson was born on the 4th of July 2022, and for his birthday party, my son and DIL held a 4th of July themed party at a local park. They rented the pavilion and decorated everything in red, white, and blue. It was so fun! I took some photos during the party that I will upload to my digital photo frame as well as the digital photo frames I got for my mom and dad (yes, they each have their own even though they live in the same house😂! My dad keeps his by his computer and my mom keeps hers on the counter where she reads the paper and does the crossword puzzle every day), but I also wanted to print some of the photos to make a couple mini albums for my DIL's mom and grandma. Both have significant health issues they are dealing with, and I thought an album of their favorite 1-year-old in the whole universe would be something they'd love. 

I started with some 4th of July themed card stock from my stash. I then decided on a cut file to use with my Silhouette Cameo 4 to create this mini album. I liked how this one had so many fun features. I'm a fun fold enthusiast, so I loved the way this mini album has some little pull out places for extra photos. 

After cutting all the card stock using my Cameo, I set to work deciding on which pictures to include. This was tough since my grandson is so cute in all of them! (I know I'm biased, but when you look at the pictures, you'll know what I mean! When he smiles, it's the very best sight I've seen!) After going through them a few times, I narrowed it down a bit and then set to work figuring out the sizing. That was probably the hardest part of the project as some of the photos had to be cut on an angle to fit the panels of the pull-out part of the card. Eventually I had everything sized up and then printed all the photos and used my SU! paper trimmer to cut them all down to size. Then I got out all my 4th of July and birthday stickers and took a look at all the elements on the back of one of the card stocks I used that had 4th of July sentiments so I could set about decorating the albums. I added all sorts of banners, stars, sentiment strips, etc. to decorate the pages, keeping the 2 albums similar. There were a few differences between them, and I used different card stock for the bases, but they are roughly the same in terms of the pictures I used and most of the embellishments. 

Front of the albums:

1st album partially open to the mini album inside:

Fully open:

Back of the photo strip:

Back of the albums:

2nd album partially open:

2nd album fully opened:

Back of the photo strip of 2nd album:

Close ups:

Challenges I'm entering:

Anything Goes with a Fun Fold for Creative Creases #62 (secretstamper.com): ATG with a fun fold (ends 8/4/23)

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog: ATG (3/6; ends 8/11/23)

 simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/: ATG (2/5; ends 8/1/23)

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (2/5 for the week and 7/10 for the challenge; ends 8/1/23)

Digi Choosday Cardmaking & Crafting Challenge: ATG (2/2; ends 8/7/23)

Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges: Anything Flies (2/5; ends 7/28/23)

Tic Tac Toe Challenge - Inspiring creativity 8-ways each week: Bottom row: Pattern paper, summer, and anything but a card (1/3; ends 8/3/23)

The Paper Funday Challenges: ATG or Red, White, and Blue (1/4; ends at the end of the month)

Gem of A Craft Challenge (pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.com): ATG (3/3; ends 8/4/23)

{PIN}spirational Challenges (pinspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com): Birthday + Summer vibe (2/5; ends at the end of the month)