Gatefold Accordion Mini Album: How To Make It

Hello crafty friends! Accordion style mini albums have always been a favorite of mine; they are quick, cute, and easy to make! And although they can be as simple as just folding paper back to back, I like to dress mine up a bit by tucking them inside a sturdy, chipboard base.

You can find a process video for this project HERE.

To make this album you will need 5 pieces of chipboard. You will need 4 pieces that measure 1.5 by 4 inches (A) and 1 piece that measures 3 by 4 inches (B). To wrap these, lay them down on the back of your patterned paper in the following order: A, A, B, A, A. Make sure to leave about a 1/2 inch of paper on all four sides of your chipboard pieces. Cut the four corners off of your paper once your chipboard is adhered down, leaving about a 1/8 inch of paper left over.

Add adhesive to all four of your panels. Fold and adhere the longer sides first. Use a pencil, your finger, or a scoring tool to tuck in the excess paper around your corners, then fold and adhere the shorter sides down.

The lining of your album will measure 3 3/4 by 9 1/4 inch.

For a closure, you can use a 1 by 12 inch strip of paper. Adhere it along the length of your album and use a velcro dot or magnet to adhere it down to keep the album closed. Cut off any overhanging paper.

For the pages of this album, you will need 5 pieces of paper that measure 3 3/4 by 6 inches. Score all of these papers at 2 7/8 and 3 1/8 inch on the 6 inch side. Fold up on the score lines to create a small "book shaped" page that has a 1/4 inch gusset. Then adhere all 5 of your pages together in an accordion pattern. You can create pockets for tags or photos during this process if you only adhere the bottom and the two sides of your pages together. If you want to forgo pockets, simply adhere the entire panels of the pages together.

Add adhesive to the back of the last page and adhere that to the center of your album base, on the 3 by 4 inch panel, to add your pages.

To mat your pages, use pieces of paper that measure 2 3/4 by 3 5/8 inch.

To add a charm or tassels (or both!) use a strong hole punch to add a hole to one of the side panels of your album. Use an eyelet to reinforce this hole and then add a few jump rings to that to hang your charms and tassels.

Then add your photos and embellish the album with some cute bits and pieces! I used the Crate Paper "Wild Heart" collection for this album and will be documenting a trip to the local zoo with it!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I'll see you next time for another fun project! Until then, take care and happy crafting!