It was only a few months ago did my favourite local craft store Papermarket started stocking Mintay papers, and am I hooked!!!! Although every series has only a few paper designs, I love how one sheet would consist of 3×4 cut aparts, while another would be full of design elements to fussy cut. Thus I was able to create a Paradise mini tag album using just 2 sheets of 12×12 papers: MT-PAR-06 and MT-PAR-09.
The papers are thick and sturdy and thus I just used them directly without adding cardstock. I simply cut up the entire sheet of MT-PAR-06 into the individual 12 pieces of 3×4 cards. Each cut apart has a frame on the reverse that would fit a mini photo 5.5 cm x 7.25 cm. So I simply punch a hole in the top left corner to join up all the pieces. Then I fussy cut all the elements from MT-PAR-09 to use as embellishments.
For the album cover, I chose to decoupage the parrot using one of the fussy cut images. Then I added flowers, stamens and enamels from my own stash.
For the binder ring, I added various ribbons & twine in green and blue tones, and added several charms, choosing colours that would complement the cover design.
Some of the designs are rich enough for me, so I just added a couple of fussy cut images and perhaps a wooden sentiment from Kaisercraft Flourishes.
To add more interest to the album, I rounded opposite edges of each tag and edged lightly with Distress Ink.
The holes are reinforced on the reverse side with self-made reinforcement rings – I punched holes in a wasted cut apart and then punched half inch circles over them, created rings to paste over the tags.
I used to be afraid to add on to such richly detailed panels, but I’m learning to overcome my fear of cutting into my pretty papers (having a second copy of every paper helps!) and give the artwork my own spin with embellishments from my stash.
There are several cut aparts designs I did not really like, so I tried to create a new look by layering on more fussy cut images. I did not create too many thick layers as I like my albums to be thinner, for easier storage and ease of adding photos in future.
For two of the cut aparts, I simply used the reverse design and cut out the centre of the frames. One I fussy cut and used foam pads to raise it over another cut apart piece, creating a photo frame effect.
For the other frame, I used it to create a shaker tag by combining with another cut apart. I had originally planned to keep it simple by relying on the background paper design itself, but the glitter kept sticking to the plastic whenever I shake it, obscuring everything, so I added the wooden sentiment right smack in the centre to create a different look.
After creating 9 tags for my mini album, I still had a lot of fussy cut elements left from paper MT-PAR-09. For the smaller pieces, I’m keeping them in a little plastic bag, to embellish the photos once they’re added on the reverse of the tags. I don’t want to add them now, so that I have the flexibility of adding larger, 2R photos in the album.
For the larger pieces of fussy cut elements, I plan to use them to decorate the box I’ll be creating to hold the mini album. Then all it takes would be 3 sheets of 12×12 papers to create a full project!
