Oh baby this was a fun project to do! I love creating mini albums and this was my first attempt at a Z fold album. My inspiration was Laura Denison with Following the Paper Trail, she has some very good YouTube tutorials on many different albums, but this one seemed to be just what I was looking for. There is a lot of room for pictures and journaling, so much so, that some of the more embellished detailed patterns could be left blank. Now on to the nuts and bolts of it.
First off the best instructions to follow is watching Laura’s YouTube, I will add the link at the bottom of this post. I used Graphic 45, Little Darlings paper line. This paper has been discontinued however they do have comparable lines currently out that could be used for a baby album or obviously any paper line would work, just make sure you have a full paper pad or close to it of whatever coordinating papers you want, this is a deceivingly large album. I was somewhat freaked out by the fact that the half pad of 12×12 papers were irreplaceable, so with that said this album was less therapeutic than most projects can be. 😉
The cover was distressed with Tim Holtz Tea Stain. I made the banner with Epiphany’s banner epoxy which spelled out the baby’s first and middle name. All the alpha stickers used in this were Authentique and all the alpha rub-ons were Doodlebug. Doodlebug makes the best rub-ons I have ever used.
I embossed all the fold-out photo mats. I used three different designs and alternated them. This added interest to an otherwise blank (if only temporary) piece of paper. I made the larger photo mats of patterned paper, so no extra steps were needed with these.
The tags were done with Bazzill paper and I used a Kraft and a swiss dot Baby Blue, these were cut at 4×6 and I made a template to give the top a traditional tag appearance. On I added either Graphic 45 Little Darlings or Botanical Tea to the tags…I was running out of my Little Darlings paper because I had to use a lot of it to fussy cut out all the adorable pictures. I found Botanical Tea had a couple of designs with birds and nests that fit the baby theme and the colors matched perfectly. WIN!!! On the flip side of the tags added some headings to encourage the mommy to journal.
Quick Quotes makes some wonderful products and I have a nice collection of their vellum poems and saying. I used a few quotes regarding parenting and babies. There was a beautiful poem about adoption that fit the bill perfectly. I embossed a couple of the vellum quotes to add interest.
Here is the link for the Z-fold mini YouTube, and I hope you enjoy the pictures of a few of the pages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgGL_fo0RZs

Cover using Graphic 45 Little Darlings paper and Epiphany Crafts banner

Inside front cover and embossed vellum Quick Quotes

Example of the beautiful illustrations that were fussy cut and layered.

Little Darling paper and vellum photo mats

Quick Quotes on Z-fold flap

More Little Darlings used as mini tags.

Little Darlings and embossed photo mat

Large tags (this album has a total of 12) inserted within the Z-fold

Adoption poem from Quick Quotes.
Thanks for visiting, please stop back THIS FRIDAY for a Challenge Blog Hop! It is guaranteed to be inspirational!!!