Halloween Mini Album {Costumes Through the Years}

I've shown you how I altered the cover of my mini, and how I laid out the pages.  Today I want to show you the pages that are done.

For the title page I used some more of the black lace paper.  This time I layered it on orange.  So much fun!  And I don't even mind that the letter stickers aren't perfectly straight.  Which is a big step for this slightly OCD girl!  :)

The first spread shows my oldest's first two Halloweens 2005 and 2006 (before his brother came along).  But from here on out I did one year per spread.

I pick my favorite costume pic of each child and add a tab with their name and the year.  Pooh and Tigger strutted their stuff in 2007.  Well pooh didn't strut cause he couldn't walk.  But he rode in that stroller like nobodies business!  :)

The shipping tags make perfect spots for journaling.  So that I can tell stories like how in 2008 my oldest decided he should be Parker Police "Ossifer" and his brother should be Keaton Kitty.

By 2009 both boys had gotten into TV and movies.  So Mickey Mouse and Buzz Lightyear they became.

And last year, 2010, they both wanted to be able to fly.  Super Why and Buzz were the costumes of choice.

Here are the rest of the spreads in order.  2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020 (it's weird to even type that!  hard to think that far in advance!)

2021

2022

2023

2024 (enough pages to get me through my youngest's senior year)

I just know this album will become a much loved holiday tradition!















My 5th grade year I dressed as a rock star (fishnets, black mini, gold shirt, and microphone) and the boys teased me that I looked like a hooker.  Many tears over that one!  I even remember yelling at one point, "I'm a ROCK STAR!  Don't you see the mic!"  :)  What's your most memorable Halloween costume?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

Mini Book Tips

Yesterday I showed you how I altered the cover of my Hallow-mini.  Today I want to show you how I laid out my pages.  Now, in case you haven't figured this out about me yet I like to plan things out! (ummm hello, did you see how I planned out my 120 days album?)  Because I don't like to make Halloween pages I wanted this album to be easy to add to year after year.  And that means I wanted the pages to be DONE!

I think the easiest way to make a lot of pages for a mini album is to follow a pattern.  My pattern paper pattern (say that 10 times fast) is vertical middle, side, edges, horizontal middle, and bottom.

I used a few traditional Halloweeny pattern papers.  To make them tie in to the rest of the album I tried to pair them with a graphic ribbon as I did here.

Most of my pages use a gothic/victorian type pattern.  Lots of flocked paper and repeating patterns.

To add a little interest on this page I cut out two diamonds and popped them up with pop dots.  Then I added a green gem to the center.  This is probably my favorite spread!

While most of the book is black and orange I also added green in a few places.  Like this adorable spider paper.

Since so much of my paper was black or gray I used lots of ribbon to add some pops of color.

Each page has a shipping tag for journaling and a label for the year and child's name.  To be sure that I have what I need in the years to come I just tossed those items into the page protectors.  Along with an embellishment here and there.

I didn't pull this album together all in one day.  So as I was working on it I had all of my supplies in this 12x12 envelope.  That way when I was ready to work I could just pull out my supplies and get to it.

Do you prep your whole mini album before hand?  Or do you like to make it as you go?  What is your favorite Halloween line/style right now?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!

A Halloween Mini Album

It's Halloween week here at Scraplifters Anonymous!  Can you believe that we are a week away from October?!?  I need to hurry up and get my boys their costumes!  Maybe this week of blog posts will inspire me to get my Halloween on!

You know I have a new love of mini albums and photo album scrapbooks.  This week I'm going to show you all about a little Halloween mini album I put together.  I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I love Halloween, but I hate making Halloween pages!  Gasp! I know, I know...I can't believe I said wrote that out loud.  ;)  But this little mini album is the perfect way to honor Halloween without having to make a big layout every year.

Design Inspiration: There isn't any one thing in particular that inspired my design but there is a person.  Noell Hyman does such beautiful mini albums and I especially love her Halloween esthetic.

Color Inspiration:  Uhhhh...Halloween was my color inspiration.  :)  Black and orange all the way, with a touch of green here and there.

I bought this 8x8 album at Michaels. It has a gray cloth cover and it is a little bit bowed.  Oh well, it works for me.  But it was so bland, and I wanted to spice it up a bit!

I also bought this lace paper at Michaels.  I LOVED the black swirls.  I didn't want the paper to cover the whole front of the album so I cut it to go about an inch past the window.

I laid the paper on top and then trimmed around the window.

And then it was time to stick it down.  I used Glossy Accents, which is an amazing glue.  I got every swirl and glued that paper down like crazy.  And it is stuck!  Days later, my son did pull on a piece of it and pulled it up a bit (he found a spot I had missed).  After I hollered at him (or had a discussion about treating things with respect...or both...).  I'm all about being real. :)  I went back and glued it down again.  And it looks just fine.

I wanted to tie a ribbon around and add a bow.  So I punched a round circle out of acrylic packaging and punched a hole in the middle.

I wrapped the ribbon around the book and pulled the ends through the acrylic circle.  Once I had the ribbon tight and where I wanted it I glued down the acrylic circle.  That holds the ribbon in place.

You can see that the ribbon just wraps around the cover.

For a little bit of added embellishment I glued this frame on too.

To finished it off I tied the ribbon into a pretty bow.

Pretty, huh?!?

But it just needed a little something more.  So I went to the jewelry section at the craft store and found this little beaded trinket.  I just tied it onto the bow and voila...just what the bow needed to finish it off!

For the title block I put the piece of lace paper cut from the window on a piece of gray paper.  Added a sticker and some letters.  I love the depth this gives the front of the album.

Couldn't resist adding a Happy Halloween sticker to the front.  Gives it a little more color.

And here is the finished product.  So happy with how my little Hallow-mini turned out!

I keep my little Hallow-mini in the foyer next to this super cool subway art print from the girls at Eighteen25.  It's looking like fall around here!  Come back tomorrow to see how I organized the inside pages of this little mini-album.

How do you scrap your Halloween pics?  1 page, 2 page, mini album?  Ever altered a store bought mini?  Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear all about it!