I love creating wild and crazy mini albums!  If you know me, you know this is true!  The crazier, and more unusual…the better!

Today I’m going to share with you a couple of my favorites!  My first one is the one I absolutely LOVE the most!  It’s the Outhouse Mini Album.

This idea just popped into my head when I was trying to think of a “different” mini album.  I didn’t want to make something I’ve seen before.  I wanted something really unusual.  As I was going through all the vintage items in my mind, “outhouse” popped up.  And I realized that I’ve never seen an outhouse mini album before.  So that’s what I set out to make.  I wasn’t sure at first how I was going to make it, but that didn’t bother me.  There is always a way!

I wanted to create the outhouse as real to real-life as I could.  I am, I guess, what you call a nit-picky crafter.  I am very devoted to making sure that every detail is just so.  I used the Tim Holtz Woodgrain embossing folder to cover my entire outhouse.  I embossed it onto kraft cardstock, inked it to bring out the grain, cut it into strips, and glued it onto chipboard.  I even went so far as to make an actual potty hole for the toilet, added a roll of poo-poo paper, and cut out a crescent moon for a window.

As I was making the outhouse, I decided I was going to make the album, that fits inside, out of toilet paper rolls.  What else could I have used?….Makes sense, right?  LOL! Took me a while to flatten those suckers, though.  I squeezed them through my Big Shot a couple of times.  For my album I used the Madeline papers from Prima.  I put tags in the middle “pockets” of each tp roll.  A great way to add more pictures!  Since it was an outhouse after all, I used my grade 6 camping pictures to fill the mini album.

I love the way this little album turned out!  What a great way to display camp pictures/memories.  Makes a great conversation piece, too.

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My second favorite album is my gorgeous Jukebox!  It was another wild idea that popped into my crafty brain.  I’ve always loved jukeboxes, and the tv show Happy Days.  So why not try to create a jukebox.  Off I went, playing with my chipboard.  Oh, those dreams of Fonzie, and the Cunninghams!  I really had fun with this.  I even included some song listings from that era.

 

The album inside I made out of used computer CDs.  What else would you use to make an album for a jukebox, right?  I thought I would have trouble punching holes in the CDs for the binding, but there was no problem punching the holes with my Crop-a-dile Big Bite.

I was also very lucky to discover I had a collection of paper called “Happy Days”.  What a perfect collection to use!

Since my album was on wonderful places we’ve eaten, I included copies of a few of the menus.  I copied them down into miniature then laminated them.

To make the jukebox tubes on the front, I used some aquarium-type hose from Home Depot.  I then sprayed the hose with a glass frosting spray so it wasn’t as see-through.  To add color, I painted behind where I was going to put the hose.  To attach the hose I needed to use something heavy duty.  So out came the Super Glue!

While I was constructing the jukebox, I thought…how could I make it light up.  I decided to put a battery-operated tea light inside with a record made out of black cardstock to go on top of it.  It worked pretty good!

I am very proud of this creation!  I had to re-do a few things while I was creating it, but that didn’t deter me.  I just love creating amazing things!  And my heart fills with joy seeing all the people’s faces, and hearing all the wonderful comments when they take a gander at it.  That’s what makes me want to keep creating!