How cute is this mini photo album?! And would you believe it is so easy to make with the Cinch! If you keep up to date with the blog, you will probably have noticed I’ve made quite a few notebooks as of late. Well I want to mix it up a little and make a different kind of ‘book’. With the aid of the Cinch, the types of books you can make are endless, from scrap booking, to planners, journals and more. Well today’s post show you how to make this perfect mini photo album. It is a great size for popping in your handbag, there for you to show off you loved ones!
If you are unfamiliar with the Cinch, why not take a look at this post here were I give the ins and outs of the machine!
Materials required for mini photo album:
- The Cinch
- Sheet of A4 chipboard
- 2 sheets of decorative paper – 1 for the outside of the album, the other will form the inside cover sheet.
- PVA glue, glass dish, water and glue brush.
- Sheets of kraft card
- “3/4 ring wire
- Lots of photos!
Optional:
- Book press
- Die-cut embellishments to decorate the front
Mini Photo album details
This mini photo album measures at 4″ X 4. Therefore to start, you need to cut out two squares measuring at this from you chipboard sheet . These will go on to form your front and back covers for the album. Following this, trim your outside decorative paper down to measure “1/2 wider than the chipboard pieces- you will need two of these.
To apply the papers to the cover, I mixed some water with the PVA glue in a dish and covered one side of the chipboard with it. Next, I placed this down on the back of your outside decorative sheet. You may wish to smooth out any bubbles on the front.
Furthermore, apply more glue to the back of the decorative paper, where the edges peek out from the chipboard. Gently fold these edges over and adhere to the other side of the chipboard. You may want to use a ruler or old bank card to help get a crisp edge. Repeat this process until you have covered your front and back covers with your outside decorative paper.
To cover the inside of the front and back covers, trim your inside decorative paper down until it is “1/4 smaller that the chipboard. Again, use the watered down PVA glue to apply the paper down. This will cover up the folded down edges from the outside. As a result, you will have a nice and neat inside to your album. If you have a book press, place the covers inside to prevent warping whilst the glue dries.
The last step before you start binding, is to make sure all your insert pages are ready. My inserts were made out of Kraft Card with a 280gsm weight. These were trimmed down to 3″3/4 (height) X 3″ 7/8 (width) and I created 14 for this album. Once I had mounted the photos in, this number of pages was just the right thickness for this book and the size of the wire used. Any more pages, and it would have been too thick for the size of the book.
To Bind your mini photo album
To punch the covers, I lined the cover up with the left hand side and pushed it all the way beneath the punches. The beauty of the Cinch is that it has its instructions printed on the machine. I looked across the instructions to find the height of my book (4 inches) and beneath it tells me which peg to pull – 8. Once I have pulled peg 8 out I can punch the cover. Make sure your repeat this for the back cover.
As my paper inserts are slightly smaller in length than the cover, I had to adjust the base ruler to line up the paper inserts holes correctly with the cover. In order to this, I practiced on a piece of paper. As the difference between the lengths was “1/4, I initially pulled the ruler out by this distance. However, when I went to line this up, I noticed the gap at the top and bottom either side of the holes was not even. As I wanted it nice and even, I need to move the base ruler slightly to the left, by “1/16. Once I punched this and lined it up, it matched with even gaps top and bottom.
Therefore, I punched all my kraft inserts with the ruler pulled out by “5/16, still with peg 8 pulled out.
To bind the book, I hooked the wire over the bind posts located along the right side of the machine. I sandwich my back and front cover together with the outsides of each cover touching. Then these were place onto the wire, the back cover first. It is important that you do it in this order as conceals closed wire fastening inside the book.
Once I had layered all the card inserts onto the wire, I place the wire binding into the cinch at the back of the machine. Make sure you have the opening pressed against the back of the cinch to get the best seal when you press down. As I used a “3/4 wire, I made sure the dial on top was turned to this before I cinched the wire.
Lastly, I embellished the front cover with some colour coordinating die cuts and stamped a title for the album.
Have you had a go at making a mini photo album? If so why not let me know below and link back to it, I would love to take a look!
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Till next time,
*this post was NOT sponsored, requested, or paid for; I have written it because I wanted to. The information provided is based on my own personal experience. I am not an expert and I do not work for these companies.
2 thoughts on “Mini Photo Album – The Cinch”
Very interesting, I think I might bite the bullet to purchase one of those binders finally. It hadn’t occurred to me until just now that these would likely be great sellers in my store. Very nice.
So glad you found it useful. It is very easy to make your own!