CSAYL Gift Set #4 - Album Purse

Folks hold on to your hat cause I actually scrapbooked!! NO it's not a page it's a mini album!! I have to tell you it felt good to get some photos in something to show off. Totally makes me want to do some scrapbooking...and I'm adding it to my to-do list!

For the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Blog (CSAYL) we are doing a gift set. It's a CD Envelope 5.5x5.5 Pocket Album Purse. Our very own Maria came up with this idea and has a fabulous tutorial for you to follow. You can find the instructions along with other samples on the CSAYL blog.


Since it's a gift set we also were asked to make a matching card. I kind of forgot about doing one since I was totally making this album for myself. I did make a "general" card though that could be used separately.

I should warn you now this post will be photo heavy. I really wanted to try and show all aspects of this cute little purse. I already know I'll be making another one for Grandma and maybe even one for Aunt Shannon...they will make AWESOME gifts!! Below is a side view of the purse.


And a close up of the front of the purse. The stamps are from The Angel Company.


Every year we make Christmas cookies so I decided to make this purse entirely about that event. The photos are from 2006 (yes folks, I am THAT behind!!!). I should tell you that I modified the tutorial slightly to accommodate my photos. The tutorial calls for 2 CD envelopes and I used 4. It allowed me to use all my photos. When you first open the purse this is what you'd see:


The sleeve on the right is what I added. I took another CD envelope and used the flap to adhere to the center folds. I took an X-acto knife and sliced the "bottom" of the CD envelope to create a pocket. I put a little adhesive on the "top" portion (which is now my bottom) to hold it close. Because of this my inside panel (which holds the photo) had to be adjusted slightly to fit. This will probably make better since when you see the actually tutorial that Maria did.


On this side the left CD envelope is what I added. I did the exact same thing as what I mentioned above.

This is the back of the two extra CD envelops. The brown pattern paper hides the CD envelope flaps. Since the back of the CD envelopes are white I put pattern paper on them and then my photos. The neat thing about adding these two extra CD envelopes is I was able to add 4 more photos. Plus if I really wanted to, since the inserts to the CD envelopes are removable I could add pics to the back. I didn't though because I wanted to leave room for journaling and little notes.

Isn't it cool?!? I so enjoyed this PLUS I did this in an afternoon...tells me that accomplishing a page in an evening isn't impossible! Abby was only 3 years old in these photos...it's so nice to look at the photos instead of them being in a box. Jay loved it too and wants to put it on our bookcase for others to see. It kind of bugs him that I don't scrapbook as much as I used to.

I hope you'll try and make one for yourself! If you do, be sure to link your creation up on the CSAYL blog. Thanks so much for stopping by!