A Fun New Mini and my Crush on Tim Holtz

I am a YouTube junkie. I love to search for fun new tutorials or ideas or see beautiful work of others. It's just fantastic all the way around. A few months back when I began my mini album obsession I went looking for samples of fun tags. While doing that fairly unsuccessfully I found this awesome tutorial. This particular project was meant to be a stand alone album or insert to another album. But I was not satisfied with that I wanted it to be an album but more than on page. With that and armed with the knowledge of my previous minis I set to work and figured a way to bind two of those file folder pocket thingys into a mini book. And I have to tell you that I am so very pleased with the outcome! Here are the photos:

The spine and the cover:

 

The inside of the front cover and page one.  I covered the binding with the brown paper to create additional pockets, and cover up the areas where the folders were attached to the binding.

 

 Page one extended:

 Back of Page one, extended, and the start of the second file folder.  So this is the center of the book.

 Back of the second file folder and back cover:

The front of all the tags.  As you can tell, some of them have photos, but most of them are not finished and decorated yet.

And the back of the tags.  I placed journaling lines with stamped decorative images.

I have not completed putting photos as you can tell but nonetheless it is still a spoonful of awesomeness. I think there is something rewarding about good outcomes to good ideas on the first try. It's very satisfying. Reasons why this particular little guy rocks so much:

1. It is entirely made from scraps - the only new sheets of paper used were used on the cover.  Seriously, that's it, everything else (including the tags) are scraps from other projects!
2. It will hold 3.5x5 photos.
3. There are 21 tags, with room for more if you wanted it that way.
4. I did this in a weekend.
5. It is made out of file folders.
6. Remember this post?  Well all the layouts in here, unless they were my own ideas, were taken from the card sketch websites on that post!  That's right, I figured I would show you how to turn them into mini album layouts.  
7. It gave me a love and appreciation for Distress Ink, which brings me on to my next point.....

 I love Tim Holtz.  Seriously, if it weren't illegal to keep people in your basement against their will, I'm pretty sure Tim would be in mine, so that I can make use of his creative genius any time I so desire.  (If you're reading this Tim, I mean that fondly).   As I said, I made this mini entirely from scraps of paper - NOTHING was coordinating on its own.  Using the distress inks I think really made it possible to create a grungy mixed and matched with a theme album.  Seriously, I found my love this mini.  If you do not like distress ink but do minis, at least get them in the neutral colors. Seriously, it will add a subtle and unifying feeling to your projects.  I am now a huge fan.

Supplies: My Sentiments Exactly, Studio G, Paper Trey Ink Journaling lines, Paper Trey Ink Love and Marriage (stamps); Tim Holtz Walnut Distress, Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip (Ink); Bazzill, Recollections (Cardstock); My Minds Eye, SEI, Making Memories, Chatterbox Inc, Provo Craft, K and Company, Crate Paper (Patterned Papers); Prima (Flowers); Martha Stewart, Stampin' Up! Large Tag (Punch); Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Dies (Tags); Delta Acrlyic Paint; Pink Paislee Anthology Brad (Cover Bling);