Challenge Time with Prairie Paper Haven - Christmas Mini Album

I got an amazing package of Christmas Goodies from Jodie a Prairie Paper Haven and took the opportunity to make a mini album for an upcoming gift exchange.

The Goodies were all part of the Bella Blvd Christmas Cheer collection.  This is an adorable collection full of fun and cute Christmas paper and embellishments.

I used this opportunity to FINALLY use my Cricut Artbooking Cartridge for an actual book.  I have cut embellishments from it but never made one of the books. 

This is one of the Close To My Heart Exclusive Cartridges and I really do like it.  You can see all of the handbook HERE.

I cut 13 of page 56 SHIFT PHOTO MAT 1 (large pages) and 12 of page 57 SHIFT PHOTO MAT 2 (small pages)  out of cardboard to give the album some stability.  I used some boxes from work that were similar to cereal box depth.  My deep cut blade cut them well, but I did have to clean some cardboard shavings out of it. 

I then cut 26 large pages and 24 small pages out of the fantastic patterned paper.  Since these pages were for the front and back of the cardboard pages, I was careful with the patterns so I was sure that I would not end up with inverted patterns.  (Some patterns I cut "backwards" knowing they were going on the back side of a page).  I set the cut of the book 5.75 inches which allowed me to get 2 large pages and 2 small pages out of each 12 x 12 sheet with leftovers for mattes and embellishments. 

I do have to say that the holes for the binding rings were very small and I did have to punch them again with my Crop-A-Dile. 

After cutting all the pages I ran them through my Xyron and began mounting them on the cardboard pages.

Finally it was my favorite time - embellishing!

I made mini Polaroids using the Artbooking cartridge again (page 41 SHIFT BORDER) and backed them some black cardstock.

I used a little Stickles or a little Glossy Accents on every page.  I added various red and green ribbon from my stash along with some Maya Road red twine on the binding rings. All of the embellishments are part of the Bella Blvd Christmas Cheer line and include the Trinket Stickers and the Cardstock Die Cuts. All of the red, white, black and green dot cardstock was from my stash. 

Here is the end result:

I easily have enough supplies left over for another book, so one collection can do two books.  I really hope you check out this adorable collection in Jodie's Store.

~Happy Crafting~