My Newest Paper Bag Album + Layouts

By now, everyone knows that I am crazy about sewing, but what you may not know is that I have an equally sick obsession with scrapbooking.  I especially love mini albums.  My favorite by far are paper bag albums.  I have about 200 of these things made up and sitting in tupperware at my house.  Lisa & I just love getting together and making them.  I was try to stockpile them for some Christmas craft shows, but we really haven't even booked any shows for this fall.  I put a few in our Etsy Shop but for the most part they are just sitting around here.  Sometime I like to make one that it over the top fabulous.  I'll probably start giving a new mini album layout every Sunday on our blog, just because I love them so much.  These are really awesome and affordable Christmas gifts, especially for people you work with.  I even put one in the mailbox every Christmas for Gretchen - our mail carrier. 

I came up with this Sweet 16 Album because I wanted to get out my Cricut and actually get some use out of it and because I had this wonderful stack of paper I have been dying to use. 

The basics of making a paper bag album are pretty simple, you sew a couple of bag together.  I like to make 8 page albums (sewing 2 bags together), but some people make the albums huge. I've seen them with 30+ pages.  You can only sew 3-4 bags together without breaking your sewing machine needle.  IF you want to go bigger than that, you should use rings or just tie it together with ribbon.  I've said it before, you need to buy a 2 hole punch.  It will punch through anything. 

Then, you can stitch down the papers or stick them down with tape.  I've done it both ways.  Tape is easier.  For the cover I used my Cricut to cut out the title with a shadow and the mats.  It's the cartridge that comes with the machine.  Under the mat, cover paper, I put a huge piece and tulle and then tied it in a bow with a charm.        

For the next layout, I added more mats from the cricut and some of the scrollwork from the Home Decor cartridge.  I also taped down a little remnant of beaded trim I had in the stash.

For decoration I've got some primas with buttons in the center.  For the tag, I folded a foil flower in half, stapled it down, and then added a sticky gem.  I inked the tag with pink. 

This album is 6x6.  These are the huge bags you get at CVS or Meijer.  The dollar store only has the smaller bags that make a 4.5x5 album (which I normally make).  For this layout, I cut a circle page in 4 pieces and used 2 to make pockets.  I used some felt sticker details, metal words, and more primas.  Inside I have pull out pages for more photos.  I stapled folded primas onto them as tabs and then I used some glitter decals.  Lisa made some donations for Colorblok for a charity event and they gave us a ton of freebies.  They are right down the street from us and I love to buy from them. 

On this page I did a triple mat for each of the photo layouts.  The tags are embellished with more primas and scrollwork from the Home Dec cartridge.  I tied a big bow to hold the tags in. 

On the back, I have a bunch of layered flowers.  I jazzed them up by adding some flower shapes I made out of tulle.  These flowers are really expensive, so I try to add tulle when layering to make them go further. 

Here, you can see my pull out pages that were tucked into the pockets on the bags. 

Happy Crafting!