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Today I am sharing how to make a Toilet Roll Mini Album.

It has been a very long time since I posted to my blog due to the fact that my life took an unexpected turn.  First, my husband suddenly got very ill at the beginning of December, then passed away on February 26 without ever being able to come home from the hospital.  This loss has been crushing, and I have spent the past few months dealing with the loss of my soul mate of 22 years and taking care of everything one needs to take care of when they lose a spouse.  I am gradually resuming my “new normal” life and working in my studio.

I ran across a tutorial by Mako on how to make mini albums from toilet paper rolls.  My daughter and I have been saving ours in earnest so I can make some of these albums to sell at a monthly craft fair I am participating in this summer.  These mini albums are easy to make and can make such a nice gift with photos, inspirational sayings and can even hold money or gift cards.

Step One: To make an album you need three cleaned-up toilet paper rolls.  Flatten the rolls, then use a bone folder to firmly crease the folds so that they are as flat as you can make them.  Once my album was completed I weighted it down overnight with a heavy item (I used the Stampin’ Up! Cut and Emboss machine).

Step Two: Measure your flattened roll to get the roll length and width.  Cut a piece of patterned paper to be (1) roll length + 1″ and (2) 2 x the roll width + an extra 1″.

Step Three: Align one side of the roll with the short edge of the paper; fold over the paper, then do the same with the opposite short side.  You will now have three panels of paper – the top flap, the middle and the bottom panel.

Step Four: Spread some glue evenly over one long side of the flattened toilet roll.  Adhere the roll to the middle panel of the paper.  Be sure to flatten it.  Take a pair of scissors and cut 4 small wedges in the paper on all four “corners” of the toilet roll.  This will enable you to tuck in the overhanging edges easily.

Step Five: Spread a small amount of glue onto the overhanging short edges of the paper and tuck them inside the ends of the roll; press firmly for a good 20 seconds to ensure they stick.

Step Six: Glue down one of the long panels and tuck in the edges.  Glue down the last panel and overhanging edges.

Step Seven: Repeat for the remaining toilet rolls.  Cover them in the same or coordinating patterned paper.

Step Eight: Take your hole punch and punch two holes a quarter inch in from the ends of the flattened rolls for binding.  I used my Crop-O Dile.  My holes are also 3/4″ from the top and bottom edges of the rolls.  You can use interlocking metal rings for binding, or use coordinating ribbon tied into a knot.

Step Nine: Measure and cut three cardstock tags that will fit into the pockets created by the bound pages.  I measured my tags to be a little longer so that they protruded from the pockets.  Punch a hole approximately 1/2″ in from one end of each tag in the center.  Use a corner rounder punch to round the corners if you wish.  Thread coordinating ribbon through the holes.

Step 10: Decorate the cover of the album as desired

Tip: A trick to folding in those tricky overhanging edge flaps is to carefully fold both corners under, then push the rest in after it.  It can get a bit messy but it doesn’t have to be perfect.

I used retired Designer Series Papers to decorate my albums, but also used current product. I used the stamp set Create With Friends (page 36 in the 2021 Annual Catalog) for the “Amazing” greeting (I hand cut the word), and Peaceful Moments (page 24) for “Congratulations”.  I also used the following dies: Stitched So Sweetly for the “Amazing” album, page 166 ; for the “Congratulations” album I used the Tasteful Labels Dies (page 165) & the Stitched Rectangles Dies (page 166).

I  hope you try to make these easy and cute mini albums.  You can purchase the Stampin’ Up! supplies needed by clicking on this link http://www.donnabagwell.stampinup.net

Thank you for visiting my blog today.  I love comments – please leave me one to let me know what you think of this project.