Favor Tin Mini Album

I’ve recently been inspired by a number of different ‘Altoids-tin mini albums’…for those who may not have seen one of these albums before, their little mini scrapbooks (basically), that fit inside an Altoids tin. The outside of the tin is also decorated for whatever theme is desired. So, not having any Altoid tins available, I decided to see what I did have, and would work for this project… favor tins!

I had some left over favor tins from a previous project I was working on. The tins are each 2-inches in diameter and approximately 3/4-inch tall…so not that big! But when you want to stash a ‘brag book’ in your purse, you don’t want anything that is going to be overly big anyways!

My first ‘favor tin mini album’ was made for my Aunt…with 5 grandkids, ranging in age from ~10 months to almost 7 years, she’s got A LOT to brag about! I decided to use brighter colors for the outside decoration and the front page (the page seen through the clear top), as grandkids ALWAYS bring smiles! I used Word to print the text around the outside edge of the circle (in this case I typed ‘Oma & Opa’s Clan’ and each of their grandkids names – guess I’ll need to hope that there’s no additions in the immediate future!). Upon popping the top of this tin, you can pull out the album inside. The album is put together accordion style, so that each page is connected. This book has 9 circles that are connected (this was accomplished by using my Cricut Expression diecut machine, and the Design Studio Software), providing 18 circles (17 if you decorate the front/top page) for pictures, journaling or embellishments.

Each of the 9 circles (excluding the top page) was decorated with a patterned paper that was a little smaller than 2 inches in diameter, again, I used my Cricut to cut these pieces. I then cut pictures in sizes ranging from 1 inch to 2 inches (note: if you cut a picture at 2 inches, I recommend just slicing a little off of each side, so that when you fold the book up, the pictures don’t impact the ‘hinges’…this was a mistake on my part at first. I just sliced off a thing piece of each side…maybe a millimeter?). Once you’ve glued on all your pictures or embellishments, just fold together and drop in your tin.

Now, to decorate the outside of your tin…I took the VERY simple route here, I just glued some ribbon to the outside. I didn’t want anything to bulky or with too much dimension, as I wanted to hold up to the possible abuse of being in a purse.