Canvas Mini Album - How To Part 1 -

Today I wanted to share a bit about canvas albums (shown below)....

I think these little gems are often overlooked and unused because people just aren't sure how to go about using them.  Well today I want to remedy that!  I personally love canvas anything and these little albums are no exception.

Now these particular albums come with three double folded pages sewn together.  Essentially you have a front, 4 inside pages and the back.   That's fine if you're working with a few pages or you're making a small album to give away.  I know most of us enjoy a few more pages than that so I thought I'd share my solution to this AND how to adhere things to your pages once you've got your canvas book apart!


First, you're going to want to separate your pages... 

I inserted the point of my scissors at the bottom of the "spine" of the album and began cutting the pages apart.  You'll need pretty sharp scissors as you're cutting through 3 layers of canvas but if they are you'll have no problem at all.

Here you will see that all of my pages are now separated but still attached together by the stitched binding.  Don't cut it just yet, we have a few more things to do first.

Even though they are still sewn together I had 3 folded pages.  I took the center set of pages and cut them apart along the page side of the book (opposite of the binding side).  So now I am left with a folded front section, two individual sheets of canvas in the center and a folded back section.  This is exactly what I wanted.  (you'll see why later).  

You could of course cut apart all of the canvas sheets so you are left with 6 individual sheets of canvas.  Totally up to you.

Now determine how and where you want to bind your pages....  You can see here that I've marked out my pages and poked a hole through all of the canvas layers.   I used a paper pick to pierce the canvas then pushed my marker through the holes so it would stain each layer. 

Now, you can remove the thread that is holding all of your pages together. 

As you know, I left my first and last sets of pages together so there is a fold on the page side of my book.  This is because I wanted my first and last pages of my album to have flip out pages! 

I opened up my folded canvas page set, I then cut off the binding from the right side page as you can see from the photo below (approx. 1")  using pinking shears.

Next, I colored the fronts and backs of all of my canvas pages using Glimmer Mist.  You of course can use whatever medium you like....  My colors were meant to be the beach in the a.m. and the back pages were the beach in the p.m.

After the inks have dried you need to add some substance to your pages!  Now, to add a bit of body to my album I tore 2 pieces of a food product box down to size.  They were both inked, stamped and a stitched pocket was added to the front.  These will be adhered to the front and back covers.

To adhere this or any other paper to the canvas pages  I like to use Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue.  It is perfect for this application as it has a super hold, isn't runny and dries very quickly. 

I simply placed my canvas page on a sheet of scrap paper, applied a thick coat of the glue to my cardboard (cardstock or pattern paper) and pressed it onto the canvas page.

After you press the paper onto the canvas page you will need to peel it up from the scrap paper, flip it over and let it dry.  As you can see from this photo some of the white glue bleeds through the canvas, no worries...this glue dries clear and flexible.  You won't even notice it once it has dried!

As I mentioned before you can adhere pretty much any embellishment, cardstock or paper to the canvas using this glue.

Now, I think you'll want to pop back in tomorrow as I'll share my finished book that I created using this canvas album and you might even have a chance to win it for yourself!!!!