A "My Colors" Book--with a Twist!

Hello everyone, I've missed you!  I've been away from my blog for a couple weeks, having a lovely Advent and Christmastime.  For those of you who are also celebrating right now, I hope you're having a happy holiday season.

When we last spoke, I was looking for ideas to keep my 12x12" family albums from getting overly bulky.  From your comments (thank you!), I can see that I'm not the only person who has this problem.  In my last post, I mentioned one possible solution: putting some of my layouts into themed albums, instead of just packing them all into yearly family albums.  I've had another brainwave, too...I'm thinking of making more mini albums.

I already make minis once in awhile...so why not make them more often?  I think they will be a great solution for those times when I have too many photos from a single event to make just one or two regular layouts, yet not enough for a full-sized album.

I recently made a tag album for my little nephew, and I really enjoyed the process.  I used a limited supply of materials: Crate Paper tags, Lily Bee Design mini alphas and die cuts, a metal ring clip, and colorful photos from the Minnesota and Como Park zoos.

This 1914 wooden carousel at Como Park Zoo in Saint Paul still works!  It has an interesting history--check out its website, if you are interested in such things.

We had unusually hot weather this past summer, and most ponds got a good coating of green duckweed.  My son said that these bathing camels at the Minnesota Zoo kind of look like sea monsters in this photo!  :)

This is the ceiling of the dhole (Asiatic wild dog) viewing pavilion at the Minnesota Zoo.  As you've probably guessed by now, this is not your typical "my colors" book for children.  I think my nephew already knows the names of the basic colors, like red, yellow, and green, so I decided to step things up for him.  :)

You know how sometimes we scrapbook at night, after everyone else has gone to bed and the house is finally quiet?  And you know how, when we're a bit tired, the silliest things seem completely hilarious?  Well, I got a good laugh out of describing the coral's color as "coral."  Maybe you had to be there.  :)

This landscape at the Minnesota Zoo (on the Northern Trail Loop, very close to the sea monster camels) looked like a painting!

Even wild boars need naps sometimes.  :)

This is the last page--and my personal favorite.  I ordered a collage of all seven of the mini photos for this album on a single 4x6" print (Very low-waste!), then cut the photos apart to make the album pages.  But I also ordered a regular 4x6" photo of this shot--it's definitely going to make an appearance in an upcoming layout.

These tags are all from a single sheet of Crate paper, so they all have the same neutral B-side.  I jazzed them up a bit with assorted cute Lily Bee die cuts.  

I had a lot of fun making this album, and I'm sure there are many more tag minis in my future.  There are so many possibilities for this type of project!  Crate includes a sheet of tags in every one of its collections, and many other manufacturers (Pretty Little Studio, Ormolu, and Whisker Graphics spring to mind) make cute tags as well.  Plus, you can easily create your own tags in any style you like.

Do you like to make mini albums?  I think we can all agree that tag albums have me pretty excited at the moment, but I'm curious to know what kind of mini albums you like to make.  Happy scrapping!