Accordion Album

Sheri asked me recently how I make an accordion album. I started to answer her in an e-mail, but it got long and I thought there might be others that would be interested in knowing how, too, so I decided to post it here.

I have done it two different ways, so I'll tell you both, in case you don't have the same tools I do.

The way I make them now is using my Scor-Pal. It has made it so much easier, but it's not necessary. First, cut your 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock (I usually use white or off-white cardstock, depending on the colors in my papers, but you could use any color you like) at 3 1/2 in. Cut a 3 1/2 x 2 inch practice "page" first and make sure that's the size you want. You might want a slightly bigger or smaller page, depending on your cutter's measurements. Just make sure it will fit inside your tin.

Then, using my Scor-Pal, I score at 2, 6 and 10. Then I flip the paper and score at 4 and 8. Fold at the scores and use a corner rounder to round all the corners. Depending on the thickness of your cardstock and the sharpness of your corner rounder (I have used my Stampin' Up! corner rounder for years and years and it's still as sharp as ever), it might be hard to round the corners on the folds.

Two other ways, without a Scor-Pal would be to use a guillotine-style cutter or a trimmer that has a scoring tool. Those are the two trimmers I have.

With a guillotine-style cutter, after cutting your paper to 12 x 3 1/2 inches, put it length-wise at 2 inches and fold it over the cutting edge. (Do not cut!) Then turn it over, put the fold you just made at 2 inches and fold again. Continue folding and flipping, measuring at the 2 inch mark each time. Fold and round the corners as stated above.

With a scoring tool, score at each 2-inch interval, using the fold at 2, flipping the paper with each score. Fold and round corners.

Once you've done that, you'll be ready to embellish the pages. The patterned papers you use will be cut to 3 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches. I sometimes tear papers to give texture. You can use 3-D embellishments, like brads, flowers, buttons, etc, as long as the album folds up and still fits inside the tin. You can use ribbon to tie the album closed. You can do only a matte, no patterned paper extras, cut at 3 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches, and then cut your pictures.

Have fun with it!

Was this info helpful? Did you try it yourself? Leave a comment here, linking us to your accordion album!