DIY Watercolor Mini Album

You just can't go wrong with mini albums in my opinion! They are so fun and easy to make and I just love that you can create them in any fashion you want - messy or simple, crazy or plain! Anything goes! Today, I have a quick video for you showing you how to create your own DIY watercolor mini album! All you really need is some paper, paints, stamps and a few of your favorite photos! This simple album is perfect for those times when you want to get messy with your watercolors!

For this album, I used some of my favorite photos + a few favorite stamps and created a unique and colorful album! Every album will be unique and of course, it would be the perfect gift for a loved one or friend!

I hope you enjoy this simple video and I hope I inspire you to create your own watercolor mini album! Have fun!!

elle's studio: the penelope collection & watercolors

the elle's studio penelope collection is just divine.  i love all of the soft pinks and the dark colors.

of course i just had to play around with it for this month's design team gallery.

i started by using watercolors on my background.  once that was dry, i lightly misted over the pink watercolors with some studio calico opaque white mist.  it's a subtle touch, but it softens the pink watercolors some.

then i pulled out my favorite pieces from the penelope collection, as well as the black and white strip paper.  i layered everything together and added a few strips of typed journaling.

love that sweet face.

here's a look at my finished layout and a few detail shots...

for the love of watercolors...

it's no surprise that i love a white background.  i love that every page starts as a clean slate.  and of course, i love to add beautiful patterned paper to my backgrounds, but most of the time a good portion of white can be found somewhere.  

white backgrounds are really a blank canvas to me.  i love adding splatters of paint and mists, and now my new favorite is watercolor paints.  i love the effect watercolors leave on the paper.  hoping to find some time soon to play around a little more, but for now, i wanted to share two of my favorite layouts created using watercolors as my background base.

right now...

for this layout, i used a little bit of gesso first and then added my watercolors once the gesso dried.  the gesso acts like a barrier so the color doesn't absorb into the cardstock.

happy...

this layout was inspired by wilna's recent "in the mood to scrap" video at two peas in a bucket.  and believe it or not, this background actually started as a "mistake".  i love to play around with watercolors, but sometimes i feel like it just doesn't work out right.  for this page, i was adding water to my background and then ended up sticking the whole thing under the faucet.  my first reaction was to just toss the way too saturated paper, but then i added my color and watched it spread out across my paper to the corner.  and once it dried.....sigh...it was so pretty!!  

what about you??  do you love watercolors??  

xoxo