Oh Boy! Mini Album and Daisy the Cow

Tinkering Ink sets the pace for creativity by adding a brand new twist to the growing popularity of acrylic albums - introducing the Peek-a-boo album. Each album kit contains four interchangeable chipboard pages with pre-cut windows, three acrylic pages, and two 1-inch binder rings. The pages are made from a sturdy chipboard material and the acrylic pages are packaged with a blue film coating to prevent scratches. The windows in the various layers provide a surprise peak into the next layer when the album is complete, making this a fun album to look at time and time again.

I have always enjoyed the simplicity and beauty of mini albums but completing one of these masterpieces seemed too difficult to make it worth the effort. WOW! Was I wrong. Tinkering Ink makes this a great project. When asked to review the new Peek-a-boo albums by Tinkering Ink I knew this would give me the chance to work through obstacles that I had encountered with mini albums in the past. This would also give me the opportunity to try my hand at working with acrylic pages.

I chose the 6 ½ x 6 ½-inch Peek-a-boo album to create a brag book. The windows in the chipboard pages and transparency of the acrylic pages taught me that I needed to pre-plan the entire book as a completed project and not just as a collection of single pages. When working with this album I discovered that it was important to not only be concerned with the design on the current page, but also to watch what was before and after making sure that the design flowed and nothing overlapped or left pictures/designs peeking through in wrong places.

Since I spend the majority of my scrapbooking time working on single pages, I needed to rethink the way I would designed my Peek-a-boo album. In order to make it flow, I found it necessary to repeat the same designs and patterns throughout the entire book. Keeping my chipboard page designs similar was not as difficult as it was on the acrylic pages. These pages proved to be the most challenging because not only did I have to be concerned with the backside of my design but the page design showing through to the rest of the album needed to coordinate with the designs of the pages before and after. I also found it necessary to choose art mediums that would remain permanent when applied to acrylic.

For this album I chose to use a black Slick Writer pen and a mixture of re-inker and Diamond Glaze to provide the designs on the acrylic pages and on the chipboard pages I used a black Micro pen in various pen tip sizes.

Title: Oh Boy

• Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics, Baby Blue Medium) 
• Patterned Paper (Paper Studio) 
• Peek-a-boo album (Tinkering Ink) 
• Punch (EK Success) 
• Pens (Micron & Slick Writer) 
• Chipboard (Misc) 
• Letters (Heidi Swapp) 
• Rhinestones (Paper Studio) 
• Diamond Glaze 
• Palette Re-inker 
• Font (CK Buddies) 
• Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner) 

Now that my first project was finished I was ready to move on to the next. The 6 ½ x 4-inch Peek-a-boo book took one-third the time to complete as did my first book. This album would take on a completely different look and feel since it would be for my son. Daisy is his prized Jersey Heifer and his days revolve around taking care of her and making sure that she is properly milked, fed, and groomed. Since she is very special to my son, I wanted to create this album for him, featuring Daisy. The album needed to have a rustic flair so I chose to rely on some Heidi Grace rub-on’s to supply unity throughout the pages. I also used a brown Tombow pen on the chipboard pages and a brown Slick Writer to provide a distressed edge to the acrylic pages. Some distress ink was added to the edges of the papers and this book was complete in just a few hours!

Title: Daisy

• Products used: Cardstock (Prism Prismatics, Vanilla Cream)
• Peek-a-boo album (Tinkering Ink)
• Patterned Paper (Michaels)
• Rub-on's (Heidi Grace)
• Ink (Ranger Distress Ink)
• Brown Pens (Tombow & Slick Writer)
• Chipboard Letters (misc)
• Paint (Making Memories)
• Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

Tinkering Ink has got me hooked on mini albums – Peek-a-boo albums to be exact! Once I got past the learning curve these little books were a complete blast to work with. No matter how much planning I did on my part, once each book was completed I found little surprises that peeked through that I couldn’t have planned if I tried. The quality of the materials of each album are superior making each one a treasured keepsake.

While a novice scrapbooker may find these album kits more challenging to work with, I highly recommend the Tinkering Ink Peek-a-boo albums to scrapbookers of all ages and skill levels. I think you will find that the final product is definitely worth the effort!