Soccer Mini-Albums again!

One of Delaney's teammates on Three Lions asked when I was going to make them another mini-album. I guess I hadn't really thought about it, so Delaney and I decided to make a watermelon mini-album in celebration of winning the Watermelon Soccer Tournament this past June. (I checked. I guess the last time I made them some was back in November '09. Really? Has it been that long? Geez! It was apparently time for another!) We made one album for everyone who participated in the tournament, so that came to 14 mini-albums (including the coach). Yikes! :-)



Normally mini-albums are great, because they are just that... mini. You can whip them out in no time! But when you are making them in quantity, then that time multiplies quickly. Delaney agreed to help with this project, so we set up an assembly-like system and got to work. We made an album out of one sheet of 12"x12" black cardstock, just like one of the projects I had at my last open house. (Directions can be found at that link.)

Delaney helped a lot! She used my new Cricut Expressions and the Preserves cartridge (a cartridge found at Menards of all places on a tremendous sale, that my sister-in-law helped me get), and cut out all the watermelon pieces -- the small piece on the front cover and the larger piece on the back cover. Each watermelon slice had four different layers to it. So with fourteen albums, it took her a while to get all of them cut. Then she sponged the edges with a little chocolate ink to add some character to the finished embellishment. She helped sponge some of the other pieces too, as well as finding a good action shot of everyone from the final game of the tournament, and helping with design decisions with what goes where and what quote to use, etc. She was a GREAT help! With a little hard work and time, we were able to get all of the albums done in a couple of days (working here and there when we had the opportunity).

Here is the album in various stages of being opened up. First if you open the tab holding it shut, and lift up then down the next two flaps, you'll see the first panel. Then after opening up those two flaps, you'll see the middle panel. We have their first name, an action shot, a Mia Hamm quote (and we found another quote for coach, thinking he wouldn't really appreciate a quote referring to when he played as a "little girl"), a team shot in their champion t-shirts, the plaque and a spot for them to journal. And the last panel is the back, with a jersey stamped with their number.



We used a lot of retired products on this project. A couple of the cardstock colors, Clover Meadow and appropriately enough Watermelon, were used as well as a lot of retired soccer/sports sets. While I occasionally have a retired stamps sale at some of my Open Houses, not a SINGLE soccer set has ever been available for sale. :-) They are mine for life!

Delaney is excited to hand them out at practice today.

Enjoy!
Dani