The Magic of Oz Mini-Album

I don't usually make items that are "dark" in mood or tone. But I just realized a couple of days ago that I had sold all of my mini-albums at the Liberty Fall Festival and hadn't made any "replacements" for my upcoming craft fairs. One of my friends said how much she loved the Wizard of Oz, and having a Graphic 45 collection that I'd gotten at half price, The Magic of Oz was a good candidate for a mini. I'll explain my procedure after the photos.

Overall, there was no stamping or digi printing, just cardstock and the 8"x8" paper pack. The cover below was made using the actual cover of the pad, so it's glossy and heavier that the other paper. The back cover does the same.

I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder for my "yellow brick road," embossing half at a time. There are so many squares, stamps, or images to be cut or fussy cut for embellishments, that I used them exclusively, except for one bit of black satin ribbon on the front. I kept the overall design and construction pretty simple and made it in one afternoon.

I'd been dying to try out the different shaped mini-album pages that can be cut with the Cricut Artiste, so I inserted my deep cut blade, gathered the cereal boxes I'd been saving, and gave it a try. I wanted the album to be about 5" x 7" so that 4" x 6" photos could fit in some of the pockets. I used the die cuts on p.59, Accents 1 and 2 with and without the shift key, all cut at 5." I cut two of each shape to start and cut paper to cover the bases (without the deep cut blade).

Most of the pages have pockets and tags. Some of the pockets are between the base and the covering sheet. Some are actual strips of paper across the lower front of the page, attached with red sticky tape. A few have mini-pockets, I'll call them, made with photo corners or other paper embellishments that are only attached on the lower or outside edge so a tag can be tucked behind the area that's not adhered.

I inked the edges of some pages and all of the plain cardstock with CTMH Gray Wool. I made the back cover by just cutting a 5" x 7.5" cereal box and papers, punching the two outer corners slightly with a 2.5" circle punch, like a ticket punch.

I'm sharing this mini with the following challenges.
Anything But A Card October Challenge #4
Crafty Calendar October Challenge- All Things Spooky/ option of recycling (used cereal boxes)
Frilly and Funky - Anything but a card with a twist - pockets
Fussy and Fancy Challenge #74 - Anything Goes
Oozak Challenge #7 - Die Cuts (all of my pages except the back cover)
Unstampabelles Challenge #16 - (No stamps or digis) and Recycle or Repurpose (cereal boxes and covers of paper pad)

5" x 7.5" mini-album recipe:
Paper - Graphic 45 "The Magic of OZ" 8x8 paper pad; Close To My Heart (very old outdoor denim checked paper to match Dorothy's dress); Bazzill cardstock, one piece of My Mind's Eye old retired patterned paper/cardstock for tags
Other - CTMH Cricut Artiste Cartridge; Cereal boxes, binder rings, 3 refills of Tombow adhesive, glue dots, pop dots, Recollections red line tape; Michaels black satin ribbon