Tutorial: Using Marcy's Mini Album Kit with Lisa Truesdell

Hi everyone! I’ve been doing a lot of documenting in Traveler’s Notebooks lately, and am having fun exploring the possibilities they offer. I recently started an album for a trip my husband and I took last month, and thought this would be a great opportunity to add in some full page photos. It’s a look that packs a big impact, and I’ll be walking you through the steps to try it on your own!


Just a couple of notes off the top – in order do this, you’ll need to do enough planning to know where your photos will fall in your album. You’ll also need to deconstruct your notebook by pulling out the staples. I do this with all of my notebooks anyway – it’s a lot easier to work on the pages when they are loose! Once I’m finished, I’ll use a long reach stapler to put the notebook back together, and while I’m working, I use an elastic cord to keep all of the pages in place.

To get started, I go through and map out my album with sticky notes. I also marked the places for my full page photos with a scrap of paper. This is important because your photo will create a two page spread, and you’ll need to account for what photo you want where in your notebook. It was a bit hard to get a photo to show this, but you kind of can see that the photo that opens my album is printed on the same page as the photo that closes the album. Once you start experimenting in your own notebook, this will make a lot more sense.


Now that you’ve planned out your album and know which two photos you’ll want to put into your album, it’s time to get them ready to print! For a full sized Traveler’s Notebook, resize your photos to 4.5inx8.5in. This is a bit bigger than they’ll need to be, but it’s definitely better to start big and trim them to fit! I print my photos at home, via Lightroom. To set up my photos to print, I open the print module and change my canvas size to 8.5x11 and then place my two photos onto the canvas. Be sure to pay attention to which photo you put on which side of the canvas. Use the scrap paper you placed in your album to determine which way your photos will need to face.

If you don’t print your photos at home, you’ll need to use a photo editing program and place your two photos side by side on a background that fits the parameters of your printing company. Here, I’ve placed my images on a 12x12in canvas in photoshop. Just save as a .JPG and send it off to be printed!

Once you have your print, trim it down and fold it in half. Again, check your notebook to see if you need to fold it inward or outward. Since I wanted mine to be on the right facing side at the front half of the notebook and the left facing side further back, I folded mine with the photos facing outward. The seam will be hidden in the middle of your notebook, so it’s okay if there’s a bit of a gap between your photos when you print.

Now it’s time to deal with the back of the photos! You could back them with a second set of photos, or even one of the notebook pages, but I thought it would be fun to mix in some patterned paper! If you want to use just one pattern, cut your paper to the same size as the photo and attach to the back. If you’d like to mix and match, start by cutting one pattern to 8.5x6in. Adhere it to the back of your photo. Having one pattern go across the fold like this will make your papers less likely to come loose. NOTE : if you want to add any stitching or staples when you complete the page on the patterned paper, hold off on using adhesive and just set your patterned paper into place for the time being.
Trim your second piece of patterned paper to 4.5x8.5in and attach to the other side of the back of your photos.


With that done, it’s time to trim your photos and paper to fit inside your notebook! Take one of the sheets of notebook paper and clip it around your photo, then trim down the excess. I like to clip the paper in place to keep it from shifting around.

I wanted to add a layer of vellum over my photo, so I clipped it in place and trimmed it to size the same way that I did with the photo.


Slide your photo and vellum into place in the notebook and you’re done! I added an acrylic word and an embellished tag to finish off this notebook spread.

The fireworks photo that I printed alongside this one will appear in a spread later in my album, and the patterned paper on the back of my photo is the perfect starting place for my next spread.

I hope all of you notebook fans will give this a try – it’s a great way to feature a favorite photo!

Supplies : kits - Canyonlands Scrapbook Kit, Marcy's Mini Album kit; stamp - Ticket by Hello Forever; ink - Color Theory Glass Slipper, Clean Slate & Well Red; other - Tiny Attacher, Traveler's Notebook, tag

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6 comments

  1. PamBaldwin says…
    11/24/2015

    Yay!!! I've totally been waiting for this tutorial ever since I saw your IG sneak :) Thank you so much Lisa!

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  2. Leanne1965 says…
    11/24/2015

    So awesome!

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  3. LindaBarber says…
    11/24/2015

    That's beautiful!!!

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  4. baersgarten says…
    11/25/2015

    so beautiful! Love your work, Lisa!

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  5. jendcnguyen says…
    11/25/2015

    This is gorgeous! Love it!

    1 Reply 0 Replies
  6. natalieelph says…
    11/26/2015

    Wow! This looks amazing!

    1 Reply 0 Replies

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