Basic Christmas Crafts Are Out... This One You’ll Actually Use

Are you kidding me right now? Look how stinking cute this is going to be. Oh my gosh, guys. What do you think? I am absolutely obsessed with this. Imagine. Hello, my crafty besties, and welcome back to Vlogtober. In today's video, we're going to be making something that I feel like is going to be very nostalgic, but people are going to love. And we're going to be focused. I really think that this would be a great like a hostess gift. And I'll tell you how I think that this could be a really great hostess gift here in a little bit. Not only that, you could make these for yourself. This could be a DIY that you do at home for yourself. This could be a really, really cool, fun, creative hostess gift. So many ways that you can really take this next craft and make it your own. But when we were trying to think of ideas of what we could do, I immediately thought of a photo album, for some reason, I don't know about you guys, but in our digital age, I have really missed physically holding photos to the point that this summer when my son went to summer camp, they can only take disposable cameras. So, we've been carrying around disposable cameras all summer and just getting snapshots. Now, I've not had the opportunity to go get them developed yet. So, because I had that disposable camera in my car, we were thinking, "Oh my goodness, why not create a vintage inspired photo album?" Because we feel like a lot of people are kind of going back. We have been in such a digital age. We're kind of going back to the nostalgia of having photos in our hands. So, what we're going to be doing is we are going to be taking some fabric and some trim, some ribbon, and we are going to be covering this photo album and putting using our Cricut and putting an element down here. And here is how I think this would make an amazing hostess gift. So, you all are obviously here cuz you're crafty. Why not create a vintage inspired photo album for let's say whoever is hosting Christmas or someone who is hosting a girls night. This does not have to be just for Christmas. Any kind of like gathering that you are having with your friends and family. You can create a photo album with this fabric. You don't have to have the trim. The trim is just extra cuz we think it's super cute. And then as a hostess gift, give your hostess the photo album plus a disposable camera and you take snapshots of everything going on at the event. That way you can then print it out, put it in this photo album and the photo album can already be labeled girls Christmas 2025 or uh Thanksgiving. You could even do this for your family if you have a bunch of photos just randomly floating around that's not in an album. You could do this for vintage photos. Thanksgiving 97. There are so many things that you can do with this. So, if you're ready to learn how we're going to turn this into this, stick around because I'm going to walk you step by step through this process. Before we get started, I do have to tell you guys, if you have not signed up for Christmas Craft Week, you've got to go do that now. Christmas Craft Week is a week-long crafting event November the 3rd through the 7th where we are teaming up with some of the top names in the crafting industry to bring you over 20 amazing Christmas crafts. I'm so excited for this event and I know that you guys are too. So, make sure you click that first link down below to get signed up. You want to sign up early. Early is going to always be the best. So, go ahead, click that link, get signed up before it's too late. Now, with all that being said, let's go ahead and talk about all of the supplies that you're going to need to do this. So, first off, we have a photo album. Now, this is one that we got from Amazon. It does lay flat. It is smaller. It does fit your standard photo size. After that, we do have some Christmas um kind of kind of Christmy fabric. We're going to use that to cover our photo album. Then we have some cute white trim. We're just going to add that to the edge of the photo album. And then I have some ribbon that we are going to glue in to tie the photo album together. Now, we also do have some white heat transfer vinyl. So, you're going to need that to label your photo album. I do have some really good fabric scissors here. I'm actually going to be cutting the fabric by hand. I'm not going to have my Cricut cut it because everyone's photo albums are going to be different sizes. So, I am going to use fabric scissors for that. Obviously, to cut your HTV, you are going to need a mat. So, I do have a standard grip mat here on my table. I also have my Lin Lilly precision glue gun here because I do feel like we're going to need a quick set on the glue. Um, now on top of that, I do have some fabric glue here. It is the Aliens Super Fabric. Um, I probably will use that on the inside. So, we're going to be folding the fabric in, but I'm also going to create another piece that goes over top of it to kind of sandwich the ribbon that we tie it together in and have it look so it looks very finished. Um, so I will probably use this on that piece just to kind of secure everything in. But I knew that I still needed my hot glue to kind of like a quick set. So, we do have two different types of glue. And other than that, that is pretty much all you're going to need. So, let's go ahead and start making our photo album. Okay, friends. So, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to lay my photo album flat on my fabric because I'm just going and I've used this corner that was already cut. I'm just going to place it up here in the corner. You want to leave enough room that you have room to fold it over on both sides like that and still kind of have an edge so that it goes underneath here. Now, this looks really odd right now. We're going to finish this later. So, I'd say about a/4 in. Let me grab my let me grab my measuring tape and I'll give you exact measurements. Um, actually, it's probably about a half an inch. So, you may want to leave a half of an inch clearance on all sides. If you want to, you can mark on that side as well. Because I'm working with this kind of check gingham fabric, I'm just going to go ahead and line this up. And I think I'm going to cut with the lines of the fabric here to keep me straight. So, what I'm doing now is I'm just going to cut along this line across the bottom up this way as well. [Music] And so now you can see we have a pretty even all the way around. Now, we are going to have to because this photo album here, you can see it lays flat in the middle. So, we can't fold all of this over without having some type of separation. So, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take my scissors and I'm going to cut a strip right here and right here. So that when I fold it in, I can fold it in right there on the middle and like tack that down and it should not affect how it closes, but it still gives that kind of finished look. And then we'll even maybe add a ribbon, some ribbon up through here to finish it even more. Um, but now let me cut this side as well, just in the bends, just where the photo book bends. That way you can place this down here and it's not going to affect your pages like that. So now what we're going to do, I'm going to pull in my hot glue here and we are going to start gluing our fabric down to our photo book. So you can also if you want to cut out these corners so that it isn't super bulky. You can do that as well. If you are wanting to cut out the corners, what you would need to do is we're going to cut straight across from this side over to the bottom of the book and then straight up from this side like that. So you can see here how we kind of have a notched out corner and we can fold it this way and then this way and it not be bulky. So I'm just going to actually go ahead and notch all my corners just like that so that I don't have that bulkiness. I don't want that bulkiness. So just going to notch all my corners. And it doesn't have to be exactly even all the way across as long as we are folding it. Pack that out. So, here's where we're at. We have all of our corners notched just like that. Now, we are ready to start gluing these down. We will start on this side here. So, I'm just going to grab my hot glue gun. Add that there. Fold that up. And then I think I'm going to fold the top down before I do the this side over here. [Music] Just like that. And then last we will do this side here. And I actually think I'm going to cut a little bit more off of this piece. Like that. Beautiful. [Music] Okay. Now we have the beginning of our photo album. Look how cute. Now, what I'm going to do is I need to glue this down. I'm kind of curious, worried, curious to see how this hot glue is going to do with this um plastic. It looks like just a little bit of dot in the middle is okay. I just want to really hold that down right there. And then I will use not hot glue to put the rest um like more fabric through the middle, which can also be used as like a little um not that you necessarily need to have a bookmark on a photo album, but it could be cute. So, I'm just adding this there like that. Okay, you see how that looks? And then we'll finish that out here in a little bit. And now we're going to flip this side over and we're going to do the same thing. And you can see it doesn't affect it too much when you fold it together. Now once we get photos in there, it shouldn't either. Um, if for some reason you feel like it does affect it, you can always just cut that down. But we do need that there to make it look finished on the edge like that. Okay. So anyway, we're going to keep going. So we've got our corners notched. We're moving our fabric around like this. I'm going to do top and bottom before I do the side again. [Music] I think it's super cute. Now, we're going to add some trim to this and our ribbon. And then we will add our inside pieces. So, want to make sure that that goes on really well. So now what we are going to do is we are going to add our So now what we're going to do is we're going to add our white trim. I am so stinking excited about this. So how we're going to do this is we're once again going to do this with um hot glue. And we're going to turn corners like this to kind of make it look rounded. And I'll show you how we do that. So, I'm not going to cut any of this yet because I don't want it to be cut off and then straight up. I want it I want to be able to fold this in like a corner and glue that down and keep on running along that edge here so that it has a very seamless look like that. Okay. So once again, we're going to use our hot glue for this because it does take a couple hours to set with the other glue. And we're going to cut a piece of fabric that goes on top. And so I'm going to kind of spread some other glue on top of all of this to adhere it down even more. So I'm just going to add a little bit more hot glue here. And I'm just going across the bottom first. So, let me move this out of the way so we can make sure we get it down really well. And it is positioned on the edge where we want it. Make sure you don't run your finger through that hot glue like I just did. And now trying to decide which way I want to fold it. I think so. I wanted to bring you guys closer so you could see. So, what I am doing, let me turn it around this way so you can really understand. I think what I want to do is take my finger and just kind of, you see how this is folding forward? I want to hot glue this right here so that I can turn this corner and bring this up this way like this. So, I've got this kind of turned. And I'm going to grab my hot glue and I'm going to fold that corner in like that. Going to hold that down for just a second. And now I've got it turned going up this way. And now I can start adding hot glue this way. So, so now that you kind of know how we're going to turn this corner, we're going to do the same thing. You see when we turn it this way, how it folds up? How it comes up and we can just kind of fold it over on itself right there and hot glue that down. So, I'm just going to bring it over, crease that corner, add some hot glue there, and hold that down like that. Then, we're going to bring it around this way. Hot glue back there as well. I'm like being very impatient and I want to see what this looks like because I really don't think that I'm going to be able to deal with how cute this is. Oh my gosh, guys. Are you kidding me right now? Look how stinking cute this is going to be. I cannot I cannot deal with this. Okay, so now that we have that, I'm trying to decide if I want to cut this all the way across or if I just want to cut I think I'm going to start by cutting just right here. kind of like we did with the fabric. You see how I can do that and then I can open this up and then hot glue this piece here and then cut it again and keep going. Part of me feels like I should do that's what I need to do. Okay, so that's what we're going to do. I've got this piece cut, but I need to add a little bit more glue right here to put that down. I'm going to flip this open. Now, you can see right here how I can snip this and it doesn't mess up my trim. And now I can kind of snip this right there. Glue that down in the middle there. And then that can flip on the other side of the pages. So, that's what we're going to do. And I'm going to glue this down. [Music] Tada. And then we are going to keep working our way all the way around our book. [Music] Okay. So, we're turning the corner here. I'm going to lay this down this way. And then once that is set, I'm going to pull this up and glue under there, too. Now, once again, here at the bottom, I'm going to snip that trim there. I'm going to pull this back. Add some more hot glue. Beautiful. Then we'll open this back up and we will finish out finish out our trim right here and cut it all the way down. And I need to cut just a smidgen off of here like this. Look how cute. I can't even handle this. Now, I will say that it is making this a It's thicker. So, it's not like closing shut, which is why we are because once you start putting pictures in it, it's just going to hold open even more. And this is why I can't like this is just so cute. So anyway, this is why we're going to add our ribbon inside here as well to be able to tie the photo album shut. So what we're going to do, and with this ribbon, you have to think when you're putting your ribbon in there, you have to think of how you want it um laying out. So initially, my first thought is, oh, this is velvet ribbon. I'm going to do it this way with the velvet on the top. But when you hold the book up, you're going to see the back side of the ribbon, which thankfully the backside of this ribbon is not ugly. Yes, it is meant to be frayed like that. It is just a very thin um velvet ribbon. And we actually cut it in half. It was a thicker velvet ribbon. You can kind of see where we cut it in half. It's a little bit uneven, but it's not it's not a big deal. Use what you have, guys. That's the whole point of this. So, I think we're going to add the ribbon here like this. I don't know exactly how long I want it, but I am going to I do know I want it right here in the center. So, I'm going to add this here like that. And then I'm going to cut this off. Now, I am cutting it pretty long right now. I want it to be longer because I don't want it to I don't want to cut it too short and then realize at the end of this that I needed it longer. So adding to this side as well. Cutting off some excess string here that I do not need. Imagine doing this as a like craft project together with a group of some of your best friends and then putting pictures of all of your friends in there together. I just this is such a such a good simple craft I feel like and it's kind of taking it back old school like how we used to craft all the time. Now the next thing is I'm going to grab my I am going I think I'm going to use um a couple brushes or a brush for this. And I think I'm going to brush on this fabric glue for the inside. Now, for this, we're gonna finish off. You can finish off with the same fabric. You can finish off with a different fabric if you want. Part of me feels like, should we finish it off with a different fabric, or should we just do the same? I'm going back and forth. I have a couple different ideas. Oh, I have a great idea. We have this beautiful green fabric that has this gold detail that I think I'm going to do. And but first, now if you wanted to, you could have your Cricut cut the fabric for this. I know that most of us do not have the capabilities. Some or not most of us. If you have a maker, you can cut this cotton fabric unbonded um with your rotary blade. We're just going to use scissors today. I'm going to measure and then we will mark out um how large we want our piece to be. So, I don't want to go all the way to the top here. I think I want to do maybe we will do six by [Music] 6 by 4 and 1/2. Yeah, we'll do 6 by 4 and 1/2. So, I'm going to kind of move this to the side. I'm going to lay my fabric out on the back side. I've got a straight edge ruler here and I'm just going to mark. We'll mark from the top. Six by four and a half. I'll go four and 3/4 just to be on the safe side. And then we're just going to go back to the top [Music] like that. We will grab our fabric scissors and I'm going to cut this piece off. And we're going to see if it works. See how well it does. And then if it is perfect, then we will just take this and cut another piece identical to this. [Music] Okay. So, I'm going to set this to the side for just a second. I'm going to bring this back in. And y'all, this is pretty close to perfect. Let me see if I can Let me move it around to this side. I think this other side was just a little bit. Oh my god, I'm obsessed. I'm actually obsessed. Okay, so we know we need I mean, look how cute. Let me go here to here. Okay, sorry. I get a little too a little too crazy. Um, I also want to get this ribbon kind of out of the way. So, I'm going to cut this ribbon the same length as my first one. Get that out there. We are going to kind of put that right there. We're going to bring this fabric back in here. Let me get to a corner. A good corner. [Music] We'll just work over here where we were at, straight across to where we were. Now we have our two pieces that are going to go on the inside of our photo album. So, let's kind of arrange these how we want them. like that. I can't get over this. Part of me wants to say this is one of my favorites, but like they've all been so good so far, all of these crafts. Let us know in the comments. Like, have you been enjoying Glotober? What are you most excited about? Is there something specific you would like to see? Leave us a comment. Let us know your thoughts. Okay. So, because I'm going to be brushing this on, I don't think I'm going to use the um the nozzle that came with it. I think I'm just going to open up these brushes. [Music] And I do believe, now I've not done this, so we're just doing it all together. I'm just going to put quite a bit of this on there. And then kind of brush this on. Ooh. And brush this down here. Maybe just maybe I should have add the nozzle. Maybe brushing it is not the move. Maybe we will add the nozzle for the other side. Hey, I tried. We're trying new things. We're trying new things, guys. Okay. So, let me put this down. And I'm just going to press this. And what I'm hoping for is that this fabric glue just really seals everything together. You know what I mean? That's why I didn't want to go um I didn't necessarily want to go hot glue on this. I probably will still hot glue these edges a little bit just because they are you see this how this is let me turn it around so you can see like this right here or maybe maybe I'll do what I should have done from the beginning maybe oo maybe don't squeeze so hard don't squeeze as hard as I did because it does come out it doesn't stop coming out as The main thing upside down still coming out. Okay, that's fine. Okay, there's one side. Now, let's do this other side. Now, this I am going to squeeze pretty good because we need quite a bit through here. [Music] [Music] Now we'll get this piece laid down just like this. And I'm kind of spreading the glue under my fingers onto all of the fabric so that it really gets on there good. And now the only piece left we have is our middle piece. But I don't know if I want ribbon covering that or how I want to. Or is it going to make it too thick? I don't know. I kind of want to hold off on this middle piece because I don't think it looks terrible. It could be a little bit more finished looking. Maybe I will add ribbon here. I'm still going back and forth. I don't know because I want to see how well this closes. Oh my god, guys. Can we look at this? Look. And then you open it up and you have this. But we're not done. We're not done. We're still going to put um some HTV on this so that we can label our Christmas album. So, let's go ahead and hop over into Design Space and let's get our HTV portion set up. We're going to get it cut and then we're going to add our HTV to our photo album. One more quick thing we do need to do before we get into Design Space is we need to measure our photo album um to see our parameters as far as how large we can make our words. So, our photo album is going to be 6 and 3/4 by 5 and 1/4. So, let's hop into Design Space and we're going to make our guide for our photo album. 6 and 3/4 by 5 and 1/4. So, now that we are here in Design Space, first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to grab a shape. I'm going to grab the square. I'm going to unlock the size aspect ratio. And I said my height was 6 and 3/4 and our width was 5 and 1/4. So, here is going to be representation of our photo album. And the font that I'm going to be using today is going to be Noel Grace. So, I'm going to hop over to the Makers going to Learn website and I'm going to You can either search Noel Grace. It is currently right now on the um front page. Um it is a new font and I love it, especially for this project. So, I'm going to click the arrow pointing down to download a font from our website. You are then going to have to doubleclick that and install that font onto your computer for Cricut to be able to recognize it. So, it says a version of this one already exists, but I'm going to keep both. We're going to skip this one. So, now I should be able to go to Design Space, file or view, reload. We do want to save our project. And now it should recognize our new font that we have uploaded. So, I'm going to grab a text box, go to our system font, Noel grace here. Beautiful. And I think I want to make this I'm going to make it white. I think I'm going to use white as my HTV. And I want to make this Christmas 2025 because also I will say this, this is a very very thin font. So cutting it on HTV is a must. But even then, if you try to cut it and you're having issues, one thing that I suggest because although I am going to make this large enough to go across the whole front like this, it's still going to be kind of thin. If you want to, you can add an offset and add a 01 offset. We're going to see what that looks like. How much if the font is thicker? Okay. and it definitely is. So, I think I'm going to go with that offset of the font like this. And then I'm going to grab another text box. And we're going to do 2025. And I kind of want to put it there, but I'm still going to do it offset. So, I'm going to do a 0.01 offset. We're going to see what that looks like. I actually think that the 2025 I like better with the numbers. I like better without the offset. So, I'm going to keep it that like this. Change it to white. Yeah, I think that's still good. I think that's okay. I think I like that. And then select both of these and attach them together. And now I'm ready to cut my HTV. So, we're going to go to make it. We are going to mirror our vinyl. I should have got rid of the red square because that was just a guide. We're just going to go to continue. We're going to set this on everyday ironon. And now we're ready to load it into our machine. Oh my gosh, guys. What do you think? I am absolutely obsessed with this. Imagine getting this. If I were a host and I got this as a gift with a disposable camera for the event, I would be floored. This is such an outofthe- box, outside of the box thinking for a hostess gift. Not only that, you can do it for yourself. You could do it as a little craft night with your kids, grandkids, best friends, whatever. You can do this for your family members if you want to create something sentimental to really hold family pictures. There are so many ways you can utilize this and use this. I'm absolutely obsessed. I can't. And it doesn't even have to be Christmas themed. Imagine this as a baby shower gift or you give them like a disposal camera or you get pictures printed off for a baby book. I There are so many different things you can do with this. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. Now, one thing I do want to talk about is the trim. I just wanted to let you guys know, we got a half a yard of trim, and this is how much we have left. Um, so depending on the size of photo album you are using. I think you could probably do three 4x6 photo albums with about a yard. I don't this is not going to be enough to do another one. It would be enough to do one side. So I do think that a full yard would get would do three um photo albums if you wanted to add this trim. And as far as the fabric, we didn't use much at all. Our inside panels were like 4 and 1/2 by six or 4 by 6 and 1/2, I don't remember. Um, and then the outside we used very little um, as well. So, if you guys have liked this craft, make sure you hit that thumbs up button, subscribe to our channel, and hit that bell notification so that you can be notified every time we get crafty, especially for the month of October for Vlogtober. You don't want to miss anything. And if you think these crafts are good, you just wait until you see everything we've got planned for Christmas craft week. We have some of the best in the industry joining us. We have, I'd say, probably 25 plus crafts at this point. We have so many crafts we're doing. Plus, something else I've been forgetting to mention in all of our other videos is we have over $2,000 worth of giveaways. So, if you haven't signed up, click that first link down below, get signed up today. You're not going to want to miss it. Once again, you think we're going hard now, wait till you see Christmas craft week. It's going to be an event that you definitely don't want to miss. So, get signed up today. Be there or be square. And once again, subscribe to our channel. It's free. It's free. And so is Christmas craft week, just in case you didn't know. It is. It is going to be the Christmas event of the season. We are truly wanting you to have the best handmade holiday ever. And I cannot wait to see you guys there. We'll see you in the next one. Bye, guys.