Mini-albums make fantastic little coffee table books, and are great gifts. I find they're a nice way to capture an element of your life that requires more than one page in an album, but less than an entire album of its own.

You can buy small scrapbook albums in a variety of shapes and sizes or you can easily make your own. I've done both and each has its own appeal.

Store-bought Mini-Albums
These are nice because they'll often come with page protectors available in the size of the pages. Whether you choose 7 x 7, 8 x 8, 5 x 7, or any other size, a benefit of these store bought albums is that you don't have to worry about cutting the pages, figuring out how to bind them, or how to protect the pages. You just have to worry about filling the pages!

Handmade Mini-Albums
An easy handmade mini-album can be made very quickly in just a few steps:

1. Cut sheets of 12 x 12 cardstock in half to create 12 x 6 sheets of paper. You can cut as many sheets as you'd like depending on how big your album needs to be. Each sheet of 12 x 6 will make up 4 pages in your mini-album.
   
   
2. Fold each sheet in half to create 6 x 6 pages.
   
   
3. Lay the folded sheets inside of each other to create a book. You will notice that the inside pages stick out farther than the outside pages. This can be fixed easily.
   
   
4. Hold the closed album tightly to a cutting surface and place a metal ruler along the outside edge of the top page. Using a sharp craft knife, cut along the ruler to remove the protruding parts of the inside pages to make the edges of the album even.
   
   
5. I recommend decorating each of the pages at this point, and binding the album after it has been finished. This makes managing the pages much easier as you work.
   
   
6. To bind the album, put all of the pages together and lay them flat, so you are looking at the center two pages of the album. Using a long, thick needle, make two holes in the crease of the fold that go all the way through each of the pages. These small holes in each page will serve as "marks" so that you'll know where to punch the larger holes for your ribbon or string to bind the book.
   
   
7. Punch small holes in each of the pages where your needle mark is.
   
   
8. Assemble the pages again and thread ribbon, string, rope, or fibers through the two holes to bind the book.

Ideas for Mini-Album Themes

Family Tree
Learning Numbers
Wedding Highlights
Our Engagement Story
10 Reasons Why I ___________
Our Vacation
Things I like
What a Mother/Father/Sister/Friend/Grandparent/etc. Means to Me
Favorite Quotes
Lessons Learned