Seasons of Life Album with Authentique

Good morning, Authentique Fans! I have a fun project to share! This project has been in the works for weeks, and with one thing and another, it has taken me forever to finish it! 

I had so many mishaps during construction of this lovely book, plus I am really struggling with my arthritis right now...which means...unfortunately, there is not a tutorial. I did a mash up of a few other books that I have made, for which there ARE tutorials, that I hope you can reverse engineer this if you really want to make it! I do hope you can use this project as inspiration for your own creation! 

When Authentique released the Calendar Collection I knew I wanted to make a seasons album with it! I planned out my project to have four section, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. I wanted to make sure to highlight each month within the sections.

This is a perfect "year in review" album and would make a wonderful gift! 

The album is 10" tall, 8" wide, with a 2" spine. This is very large "mini," and quite heavy! You need a lot of cardstock for this book. I used all of a 25 pack of 12" x 12" cardstock and part of another. I confess I did not keep track of exactly how many sheets...but it's a lot! 

I chose the lovely blue and yellow plaid from the June paper set to use for the cover. Blue is one of my favorite colors, and I think it is so pretty with the soft yellow. 

If you wish to see every page, pull out, flip, pocket, and insert, please view the walk-through video below.

Thanks for watching!

I added some flowers, sticker letters (seasons of life) and an "antique" knob to the front cover. I just cannot stop looking at this beauty as it sits on my desk!

The inside front cover has a waterfall element, a small pocket for a few tags, then a large pocket for a large photo mat. I highlight the plaids from the collection throughout. 

To make this album you need the Complete 48 Sheet Calendar Collection - each month has four double-sided papers. You will also need the Patterns and Plaids pad (there are two double-sided sheets for each month). 

This is more than enough paper to make the album. However, I love to mix in older collections and used a bit from these: Clover, Dublin, Cottontail, Endless, Liberty, Studious, Scholastic, Twilight, Rejoice, and Snowfall. This is the perfect album to make if you want to use up some of those older papers!.

Each seasonal section has three page configurations, repeated for each season. I started with Spring and the March section. I created a tall skinny pocket flap which contains a tall photo mat.

The back of the flap contains a tuck spot, then the next page has a 5" x 7" photo mat and a decorative border. 

The back of the photo mat contains a monthly calendar. The next page begins the next monthly section, in this case April. 

There is a pocket containing a large photo mat, a small photo mat, and a tag. One side of the large photo mat contains the calendar cut-apart.

The back of the pocket page is for the next month, May and contains the calendar and space for a photo and a cut-apart image. There is a 7" x 5" photo mat flap as well. 

The flap closes and there is space for a 6" x 4" photo or for a cut-apart image as shown here.

Then the page set repeats for Summer (June, July, August). 

There are so many images and prints in this collection, plus you can purchase full pads of the Images, Patterns, Sentiments, and Solids! There are also 12" x 12" and 8" x 8" blank calendar pages available! 

I had fun choosing which images to use and thinking about how to combine all the plaids and solids.  

The Fall set is next - September, October, November. 

Then Winter is last - December, January, February. 

As I got close to the end of the project I found myself dreaming of doing another project with this amazing paper! It really is so lovely, and it matches so well with many of the other collections. 

I matched the inside back cover with the February page, mostly because I adore all the pink! The little image on the right side is actually from the May paper set! Which shows that you can also mix and match within the Calendar Collection!

The small flap on the back cover opens to reveal another large photo mat and a large pocket. I chose prints from the Endless Collection for the inside covers. It has a nice spring/summer feel that works very well with the Calendar Collection.

Make sure to view the walk-through video above to see all the bells and whistles!

Thanks for looking!

Authentique Supplies Used:
Complete 48 Sheet Calendar Collection
Calendar Patterns and Plaids pad 
Endless Collection
Genuine Sticker Elements (letter stickers - retired)

A few bits from these collections:
Dublin Collection
Clover Collection (retired)
Cottontail Collection
Liberty Collection
Scholastic Collection
Studious Collection (retired)
Twilight Collection
Rejoice Collection
Snowfall Collection

Additional Supplies Used:   
Paper flowers: Graphic 45 Bon Voyage and French Blue, Wild Orchid Crafts
Pearls: Recollections
Knob: craft supply
Cardstock: WorldWin Midnight
Tags: Graphic 45 Regular and Square
Dies: Graphic 45 Regular and Square Tags, Spellbinders circles 
Chipboard: Grafix
Magnets: Basic Grey
Border punch: Fiskars
White gel pen: Gelly Roll
Adhesive: ATG tape, hot glue, white glue, Scor-tape, foam tape