Hello, SaraL here with a new how-to on this relaxing (and surprisingly sunny) Spring Bank Holiday in the UK!

I hope you all enjoyed the fabulous sales over the iNSD weekend, and are ready to play with some of your new purchases

Whether you are new to hybrid or not, I want to take today’s post to show you one of Heather’s newest DIY templates:  the MOM Album - especially relevant now as many countries are going to be celebrating Mother’s Day very soon!  Do you prefer to call your mother MUM?  Not a problem! I asked (well, pestered) Heather for a ‘u’ template especially for us, and I have it here today for you to grab!

Download your ‘U’ TEMPLATE here!

If you are in the UK or another country who have already celebrated Mothering Sunday, try using this template for a extra special layered Birthday card or simply as a general ‘hello, here are some photo’s of your grandson to make you smile’ kind-of-mini album, like me

This is what I made: 

…and this is the delightfully happy Burst of Sunshine digital scrapbooking kit I used:

 All of Heather’s templates come with nice, straightforward instructions. If you’re new to making anything hybrid, and you have ever used a standard layout template, then trust me, you can definitely use a hybrid template – the difference is that you actually print the hybrid one out & play with it! So here’s how to make the album.

Step 1: Open your template and decorate it to your hearts content. Perhaps plan if you’d like any of the images printed separately for layering onto the finished card later – like I have done with the butterflies:

Note: If you plan for the back of the album to be printed with something other than a pretty background paper, then you need to copy the background layer template, rotate it 180 degrees & then add your decor too.

Step 2:  Print everything (onto heavy weight paper, card etc) and cut it all out.

Step 3: Stick the coordinating fronts & backs together with your preferred adhesive – I used glue dots this time.  Trim any white bits that may show so everything is neat & tidy

Step 4: Bind your album together.  I punched holes into mine & threaded ribbon through. Alternatively, you could use a Bind-It-All machine, a super strong sewing machine, a key ring or simply glue!

Step 5: Finishing touches: add any embellishments you like to your album.  This is when I adhered the butterflies, paper flowers etc to my album.

…and there you have it!  A unique (and rather special) homemade mini album, for one of the most important people in the world:

Running out of time?  No need to worry, as Heather has a ready-to-go Mother’s Day printable, which is available separately here in her store. All you need to do is add photos, print, cut, stick & bind together.  I promise it takes significantly less time & resources than you may worry it does.  Trust me

Again, prefer to say Mum than, Mom?  Simply download your printable ready-to-go ‘U’ here

One more idea for today, using that extra special ‘u’ template!  Take a look at my ‘I*heart*U’ mini album, which I actually intend to give as a layered anniversary card to my husband:

I used Love Is… by Heather to decorate the template, which was made in exactly the same way as described above, but this time I reduced the size (for no particular reason, other than I wanted to fit all the printout onto one piece of card and save ink!).  On the reverse of each page, I used a coordinating background paper overlaid with words from a favourite song…  and I have to say I rather proud of it.

The occasions for using for Heather’s growing collection of mini album templates are endless:  just use a kit relevant to the event, play & have fun!

Until next month – and don’t forget Mother’s Day!!!

SaraL