Z Fold Mini Prototype page

First and foremost, thank you Laura at Following the Paper Trail for this idea.  Laura used a coin envelope and a medium sized office envelope with a clasp to make her album.  I tried this and succeeded, but I didn't like how the envelopes showed. (Enter trash bin).  SO, I played around with a 12" square of paper and worked out several folding templates.
I finally settled on this one.

1.  On one side score the paper at 2 1/2", 8 1/2", and 11 3/4".
2.  Turn the paper 1/4 turn.
3.  Score the paper at  5 7/8" and 11 3/4".

You end up with a 2 1/2" flap, a 6" center, and a 3 1/2" flap (this replaces the coin envelope).
I have a Z-fold album 95% finished, but I wanted to share my first prototype.  The folds and cuts don't show in this pictures, but when I post the "It's Elementary..." mini I will include how I folded and cut the page to create pockets in a how-to photo group.

This was my first experimental page.  Since this page I've changed how I taped the page together so the seams don't show.  The beige strip is the binding tab and that is cut from a separate paper and added after the folding and taping to the album page is complete.

The first flap is open from top to bottom on the right side.  Laura used brads to divide this into two pockets.  I also did this.  You could leave it at one pocket, but the depth is only 2" and you may be limited as to what wouldn't fall out when you turn the page.

The back side of this has a small mat for journaling or pictures.

The center section on the front is a pocket.  The section measures 5 7/8" by 5 7/8" and holds a 5.5" by 5.5" tag (you can see the red tag barley sticking out).  Plus there is a 5 1/2" by 5 1/2" mat on the outside of the pocket.

 Here's the tag.  I have made this tag as a small booklet of 2-4 pages and it fits just fine.

The second flap is a 3 1/2" pocket that opens at the top.  I have a 3" mat on this flap.  Since this is one page of a Christmas Mini I thought this cardinal worked out really nicely.

 The pocket holds 2 1/2" x 5 1/2"  tag.

The back side of the flap also has a 2 1/2" by 5 1/2" mat.  The pocket has two tags inside it.  One faces each side of the flap.

The last part of the page is a 5 7/8" by 5 7/8" section with no pockets.  I placed a large size mat (In this case another Christmas paper that has a tree and presents.   The binding strip is a 5" by 5 1/2" strip that is folded in half and edge punched (EK Success Punch) and has binding holes for rings punched into the folded edge.  You could use any binding punch style. The strip is added to the page with Scor Tape.

Again, thank you Laura.  I tried to find a direct link on her blog to the Z fold mini, but I couldn't.  I think she has a U stream video on it though.  I'll keep looking and try to connect directly.

The second prototype is a "Frame Yourself" Mini.  I have all the pages cut and glued and the frames cut, but that's as far as I've gotten on that one.  Here is a few pictures of the pages.  This paper is from DCWV Mia Casa glossy paper stack.  There are some really wild papers in the stack.  It wasn't easy to tone them down much.  The picture frames are from tag cuts on the Picturesque cartridge.  I used grommets instead of brads on the front flaps of all the pages as well as on the tags.

Both of these minis should be up some time in the next two weeks.  The "It's Elementary..." mini (a school mini album for my grandson's elementary school should be up next week.

Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know what you think.
Sue