This idea is great for travel memories, however in this post, it is being presented to you as a perfect guy friendly mini album scrapbook!

Have you ever noticed how most guys like maps? Why, I’m not sure, because we all know that many of them don’t like to ask for directions or read instructions! Maybe it’s all that pirate play and treasure maps. All kidding aside, maps are just cool. Whether it is used to plan a new adventure, look at places you’ve been or plan to go with a new perspective, or just get a look at a part of the world you may never plan to visit! Why not use a map as a starting place to make a guy friendly mini-album?

Many of you have seen the 1 sheet mini album that I shared for a Mother’s Day idea. At first, I thought about creating something like that, on a larger scale, using a travel map. That would be a great idea! However, I decided to give a twist to that idea, and create something that wouldn’t be presented completed, but be a place where a guy could tuck things away and basically save some memorabilia in a way that looks more masculine! Okay, it could also be a sneaky way to get the guys help us do some scrapbooking, but don’t tell them that! That could ruin the fun!

Once you create the basic structure for this, just ink the edges, add some tags, perhaps some matting to add some pictures, and perhaps throw in some Washi tape and a tiny stapler with your gift.  Make it easy for your guy to just stick in ticket stubs from the ball game, a concert, a few photos of their fishing trip… or whatever they want! Honestly, sometimes I’m surprised by what I see the guys saving until they decide it is just trash and then they’ll toss it. If they had something to save it in, it could be a nice way to save a few mementos of their adventures.

As you prepare this mini-album, keep in mind that it needs to be useful but simple.

First, you’ll need to find a map; the kind that seems like it has a million folds.

Travel Map

Next, you’ll need to decide which side you want to see inside your album, because they may be very different on each side. The map I used had much more “map” on one side than it did on the other.

Decide which side you will use for the inside. Side 1.

Decide which side you will use for the inside. Side 2.

Now, we’ve got to decide how to fold it, and if you need the whole piece of paper!  I decided that I would cut off part of the map, and fold a portion of it to the back, to add more stability.

I cut off the top 6 inches of this map.

I saved this piece to use the map on the back of it.

After cutting off the top 6 inches, you can begin to fold it. Fold the top over the back, out of site. Fold the bottom as shown, for the pocket areas that will be along the bottom edge.

Begin folding to create the main structure for the mini-album.

After folding, adhere the portion you fold over from the top over to the back. Do not adhere any of the pocket areas at this point.

How many pages your album has, will depend a lot on the size of the map. This map is large enough to allow six page sections, in 3 sections of a double layout. Each page would be 4.5 inches wide. I used a score board to score at 4.5 inches, and 9 inches, and had folded it in half to get the middle score line at 13 inches. I then score it on the score board to get a good score at the 13 inch mark. Then I rotated it to again score on the 4.5 and 9 inch markings, which gave me my scoring across the entire map.

At this point, the edges got inked and the pockets completed by snipping and folding and adding some eyelets to some of them. Once you are happy with the pockets, add a little bit of adhesive along the edges between them, to separate them and adhere them to the base.

I made some tags, and used that strip of the map which was cut off to create some little envelopes. Add whatever you’d like! Since I was making this one guy-friendly, I kept it really simple and didn’t add a lot of embellishments because I didn’t figure my guy would use it if I did!

Instead of journaling tags, I found some washi tape that reminded me of duct tape and added some pieces around that could be written on for dates. (You may want to include the roll with the gift.) I’ll be adding more to this, but this give you the idea.

Gray washi tape for journaling tags.

A piece of cardstock is used for the cover, and a 1/2 inch section was scored for the spine of the album.

Score a 1/2 inch section for the spine of the cover.

When you adhere the cover do NOT adhere the spine area. By leaving this section free, you allow the needed movement of the album. You can also see that the “pages” are not adhered to the back of each other, either. If adhered to the back of each other, it makes it too tight to move freely.

Do NOT adhere the spine to the map.

Now, the cover…..
I really struggled with an idea for the cover, and you may look at this and say to yourself, “I can tell!”  Yes, I know it seems anticlimactic. However, I really felt that what I put on the front was still going to be important as to whether my guy would really use it! I finally just decided to stamp on a tag with Versamark ink for a tone on tone look, and hand write “fun places” on it. This may still be a work in progress for the cover. I haven’t decided whether to add anything to tie it up to keep it closed. If I make any changes, I’ll be back and let you know!

Tag for the front cover.

Let me know if you’d like to have me do a video of the basic structure of this!  If you make one of these, we’d love to know and see it! You can link it up here in the comments or come over and share it on the Artful Adventures Facebook Group!