Utter newbie here, but my daughters (11 & 13) and I (46) are starting books for our upcoming spring break. 

Quick question - is it common for the paper edges at the spine to split?  (The 80# cardstock).  Am I using too much force to bend the cover of the album? not enough force?  or is it a "calm down newbie that's what happens" thing?

Also - I have a hard time following a tutorial exactly, so I love that I can watch a few and add bits and pieces from one album/folio into another.  I'm totally geeking out right now.

Hi everyone. I am so excited to have found Frances’ YouTube channel and joined this group. I am a retired RN and love having time to do my crafting. I live in Beaumont California with the love of my life, husband Tim.  I have been making cards for a long time and just recently got interested in making folios and albums. I am hooked. Frances, I love your tutorials. I love how much you love what you’re are doing. Your teaching has improved my craft a lot. Thanks so much. I am working on the album Today. I hope to post picts eventually. There are so many of your classes I want to do. Being retired doesn’t mean you are not busy. 😵‍💫

Hi my name is Char, short for Charlotte, and I'm a 71 (almost 72) y.o. retiree, mom, grandma and beginning crafter who lives in Delaware.

I've been "studying" crafting (cards and mini albums) for several years now (this means watching lots of YT videos and collecting supplies for that "start" day, which seems to be starting now...). Seriously, though, I have collected a ridiculous amounts of stamps, dies and PAPER! I actually had a plan in mind when I got most of this stuff - retirement. Well retirement happened in April and I'm still afraid of just digging in!

The other distraction that I fell in love with recently is AI image generation and what I hope / plan to do is start creating my own digital papers. I have all of the necessary tools except for faith! But I'll get there.

Now, however, I have grandchildren in college and I want to do memory books for them to fill with their photos and general memorabilia and I have one of Francés' books that I plan to use for just this purpose. Double Waterfall Folio. 

Anyway, that's probably way more than you wanted to know but thanks for reading!

Take care ... Char

I guess I’m in the right spot