Mini Book Tutorial

Today’s tutorial is on a mini accordion album – it’s a real quick one, you could probably make the entire thing in 30 minutes.  : )

You can see photos of my entire finished album right at the end of the tutorial.

What you need:

– 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock

– patterned paper

– scoring blade

– inks and embellishments

– twine

1. Start by cutting your cardstock into 3 equal strips measuring 4 x 12″

2. Pop your scoring blade in and score each strip at 3, 6 and 9″

3. Fold the creases accordion style: fold one piece to the back, the next to the front, etc. Then glue the two strips together as shown in the above photo. If you’d like more pages, go ahead and glue the third strip on as well.

4. Now cut your pages out of patterned paper. Measurements are 2.75 x 3.75″. Ink the edges if you desire. (I used Colorbox Dark Brown Ink). Glue your pages onto the album.

5. Cut a strip of cardstock measuring 7.5 inches. Wrap this around the middle of your album. If it overlaps in the front too much, trim a bit off.  I ripped the edges of mine.

6. Glue a piece of twine to the strip on the backside of the album.

7. Tie the twine at the front of the album. Make it tight enough that it won’t fall off but not so tight that you can’t wiggle the middle band off the mini book without untying it.

8. You should be able to just slip it right off now.

9. Now have fun embellishing your book!  A tip: – try not to make the book too bulky as you won’t be able to close it with the band you just made.

You can use any theme at all for this kind of album- it’s so versatile!

Here is my completed album:

Remember that you don’t always have to add photos to your mini books, sometimes journaling is all you need. My book turned out to be some Reflections about how life doesn’t always turn out the way you expect it too. There are bumps in the road but also some unexpected surprises.

Here is a challenge for you if you’re up for it: Create your own little book of “Deep Thoughts”. Were there some things you expected to happen in your life that didn’t? What were some of the surprises?

If you do end up making one of these mini books, I’d love to see it! please leave a link to where it can be seen : )

Lastly, I want to share this cute photo of Oscar. I took it the other day and completely forgot about it, then when I was downloading the photos for the tutorial this morning, I found this little gem amongst them. I love it when that happens! The photo is a bit bright as he was sitting in the sun – but it was one of those moments where I had to rush to get the camera before he moved.

He sits like this a lot – it’s hilarious. Usually he moves though before I’m able to snap a photo of it. Geez, I can’t believe I’m not going to get to see this cute guy for an entire year (and Gracie too)…. (I won’t get any time off from school until next summer and it will just be for 1 week). I will miss them so much…. I can’t think about it right now cause it makes me feel sick : (