Mini Book + Give-a-way as promised…;D

I was thinking of my friend Jeni who doesn't scrapbook and of the holidays coming up and it getting busy and also making handmade gifts...so I think this encompasses all three.

Here's a mini album...very easy to make...very fast...easily mass producible...easy for those who don't really scrapbook but want to look like they do...Jeni...but also great for us that do...something fun...a brag book...a gift or as I'm choosing to do...What I'm Thankful For...as it's Thanksgiving time and I'm in that mode.

Start with a 12 x 12 sheet of paper.  Draw dividing lines 3" x 3" so you should have a total of 16 boxes on your paper like so...

Cut the paper along the line and stop after cutting three blocks...stop short of cutting it into a strip.  Rotate the paper and start again...

When you are all done cutting your paper should look like this...

Start at one end of one corner of the paper and fold the paper along the lines accordion style.  When you get to the end of the row fold the square over onto the next row and start again.  A bone folder really helps to get the paper folded down and pressed nicely.  This will help later when gluing pages together.

When you get all done folding your paper will look like this...

To make the book neat and sturdy and more like a "book" you are going to want to glue some of the pages together.  If you fold it all up and act like it's a book you will see how the pages flow and where you are going to want to adhere certain pages together.  I used my tape runner to do this.  I'm sure any adhesive that you like to use would work.  When you get done with this stage your mini book should look like this...

Next cut a strip of ribbon 18" long.  Wrap it around the back of the book making sure that the ends of the ribbon are even and glue the ribbon to the front and back pages of the book.

For the covers I used cardstock and just cut 3" x 3" squares and glued them on front and back.  Then I just embellished the front.

Now...here's another fun thing...I found this freebie on Heidi Swapp's blog.  I printed out the sheet and am cutting out the tags and using them in the book.  The 'Thankful For...' and the 'Home is Where We are One' are both from Heidi Swapp.  So...another thing for those of you who don't scrapbook and don't want to invest any money...or maybe are on the fence about this...Jeni...;D  Or even those of us who do...and are saving money for Christmas...or just trying to save money in general...or just like something for free...heck yeah!  I'm making this super easy! ;D  And it will look cute too...love Heidi Swapp stuff!

Tomorrow I'll show you what I did on the inside!

Happy Monday!  And I'll post the give-a-way later this morning!

Also so very excited for Stories In Hand to be starting!!!  Yay!!!  And if you are STILL dragging your feet on this one...just checked Jessica's blog...she has reopened the registration for this class until midnight Monday Nov 10th!

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9:40am  So are you all ready to see the give-a-way?  Yay!  I'm so excited about it!  Corey was right...I should have kept it!  But no...I'm going to let one of you lucky ones out there get it!  Drum roll please....

It's a Making Memories Runaway Tote!  Now see...didn't I tell you it was a good give-a-way!!!! ;D

In order to put your name in for this please leave a comment either about the mini book if you are going to make one and what you are going to do with it, ie a gift or for yourself...OR...comment on a Thanksgiving tradition that you might have...if you get together with certain friends every year or if you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on tv or whatever you do!  I'll pick a random winner in a few days!  Good luck!

7 Responses

  1. I am the only craft one, in my group of friends and family. So i try to come up with some thing for everyone to take part in since we are all together at thanksgiving. One year, i had a white table clothe that everyone wrote what they were thankful for, on. It was fun b/c it felt like you were being bad, writing on the table clothe. This year, on the back side of each name card at the table with be a question. And after everyone is done eating, we will go around the table and chat about our questions. (what are you thankful for? whats your favorite thanksgiving memory?) I can't wait!!
  2. kristine
    I love the idea. I'm going to use it for gifts for Christmas with different themes. I've been racking my brain for gift ideas. Thanks to my friend, Jill, who passed this site on to me.
  3. Hi Jen-I am catching up on Scrapbook Etc. and found nice messages from you and was excited to see your blog! It looks wonderful!!! I love the mini book and am planning on doing a make and take with it for my next meeting. Thanks a bunch!!!
  4. Jill
    ok. So this probably isn't fair. But Thanksgiving involves having you and your family come to our house, pretty much every year since you've lived here except when Ryan was sick. And you know our tradition from the south is Fried Turkey. And I so want to make a mini album and since I will be sitting across from you this weekend at the crop i will bring my lapttop as not to bug you to much, but can i bribe you with some twizzlers? Again you r so creative and i feel so inspired. And for all of you reading this out there Jen is an awesome friend to have.
  5. Jeni
    OMIGOSH where are you finding these fabulous things!? That's gorgeous! I just printed off my Jessica S. instructions, I'm so excited that I'm actually doing this! I just turned my little 1 1/2 inch circle thingy upside down to figure out the best way to do this...I feel like after Richard was born...here's all this great stuff, but now, what do I do with it!? I'm a virgin scrapbooker! Yikes! Anyway....we're having Thanksgiving at our house this year. Since Dave's parents passed away he and one of his sisters have alternated years. This little book may be a really cool take home gift that the boys and I could make for everyone, but I may do a scaled down version. It reminds me of the little books that you did for Mother's Day (?) at church one year..I still have mine. (Oh, by the way, I showed off the cd binder at Sunday School the other day...Barb wants to know where you got the binder gizmo. She's pregnant again! 4 ish months now.) Anyway, again, the boys and I try to make some crafty item for everyone, but now that they're getting older it may be just me doing something while they watch football....jeez!
  6. Awesome mini book...I may have to try that. :) And that giveaway is fabulous!!! Our Thanksgiving traditions including going to my parents house. Having donuts and coffee for breakfast. Watching the parade. Then we women cook and the men watch football (I know...it's horrible). I love our Thanksgiving meal...can't wait for Thanksgiving to get here. :)
  7. So, the Thanksgiving tradition we have here, is going Honey Baked Ham for their fabulous Smoked Turkey... it's all done I just have to pop it in the oven for 2 hours and this way I can focus on all the other goodies for the dinner. Everyone generally comes to our house, we feast, watch football and feast some more... and the next day I make turkey pot pies from the left over turkey... I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, having family over and I love that everyone comes to our house and we don't have to fight traffic (that's my selfish-side of Thanksgiving coming out). tee hee giggle giggle!