Technique Tuesday at BOAF

Hello there Chickies! Today I have a super easy & fun miniBook tutorial for you. You could feasibly put it together with just three pieces of double sided cardstock (like those found in March's kits) and a sewing machine or a good strong adhesive. I took the easy way out, but would suggest using a sewing machine to bind yours. I've made many of these minis over the years and I like the look of the sewn ones the best. Especially when using thickerpapers like those in the March kit.

I cut 7 pieces of paper at 4 by 12. Don't ask me why 7, it just worked best for MY project. It's best to work in even numbers. I arranged them the way I would like to see them in my mini... Note the top one will be both your cover and last page.

 

I arranged them in pairs (except for my odd one). It's best to work in pairs whether you end up sewing your seam or using paper to create your binding. It decreases the bulk some AND keeps things lined up better...

 

Next I cut 4 by 2 inch pieces of paper to bind each of my pairs together. (If you want to sew, all you have to do is run your machine right down the center of the whole stack.) I creased them in the center. You can see one of these pieces below. It is the coffee cup piece. In this picture I am about to attach the two pieces (I used my xyron to make the binder pieces sticky, you can use your favorite strong adhesive) together in my first pair using a contrasting piece of 4 by 2 paper.

 

Up next you can see the three pairs adhered to themselves, you now have three pairs put together (plus my one random extra, lol). ..

The next step is putting the three pairs togeher by adding the seam pieces to the back of each set. Like so...

I'll be honest, once I had it all together, the right edge was uneven. Adding the binder pieces in really added to the bulk of my book. so, I just trimmed the edge even with my cutter. This is where pulling out your sewing machine would have lended itself to much quicker and initially tidier project, lol.

Now, comes the fun part. Decorating it and adding in your photos and words.
I had fun adding in pictures from my husband's five deployments (and counting). I just love having all of these photos together in one place. It's crazy to see how our family has grown. P.s, yes, you can see my husband with a newborn in the first two homecomings, because I gave birth during both of those deployments. Not sure how I survived that. Either time.
     

 

To keep my rather chunky miniBook contained, I attached a rosette brad to the front and wrapped some pretty silver floss around the book ala manilla envelope style. The finished project... Now, I'm ready to start a new one to contain the next chapter...