Sending Mini Books As Christmas Gifts

 Hello!!

Lisa here. I hope you are well and looking forward to Christmas.

I have a little Christmas gift idea for you today.

You may have seen this mini book as I started making it last month.

If you missed it, here's part 1 of the video. 

I wanted to finish the book and add pockets, trimming, journaling and photos ready to gift to my Mum.

Here's the second part of this video, there's a full flip through at the end so you can see the completed gift.

I used the Say Cheese Classic Mouse Collection fro, Simple Stories, which you can see here.

I added pom pom trims to the edge of some of the pages with a hot glue gun.

 

The papers are so fun and make creating a mini book so easy.

I cute the bottom piece which has the word 'photo' and used a corner punch to round the corners and popped it so it peeps out. 

I love how fun this gift is.

And it's full of photos and memories.

I really recommend making a mini book as a gift.

They make such a special and personalised treat for someone. 

I hope you like this idea.

Lisa x

Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Yuletide - Seasons Greetings Tag Book

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Papermaze blog.

It's Claire here with you today, and for this blog post, I have something slightly different.

In every Simple Stories collection, there's usually a sheet of tags, and the Simple Vintage Yuletide collection is no exception.  They are exquisite!! 

I was so taken with them, that this month I wanted to make a feature of them and so decided to make a tag book.

I typically have lots of photos over the festive season, but not all of them warrant a full 12x12 scrapbook page. So, I decided to make this tag book to capture some of the smaller, more intimate moments that all help to build that wonderful Christmas spirit during the holiday season.

Selecting several tags from the Tag Elements paper, I made sure to include some blank space for journaling, and some more graphical tags, as well as some that I could add extra embellishments to. As it's a festive project, I've added gold and red eyelets from my stash to each tag.

For my front cover, I kept it fairly simple. opting for one of the sentiments from the Bits & Pieces pack, offset against some small gold Nuvo Drops to add that extra touch of festive magic and sparkle. 

On the reverse, I added a small photo and a sentiment from the Foam Stickers and a small star from the Sentiment Bits & Pieces.

Next, I added pockets to two tags, using a small piece of the 2x2/4x4 Elements Paper.

This was really easy to do, adhering each piece in place with strong red line tape along each outer edge. These pockets are great for holding little journaling notes, photos or gift messages from the big day. Again I embellished with some Foam Stickers and Bits & Pieces, adding red Nuvo Drops around the edge of each pocket to bring in an extra pop of colour.

The Joy and Ticket inserts are from the Bits & Pieces and Sentiments Bits & Pieces packs.

I was enjoying the interactive elements of these tags, so after making the pockets, I added a small flap to the next, enabling it to open like a book by adhering in place with red line tape. I created the flap with a strip of paper from the 4x6 Elements paper, embellishing with a fussy cut Santa from the 2x2/4x4 Elements paper and Yuletide Bits & Pieces.

Inside, you can slot extra photographs, held in place by the edge of the striped paper that folds around the tag.

To make sure I had space for journaling, I chose two plain tags, adding just a few Nuvo Drops to create a framed border and banners from the Bits & Pieces and Sentiment Bits & Pieces packs.

On the back of the 25 tag, I created a feature photo from the big day itself - tracing around the tag and adhering my photo to it - trimming the edge to make sure it fit exactly to the tag.

A few Foam Stickers was all that was needed to finish this tag as I wanted the photo to shine.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog post and it's given you some extra inspiration for how you may document those precious little moments and smaller stories that make up the joy of the season.

I'll be back later this month with some more projects with this stunning collection. In the meantime you can check it out in full here.

Until then, happy scrapping!

Claire x

@scrappysoulmate

Mini Books Make The Best Gifts

 Yes they do!!

Hi, Lisa here.

I've started making Christmas gifts. Have you?

I love making gifts. I think it's such a special thing to do for someone.

We went to Disneyworld as a family last month, so I thought it would be really nice to make a mini book for my Mum as a Christmas gift and then fill it with photos.

I'm using some pieces from this collection here.

It's such an easy way to make a mini book.

I used this piece here for the front and back cover sticking them on cardboard for extra strength.

I then cut my papers to size, a little smaller than the covers.

And I put them in order.

Then using the Cinch Binder I pieced them together with the wires.

I did create some flips and pockets and I used these cute stickers here too.

I will be printing off some photos to add and decorating it, so that will be in a new video.

If you would like to check out this video and see it being made, it's here. 

I hope this has inspired you to make some Christmas gifts too.

Using a collection like this makes it so quick and easy.

Have fun.

Lisa x

Retro Summer - Ephemera mini album

Hello again, I am back again with another project using my new favourite Simple Stories Retro Summer.  This collection is a mix of vintage seaside signs and gorgeous ice cream themes.  

I started with the Retro Sign Bits and knew immediately I had to do something with these gorgeous pieces of ephemera.  This pack consists of 19 cardstock die cut ephemera signs of varied sizes.  I used the larger pieces (approx. 21/2" x 31/2") to make a mini album.

I used a piece of bright pink acetate for the covers and used my crop-o-dile to punch holes into it and to fit some eyelets.  I then used a lot of the stickers from the sticker book, ephemera pieces and even pieces from the element stickers to create the cover.  I've learned to layer items and not to worry that you may not be able to see the whole sticker or whole piece of ephemera.  This has enabled me to create a layered effect on the cover.

The ephemera is blank on the back so I backed the ephemera with papers from the collection to add a little more colour.

On this page I couldn't resist making a shaker, I added white foam tape (which I know you can see) and a piece of acetate to make a simple shaker.  I rather liked the look of the foam tape as it looked a bit like a border and bit like the outside of a swimming pool. 

On the reverse I kept with the swimming pool theme and, using tag stickers, added a swimming pool piece of ephemera from the Bits and Pieces pack and made a little flip to add a little interest.

I continued to decorate the pages with trim and ribbon to add some bulk and who doesn't like pom pom trim!

On this page I used two stickers from the sticker book to again create a little flip.  I love finding different uses for the stickers that perhaps wouldn't be my first choice to make it onto a project.

I have loved how this little project turned out and I hope you enjoyed it too.  Ephemera is not always the side dish it can used as the main course too!  Join me next month for Christmas in July!!!

A Mini Book Inside A Mini Book

Hi, Lisa here.

I thought this was a good idea.

To create a mini book to go inside my mini book.

I made a journal from a Little Golden Book some time ago and I've been loving documenting our Disney trips.

This time though I thought I'd make a mini book and then stick it in.

I'm using the Storyteller collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio.

It's so perfect for telling all your stories.

I do have a video if you'd like to watch it come together, the video is here.

This was a great way to be able to include lots of extra photos and journaling.

Lots of pieces to flip up and out.

I used a combination of the 12x12 papers, the stickers, the die cuts and some extra alpha stickers.

Things like adding the oval die cut frame over my photo makes such a difference.

And I think these puffy stickers from Rosie's Studio could be my all time favourite alphas.

Aren't they fab?!

Making this kind of interactive page makes me so happy. I love going through all the flips at the end when it's finishes.

I love the little sticker word strips from the sticker sheet. They really add the finishing touches to a page.   

If you struggle with journaling, using these kinds of card from the 12x12 sheet really help. It's so much easier jotting down a few lines than feeling overwhelmed with a big space to journal on. 

I've had so much fun creating this in my journal.

I love how happy and bright this collection is and it goes so well with my journaling style.

I can't wait to use the leftovers for my next project now : )

Hope you like it too.

Lisa x

Echo Park ~ Magical Birthday Boy #2

 Hi all, it’s Anna here, happy Friday! The days are getting longer and the sun is starting to shine, phew! It’s been a long winter, but scrapbooking has certainly helped me through it! 

With my DT kit this month I have been playing with the Echo Park Magical Birthday Boy collection, you can find the collection in the shop here. 

Today I’m going to share two layouts with you. But first, here are some direct links to the supplies that I have used for these pages. 

Birthday Fun, Make a Wish, Bazzill Matchmaker Pack (cardstock), Let’s Party, Tags, Element Stickers, Stix2 3D foam pads , Thickers, Nuvo Drops, Bazzill cardstock scraps, twine, doodlebug alphas. 

For my first layout I used the red bazzill cardstock from the matchmaker pack as my base. I then used a Paige Evans floral Mickey cut file as the main feature on my layout. This took a long time to back! I used a selection of scraps of different coloured coordinating cardstock. The collection doesn’t feature any pink, purple or dark blue, but I wanted to incorporate these colours to match my photo. So I used these colours in my cutfile to make it work. I also used some vellum and glitter cardstock, as well as patterned papers from the collection to back the cutfile. I added some Nuvo drops around the edges of the flowers. I placed this to the left of my layout and trimmed off the edge. 

I had a few photos of my 30th birthday cake that I wanted to include, it was Disney themed and decorated beautifully, with lots of little details. But to add them all on the page itself would’ve been far too much, as the cutfile is really quite busy. So I made a mini book, which just tucks in behind the main photograph - I used some 3D foam pads behind the main photo to create a space for the mini book to slot in. I made this by trimming a strip of Let’s Party paper and scoring two measured equal sections wide enough for my photos. This also allowed me to add in some journaling. 

To the left of my layout I added just a few of the element stickers and that’s all that was really needed. 

Moving on to my second layout for today...

I used the blue cardstock from the matchmaker pack for my base. For this layout I used some pictures from a Disney party that we had for my son’s 3rd birthday, this paper collection was perfect for this! 

I used a strip of Let’s Party patterned paper behind a large ‘Disney’ title. I used one of the tags from the ‘tags’ paper for a journaling spot. 

Something was missing at the top right hand corner so I ripped a tear at the top of the paper and backed it with the make a wish patterned paper, along with some element stickers. 

To finish, I added some more element stickers around the layout. 

Thanks so much for looking, I have one more layout to share with you using this collection, so I will be back with that soon! 

Have a great weekend! 

Anna 

X

@adisneycraftylifewithanna 

Simple Stories - Heart - Mini Book

Hello, Lisa here with another mini book. I do love a mini book, you may have noticed : )

I'm using the Simple Stories collection Heart, which you can view/buy here.

I do also have a process video of this book being made which you can watch here.

I started by choosing which papers I wanted to use from this collecting and folding them over and cutting down to create my pages.
I also cut up the elements pages to add to the mini book pages.

I like to layer up the pages. I love how these papers work together.
I also used the 12x12 sticker sheet. These are so much fun to add to pages.

The thing with this book that was slightly challenging is that the 'Heart' collection is a sympathy/memory range. But I wanted to make it work for me. I loved it and I knew I could do this.
Some of the items were really easy but some needed tweaking.

  
Here for example, there's a small 'memory' card at the bottom of the photo on the right. It wasn't suitable for this project, so I tucked the first word under my photo, but I could still see a little of the word, so I placed a sticker over the rest of the word peeping through.

It was really fun facing these challenges and seeing how I could make this all work. I was determined to turn this in to a Disney collection : )

Something else I wanted to do was to break up the colours. I love all the blues and greens but I needed a contrast. I had some pink Crate Paper left from my previous mini book. I took a Micky punch and punched loads out to add throughout the book.

I think the pops of pink really make a big difference.

Never be afraid to leave some blank space on your page!

And I love printing off my journaling on to white A4 paper and cutting it down in to strips.

I'm so happy with how this book turned out.

I really hope you enjoy the video and I hope it inspires you to create a mini book too.

Have a lovely day.

Lisa x