Father’s Day is coming soon. Have you figured out what you’re getting your husband? Your father? Your father-in-law? Here is a simple template for a mini-book that also works as a photo display; perfect for an office shelf or desktop.
Begin with an accordion mini-book. I used one from 7 Gypsies.
Choose four pieces of patterned paper that work together. I chose four very different colors for contrast.
Create Your Cover:
Choose one piece of the patterned paper, cut it just larger than the size of your cover, and adhere.
There are numerous ways to adhere paper to a mini-book cover. I’ll share my current method with you.
I trust Creative Memories’ photo tape because I have not found any other adhesive quite as strong. After running the tape around the four edges, I go over the edges, corners, and some of the middle with a glue stick. This is because the I don’t line the photo tape up perfectly with the edges of the paper. I want those edges and corners to stick as long as possible.
Trim away the excess paper with a craft knife.
Sand the edges of the paper to make it feel a part of the book.
Cut a strip of a second pattern to about half an inch wide, and just longer than the height of the cover. Adhere toward the left side of the book, about three-quarters of an inch from the edge (just “eye-ball” all these measurements).
Trim excess and sand the edge.
Adhere your title so that it extends toward the lower right corner of the cover and add an embellishment to the upper left cover for balance.
As an aside, that dragonfly was part of the patterned paper, which I arranged to go exactly where you see it. This creates a visual triangle between it, the title, and the embellishment with ribbon. You may want to add an embellishment, such as a rub-on, in that same spot if your paper doesn’t have something already.
Inside pages (the front side of the accordion):
Because I have three children, and there are six pages on the accordion, each of my children got two pages (in other words, a two-page spread) on the front side. My instructions are based on that format. You’ll need to adjust your book if you have fewer or more children than I.
For each of the three children (or for every two-page spread, as shown in the photo above), choose three from the four patterned papers you picked for this project.
Cover one page (the page with the photo) entirely with a piece just larger than the actual page in the mini-book. Adhere and trim away the excess with a craft knife.
For the page opposite the photo, cut the second pattern to be is a little larger than the height of the page, and almost one-half of the width (see the blue paper on the photo above or below). Adhere it to the edge of the page.
Take your third patterned paper, cut it to fit just larger than your page. Tear about one third off of the width and adhere over the rest of the page.
Trim away the excess. Lightly sand the edges.
Embellish and repeat for the other two pages.
Add a 4×6 photo to the pages that have only one piece of patterned paper.
The Back:
Attach four 4×6 photos to each page of the backside of the accordion. Remember to leave the two end pieces blank because you will adhere them to the chipboard cover and backing.
If your photos for the back are busy like mine, leave the pages as they are, or adhere one type of simple paper. With busier photos you want a simple, unified background. If your photos are not busy, you can continue with the four patterns you used on the other side.
Adhere the accordion pages to the chipboard cover and the backing. You may cover the inside parts of the chipboard cover and backing as well. I liked the naked board with my paper choices, so I left mine as is.
If your husband is like mine, he doesn’t keep photos in his wallet. At best, he has some on his phone. Let him show off his gorgeous family to his co-workers with an accordion mini-book instead!
* * *
Products I used: Mini-book (7 Gypsies); Patterned paper: My Mind’s Eye, Crate Paper, Cross My Heart); Chipboard letters (Amy Butler for K&Company); Letter stickers (Making Memories, Crate Paper, Creative Memories, K&Company); Stickers (7 Gypsies); Photo corners (Heidi Swapp for Advantus, 3L); Ribbon, from own stash.
