I don't sew.
At all.
I wish I did, but for whatever reason despite several lessons I am sewing-stupid.
But I can hand-stitch. And despite routinely drawing blood from my own thick fingers, I do this a lot.
Somewhere along the way, I discovered I really loved mini books, but I couldn't find exactly what I loved in the store. So, I decided to make them myself.
And guess what? It's really easy! This is a mini brag book I made for my mom. She needed an updated one so I thought I'd oblige.
Here, you can see the inside of the book:
None of the pages are the same size, which is what I wanted. I loved the idea of having a variety. I like the idea of a book that's interesting at its very foundation.
Once I assembled it, I knew I wanted to create a closure. I considered a magnet or velcro but ended up not needing either. Turns out, this Perfect Accent is heavy enough that it holds the whole thing closed. (I did fold that closure piece twice so it "wraps around" the outside of the book.)
The other thing I did, I will admit, is use Foam Squares to adhere a Journaling Card to the outside of the book. And I hated it there. I immediately wanted it gone, but in my haste, I ripped the outside of the book.
So, instead of starting over, I cut a couple of flower patterns from a separate sheet of paper and used Foam Adhesive to adhere them over the rip (lined up perfectly with the flower pattern on the background.)
I love a happy mistake. (PS. Don't ever throw something away because you think you've messed it up. You can almost always salvage it!)
Here's a look at the inside of the book. You can see where I stitched straight down the center.
It worked like a charm. And to hide the stitching on the outside, I cut a coordinating pattern of paper and adhered it like a binding on the cover.
From there, I used the contents of my November Sprinkles box to put together the embellishments. Mostly journaling cards and a few dimensional embellishments...
And, of course, Alphabet stickers (Did you know I have a clear obsession with these things? All shapes, colors, sizes. I'm a word nerd so I stock up.)
The book holds together really well, and I can continue to add to it, personalize it and change it up as I want to.
So tell me, if you were going to make a mini book from scratch...what topic would you choose?
Also, today is the last day to enter my to win my Girl's Night In Gift Basket! Don't miss out!!
