Farmhouse Mini Book Tutorial

Hi there everyone.  Marcy here today with a little tutorial for you.

It's no secret I love Farmhouse.  Grey, yellow and blue?  Sign me up.  Another secret... I love Instagram.  You had no clue right?  Yes, I love the instant gratification of Instagram.  How I don't have to run for my SLR and worry about missing what I'm trying to capture.  I just grab my phone, shoot, and share.  Perfect.

Some of these photos end up in my Project Life.  Some don't.  But I thought it might be neat to see a shot for everyday of the week in a mini book format.  So here's what I did to make this little mini.

Start by cutting your papers.  I wanted my mini to be 4x4 so I trimmed my cardstock pages to 4x8 and scored them down the middle.  You're basically making a bunch of cards.

After this place them back to back and glue them together.  You now have the basic form for your book.  Simple.

I like to sew (another surprise) so I sewed the edges of my pages together.  I was hoping that along with adding to the aesthetic of my book it would also help secure the pages together.

Now, here's where it gets fun.  I took a patterned paper and covered the front of my book.  I also took some of the October Afternoon fabric, trimmed off a strip, placed it over the spine and sewed it in place.

To decorate the cover I cut out a frame from chipboard.  To do that I normally cut a square, draw an "x" corner to corner and draw lines from line to line.  Cut the middle out and you have a perfect frame.

I covered the frame with woodgrain paper from Sasparilla and started layering.  You can see some of the start of the layering here...

... which ended up like this...

I love using tags on the covers of mini books because they also offer a simple solution for keeping minis closed... by tying on a string and wrapping it around.

On the inside I went simple.  I wanted a photo with the date on the right side and a strip of patterned paper and journaling on the left.

And this is what I ended up with.

So, what do you do with those everyday phone shots?  We'd love to see how you use your instagram shots... so head on over to the Flickr gallery and link us up!

Comments

[Carole]

Thanks for sharing, I've had a coud de foudre for this mini, and these papers are amazing !

[molly]

fabulous! I love your style and your blog. I can learn a thing or three from you. Glad to have found your online space.

[tara pollard pakosta]

cutest thing EVER!
tara

[Melinda T]

Ooh...love it Marcy! Thanks for sharing!

[Caryn]

I really like that you sewed this book together, I don't see that enough in handmade books. Something I will definitely have to try!

[shannon91]

so beautiful !!!
merci pour le tutorial !!!
Bizz

[Chris Dring]

Wow, this is such a cool idea! TFS!

[Amanda Coleman]

Ca-ute! I love how you stitched the pages and binding!

[marcy]

Becky - you could totally bind a book that way. Keep in mind that it will not sit as flat as the method I should (there's no give at the spine), plus the pages would require trimming once it's sewn... the edges would be uneven lengths. Depending on how pages you want to sew together (I've found I can sew through about 12 sheets of patterned paper at a time... not sure about cardstock)... that would work as well.

[Rebecca Lovell]

I love this!! Thanks for sharing!

[Elisa]

absolutely love this mini
thanks for the tutorial
:)

[Angie]

Love this mini book Marcy ... and thanks for showing a step-by-step! :)

[soapHOUSEmama]

just lovely! Great tutorial on the construction!

[Denise Price]

This is a great idea for a mini book. Thanks for the ideas!

[Becky Garrison]

Love this! Must try this type of mini. Could you just stack the papers and sew down the middle to bind them together? I plan on making a mini of Sasparilla this weekend myself! Thanks for your wonderful products and amazing inspiration, tips and tricks for using them!

[Sara]

This is fabulous! Thanks for sharing - I love the binding and the tag idea!