Handmade Pocket Mini Book Tutorial

Now that I'm back, the scheduled and predone posts from earlier this week don't truly count as those were all done way before this happened, I thought I'd kick things off with a little crafty tutorial. Working with my hands and creating always relaxes me and leaves me with a sense of pride. So it seemed a fitting way to return to blogging, even if it's immediately followed by an Easter break☺
Quite awhile ago, I shared a mini comb bound book I made with handmade paper pockets. I've finally gotten around to making another and taking pictures for a little tutorial. I've been planning on sharing this for awhile, I just had to wait until the finished product made it's way to CA and my friend Steph from A Pocket Full of Buttons. I shared the other mini book I made her ahead of time but had to include a surprise too.
Begin by cutting a 12X12 sheet of paper in half, making two 6X12 sheets. Score in half at six inches. Then score which ever side of the paper you want to be the bottom of the pocket. Score that at 1X12. Cut away a 1X6 piece as shown above. Fold paper in half, so that you have essentially have a 5X6 sheet, with a flap. Fold up flap and adhere, as shown above. I rounded the corners of the flap beforehand, but that is merely a design choice. When you've assembled your pocket you will end up with something like this. Repeat above steps for as many as you would like. If you have a comb binding machine at home, punch as shown above on the open side. Any local copy shop can do this for you. Many schools also have this kind of binder, you might be able to use it if you provide your own combs.Use the comb binding machine to bind punched pockets to the comb. Now you are ready to make the tags for inside and embellish the outsides of the pockets.

I added little tabs with phrase stickers that coordinated with the paper.

For the tags I added colored cardstock for mounting photos or journaling and stickers.

The pieces with punched borders aren't loose on one side so one end of the photo can be pushed underneath. I also made this one for Cheryl as part of her pay it forward. I posted some of her goodies but keep this a surprise. I incorporated pink and brown as she specifically mentioned that being one of her favorite color combinations.Below are the pockets and the tags that go in each. She can slip a picture underneat the punched borders at the top and bottom of this tag. It will look really cute with the border overlapping her photo. The XO tag is bound to the comb and can be moved back and forth. I used some premade romantic themed accents, I thought it would be a cute way to highlight some special pictures of Cheryl and her husband Doug. I think it's important to still have couple time, after children join the family. Hopefully, this will be a nice keepsake for them. It's still pretty general so it could also be used for pictures of their daughters too.


Shared At: The Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello, Spring Has Sprung at Fun to Craft, Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge, Friday Fun Finds at Kojo Designs, Scrappy Saturdays at Scrappy Gifts, Making the World Cuter Monday, Motivate Me Monday at Keeping It Simple, DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land and