Mixed Media Mini Book Cover Tutorial

Mini Book

         Hi friends my daughter finishes 4th grade this month and will be bidding farewell to her "junior school" teachers .She wanted to make Thank you gifts for  five of her favorite teachers and the mini book you see in this post is one of the 5 we made to gift her teachers!        

         These 3.5 x 3.5 inch mini books are very easy to make and only requires embellishing on the book cover.
I first made the mini books using Jess 's tutorial and here is the link to a tweaked Mini Book Tutorial  : Mini Book Tutorial and here is the link to making the pockets of the mini : How to make Pockets for the Mini book  

Mixed Media tutorial 

         Another mini book I shared earlier[ Mixed Media Mini Book] was extremely popular here on the blog so I thought with the current mixed media craze I will share some tips and tricks on how to make a mixed media book cover in a simple and easy way.

Book Cover

Tip 1 : Choose your adhesives wisely :If you are making your own album / mini book cover and plan to do some mixed media work on it ...adhere your pattern paper on the chipboard using a good strong adhesive such as red tacky tape. 

       The problem with wet adhesive is if you use more you can wrap and wrinkle your paper and if you use less your paper can lift in places later if you add heavy embellishments on it. 

More on Red Tacky Tape : 12 Uses of Red Tacky Tape

Bob n Betty Paper

Tip 2: Use good quality pattern paper. Unless you want to spend extra time decoupaging tissue paper or thin paper on your book cover the easiest option is to use good quality thick pattern paper which will take on all our texture paste, ink spraying, heavy embellishments without tearing or crumpling.

         For this project I used gorgeous papers from Bob n Betty [sold at Crafters Corner] and these "made in India" papers have such lovely designs, are nice and thick and have a smooth semi glossy finish!

Mini Book

Tip 3: Add interest to your background with inks or texture media

Whipped Spackle

Stencils are a wonderful way to quickly and easily add a subtle yet interesting background . You can use store bought Stencils  or make your own with punches, dies or by hand cutting.

Example of using Die cuts  as Stencil: Die Cutting Fun
Sponge on your stencil using ink from an inkpad or a bottle of ink, spray ink on it or smear some texture paste. 

If you are new to using stencils, here is a link to Basic Stencil Art tutorial 

In this project I used a Memory Box Stencil and my favorite Whipped Spackle

You can read more about Whipped Spackle and another texture media Glass beads Gel here : Mixed Media Box tutorial ,Texture Media Experiments , Altered Heart tutorial 

Mini Book

Tip 4 : Add different Elements

Mixed Media Mini Book Cover Tutorial

Using a mixed variety of elements is the hallmark of a mixed media project. The most popular are metallic charms , resin embellishments and chipboard

Alternative Fun choices : 

• Instead of store bought metallic embellishments you can use some broken jewelry  . Here are some projects using broken jewelry : Broken necklace with collage clay, Broken Earring in Hanging Valentine Decoration , Broken Earring in 3 DPaper Decoration
• Make your own unique chipboard by layering several layers of punch out or die cut shapes - yes that does require a bit of patience but would be totally cool!
• Instead of store bought resin embellishments make our own clay embellishments with molds or free hand

Mini Book

The beautiful butterfly you see was fussy cut and inked from a butterfly pattern paper which was sent to me as part of winnings at Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge .
Tip 5 :  Add a sprinkling of really tiny embellishments!

Nail art  rhinestones and sequins

One way to really jazz up your project is by adding some really tiny elements such as glitter balls , tiny pearls, chunky glitter or even cheap nail art decoration items. A sprinkling here and there adds so much visual appeal!

Glass Cabochon

Tip 6. Add a really cool extra something which makes you want to reach out and touch !

This can be a piece of fabric , the pearl mat in my project , an attractive large crystal or a glass cabochon as shown above! 

I made the glass cabochon in this project by sticking a circle of pattern paper from the same Ornate Annie pattern paper set on a glass dome/cabochon and here is the detailed tutorial : Glass Cabochon tutorial 

Heat embossed Flower

The 3 dimensional layered flower was made by stamping and heat embossing on parchment using Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings stamps.
 Tip 7 : Use Inks to ink and bring a cohesiveness to different parts of your project
Unless you have a really huge stash of craft supplies ,chances are you won't have matching papers, flowers and other embellishments  for a particular project. Using a single color of distress ink to ink areas of your pattern paper, flowers and other embellishments can bring on a look of uniformity.
         In this mini book I used worn lipstick Distress Ink to sponge the  pattern paper on my book cover and the parchment flowers and the  butterfly .

Mini Book

        The actual mini book  was made using a single 12 x 12 paper from another Indian brand Papericious but since I sponged both the book cover and the inner papers with the same colored distress ink ...they gel well together!
Here is the video tutorial

        All those green tags were made with my favorite Poppy Stamps die and I later on inked them to tone down the bright green[ but sorry forgot to take a picture].

Mini Book

I hope you liked my mini book and hope some of these tips will be useful in your crafty adventures!

Supplies : Papers:  6 x 6 "Ornate Annie" by Bob n Betty from Crafters Corner, Papericious The Flora Season,

Dies : Poppy Stamps Pinpoint Main Street Tags , Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings 

Stamps : Winnie and Walter In Bloom Elsa's Flora Stamp Set ,Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings
Misc Supplies : All from Crafters Corner : Whipped Spackle, Chipboard embellishments, Resin Embellishments, Glass Cabochons, Red Tacky Tape