Easy Mini Book Tutorial

Mini Book

          Hi friends my daughter graduated from junior school and we made  mini books as year end "Thank you" gifts for my daughter's  favorite teachers. These minis are just 3.5 x 3.5 inches and hence were quite easy to make and decorate.

       Before I share the tutorial here are the details of how this particular mini book's cover looked before it was jazzed up!

Mini Book

        For mixed media fans, I had earlier shared how to decorate a book cover here: Mixed Media mini book cover tutorial . Though I loved the pretty floral pattern I used on the cover ,I added a bit of texture using a Memory box stencil and whipped spackle.

Texture Media

        Once the whipped spackle dried , I added resin corners and some heat embossed parchment flowers [ made with Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings ] and heat embossed and water-colored leaves [ made with the Winnie and Walter In Bloom Elsa's Flora Stamp Set ]

Mini Book

The butterfly was cut out  from a pattern paper sent to me by Mrs A for winning her butterfly Challenge.

Mini Book

The photo below shows how the mini book looks from above with the tags in their pockets.

Mini Book with tags

The mini book has 7 pockets and 4 of the pockets open on top and 3 open to the sides for inserting tags

Mini Book with tags

I first made this type of  mini book following Jess' picture tutorial but  since many of you got confused with that tutorial link here is my kiddo sharing a short video tutorial on how to make a basic mini book.


And for my readers who like pictorials better here is how to make a mini book in pictures
You can make a Mini Book using these basic materials

• One 12 x 12 inch paper
• Two 3.5 x 3.5 inch pieces of chipboard/cardboard
• Two 5 x 5 inch pattern papers

Mini Book Tutorial

Materials required to make a basic Mini Book

• One 12 x 12 inch paper
• Optional: Score Board and Scoring Tool . If you dont have one you can simply fold your paper into 4 equal parts .

Score your paper every 3 inches - ie at 3 , 6 and 9 inches

Mini Book Tutorial 

Turn 90 degrees and again score at 3, 6 and 9 inches

Mini Book Tutorial 

          Cut the paper along the score lines- along the red dotted lines as shown...eg the cut along the 3 inch vertical line will  reach till the top horizontal score line while the cut along the 6 inch vertical score line will reach till the lower horizontal score line and the last cut along the 9 inch vertical score line will reach till the top horizontal score line --- this makes the paper look like an "M" or a W whichever way you want to look at it!

Mini Book Tutorial 

Start accordion folding from one end of the "M"- keeping the first fold a valley fold as shown below

Mini Book Tutorial 

Accordion fold the paper using a bone folder or your fingers to get crisp folds.

Mini Book Tutorial 

Keep on fan folding at the bottom of the paper - if you keep your folds in the valley- mountain sequence  you wont go wrong!

Mini Book Tutorial 

 So on the 2nd vertical column of the M you fanfold your way up

Mini Book Tutorial 

Once you reach the top keep on folding your way down

Mini Book Tutorial 

This is how the folds will look as you start folding the 3rd column!

Mini Book Tutorial 

Fold your way down the 3rd column .

Mini Book Tutorial 

By the time you have reached the end of your 3rd column your book is quite  the wiggly caterpillar wanting to spring apart so keep a tight hold on it!

Mini Book Tutorial 

And once you have folded your way up the last column your mini book is done!

Mini Book Tutorial 

If you want to keep it simple- just stick the blank white pages together and you will have a simple mini book with 16 pages to write on or stick pictures to.

Mini Book Tutorial 

Materials Required to make the cover of the Mini Book

Mini Book Tutorial 

• Two 3.5 x 3.5 inch pieces of chipboard/cardboard
• Two 5 x 5 inch pattern papers
• Scissors and Good adhesive-I used Red tacky tape
• Optional- Ribbon

Mini Book Tutorial 

Stick the chipboard to the center of your pattern paper.

Mini Book Tutorial 

Cut triangles at the corners of your pattern paper flaps [this gives a less bulkier and neater finish] and stick the pattern paper to your chipboard as shown

Mini Book Tutorial 

       I stuck red tacky tape to  around 2.5 inches of ribbon and stuck it firmly to the front page,back page and hinge of my mini. The ribbon adds to the strength of the spine and if you want you can leave the ribbon long to use as a tie closure for your mini.

Mini Book Tutorial 

Adhere the mini to the center of the pattern paper covered front and back covers.

Mini Book Tutorial 

I used red tacky tape as the adhesive.

Mini Book Tutorial 

Though I kept a long ribbon to act as a tie closure for 2 of my first mini books I later found that this was not really required. Here is how the completed mini book looks [yet to add the tags in the pockets]

Mini Book Tutorial 

Here is another Mini Book we gifted to my daughter's teacher

Mini Book

I used the super pretty Bob N Betty  floral logs pattern paper to make the cover of the mini book .

Mini Book Cover

I used a few resin corners to "frame" my mini!

Mini Book

Added a resin chair with a fluttering butterfly to the rose garden!

Mini Book

Made the heart shaped glass cabochon with scrap pattern papers [again from Bob n Betty]

Heart Shaped Glass Cabochon

Here is the link to the  tutorial : Glass Cabochon tutorial 

Cabochon

The inside pages are again in a nature theme with birds and flowers  and made using a paper from another Indian brand "Papericious".

Mini Book

Here is the tutorial on how to make the pockets in this mini book : Mini Book Pocket tutorial 

Supplies:Papers : Bob n Betty Floral Logs, Bob n Betty Ornate Annie , Papericious Bird Song, Papericious the Flora Season
Stamps : Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings , Winnie and Walter In Bloom Elsa's Flora Stamp Set 
Punches : Itsy Bitsy Circular foam punch 
Dies : Poppy Stamps Pinpoint Main Street Tags , Heartfelt creations Botanical Wings 
Linking to
Simon Says Monday
Pixie's Snippets Playground 224 - used snippets of parchment and paper to make the flowers and leaves on my first mini book and again more snippets of pattern paper to make the glass cabochon embellishment on my 2nd mini book