Little book gifts

I finished all my little books for gifts and it amounted to a total of 19 completed books. I had finished 14 for the gifts and then made several more..2 Thanksgiving themed ones, 2 Christmas themed ones and another gift for a friend facing surgery. Making these books were a learning process for me. At first I tied the closing ribbon to the ribbon that held the books together and there is nothing wrong with that. But later I glued the ties into the inside covers and covered with paper to hide it. 

So here are my steps..(somewhat)

After painting the books with gesso, the red of the original books showed through but when painted over the gesso, it covered them fairly well. Then I decorated the covers. 

The top book shows how I tied the closing ribbon to the back ribbon. It is nice but not as finished looking as the other 2. I had a friend to visit me while working on the books and she gave me hints on how she wanted her book done. Hers is the one covered in lace. 

I had measured the books to cut the inside pages and only cut them 1/4inch smaller. Later as I progressed to more books, I cut them a half inch smaller and it made a big difference in closing the books. I used old wall paper scraps from some wall paper books from my teaching years and cut 10 for each book. I was planning on just using one page but the backs were ugly so in the process of adding pockets and hang tags they needed the backs covered. So I cut scrapbooking paper and some old handmade paper I did years ago along with old sheet music for the opposite sides. I used my sewing machine and sewed all the flaps, pockets and other scraps to the pages and the putting a page of the wallpaper and a page of scrap together with wrong sides together, I then sewed the 2 pages together. On the first book I accidentally sewed one page upside down so I scrapped it. When finished I had 10 pages. I folded each in half and then laid the cover on top of one and using a pen, I marked through the holes punched in the covers on one page and punched out the matching holes. I used this first page as a guide to punching out the rest. 

I used tip-ins or postcards, pictures on cardstock I had printed or just plain scrapbook cardstock for the tip-ins. I sewed these in on one side so they opened like book pages. It gave more space to add the stickers and other things I added later. 

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Later I will share some of the mistakes and some of the finished pages. If you are following along, and want to attempt doing one of these books here are some things you might need. 

I have an old version of Corel and can add lots of pictures to one jpg file so it made it less waste of paper. I also bought sticker paper on Amazon (cheapest place I found). Cardstock and any scrapbooking paper or just junk papers cut from magazines, sheet music and old books..just mainly junk paper. 

You will need scissors, embroidery thread or string and large eyed tapestry needles, ribbon, hole punch, glue, gel medium like Modge Podge, hot glue, scrapbooking 3-D things like tiny shaped brads, buttons and any thing small junk items you might want to use. I used old jewelry and beads as well. I also used bought tags and tags I cut out myself from cardstock. I have a sizzix so used it quite a bit. I also used craft paint on the covers along with glitter. I am one of those people who love glitter, and I have all kinds and colors. For these books I mainly used the rainbow looking glitters in larger size. It made the covers look more finished. 

It was a major mess around my house until I finished the original 14. After that, I only pulled out what I needed for the extra books so it wasn't quite as big a mess. 

Just don't stress over it but HAVE FUN!!!!