Holiday Mini Accordion Brag Book w/Amy Heller

Hi Everyone! It's Amy Heller here today with a fun, practical, economic, and easily mass produced business card sized accordian brad brook for holiday gift giving! I know, it's a wee bit early for the holidays, but I know that there are many of you who like to start early! ;)

This brag book measures a petite 3.5" x 2" and is a super gift for parents, grandparents, or others that would appreciate a brag book, but only carry small purses, wallets, or clutches. I envision making several of these and setting them aside, then placing just the pictures and journaling at the last minute to give to doting grandparents as reflections of the Christmas Holiday.

For the base of the mini, I used the new solid paper from the Peppermint collection, "Mistletoe". The next great thing about this mini, is that you can get THREE, count them, three mini's (bases) out of this ONE piece of paper. Isn't that amazing?! Talk about quick and economical!! With this one piece of paper along with one more piece of patterned paper for the interior, you really could make three entire minis! The other great thing, to conserve on bulk, was that for the interior I didn't use any chipboard, or anything else that was bulky, only stickers and patterned paper. Of the two mini's I've made so far, the thickest one measures at only 1/4" thick! It's truly compact! So, would you like to see how this fun mini is constructed? Let's get started!

The Essentials:

CP Double Sided Pattern Papers - Mistletoe, Peppermint Collection
Paper Trimmer
Corner Rounder
Ruler
Bone Folder
Scoring Board
Pattern Paper {Peppermint Collection}
Stickers {Peppermint Collection}
Embellishments {Optional}

Start by taking your 12 x 12 sheet of solid double sided paper, and trim a strip that's 3.5" wide x 12" long. If you want to create three mini's, continue to trim another two strips of 3.5" wide paper.

The next step is scoring. I do not have a score board so I simply use my bone folder with my paper trimmer or my ruler (marking both the top and bottom of the paper with trim marks lightly with pencil), and scoring every 2" down the width of the 12" paper, making sure to flip your paper over after each score. This will create the bend in the correct direction for your accordian fold.

Once you've scored, start folding up your mini.

It should look like this.

Now, I love the look of alternating rounded corners on my projects, so I thought I would do that here as well. Here's a tip - do not try to round the opposite corners of the entire book at the same time. Your rounder will get stuck, so instead, simply punch each folded page separately. Trust me, it will save you a lot of grief! ;)

Once you're done it will look like this, each side done, already! That's it for your base!

The next step is using your patterned paper for the back grounds of your opposing pages to your photos. I have sized these patterned papers and my photos exactly the same way so that it's easy to remember and to see at such a small size. The size to trim to is 3.25" height by 1.75" wide.

At this point, round the corners that coordinate with your pages. I have decided to use my photos on the left and my journaling/artwork on the right, so that's how I coordinate the rounding of my corners. Now adhere them to your base. This is what it will look like.

Now it's time for the fun part! Embellish to your heart's content! Just remember, if you are planning to give this as a purse/wallet brag book, keep the layered bulk/heavier embellishments to a minimum. Here's a sample. Keep everything as un-bulky as possible.

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However, if you like a bit more embellishment, I think a couple layers of small chipboard and securely applied buttons work great as well. I dolled this sample up a bit more, including a bit of sewing just on the cover to give a bit of texture. I made sure to double up on my glue dots, etc. here just to make sure that they would stay secure. Remember, you want these little books to thumbed through at the ready, and to many, so they need to withold handling often (hopefully!).

On the first pages of my mini, you can see, I've added no bulk in the way of dimension, only by layering patterned paper and stickers. I even chose not to add some red gems inbetween my journaling to eliminate bulk, I simply used a red pen to create my separation dots.

Again, with the exception of the cover, I've only used stickers and patterned paper, no dimensional adhesive or anything to keep everything as flat as possible.

Lastly, I thought I'd show you how convenient this little mini is going to be for me in my own purse (which by the way, is an average sized purse! I love how it'll just be conveniently tucked into my bag and at the ready!

Well, everyone, that does it for me today! I hope you enjoyed learning how to easily and economically create convenient brag books for your family and friends this holiday season! Have a wonderful week! :D