Heritage mini book

By Spotlight

Take your papercraft skills to a new level & utilise precious family photographs in this wonderful mini-book. Direct from USA by Australian-born Helen Bradley.

Final Result

Materials

• corrugated card recycled from a box
• 2 - 3 sheets of 12” x 12” pattern scrapbook paper
• gel medium
• paint brush
• alphabet stamps
• permanent ink pad
• vintage photo ink, black soot distressing ink
• 2 x book rings
• assorted buttons, alphabet beads & key
• photographs
• pieces of war history laser printed
on plain paper
• pencil
• ruler
• trimmer
• scissors
• assorted keepsakes
• charms
• hole punch

Step 1

Create the Book,

Start with a sheet of plain paper and write the letters for the word that you are using. Butt each letter up against the next one in the word.

Step 2

Using the hand-drawn design as a guide, draw each letter on a sheet of cardstock. Each letter should begin at the left-hand side of the word so each letter will be wider than the last. Cut out each of the letters to make a template. Hold the template pieces together to ensure that everything will fit neatly. Readjust the design if necessary. If the word you’re using is quite short, add additional pages to the back of the book.

Step 3

Take the template shapes and place each on a sheet of corrugated card. Draw around each design with a pencil and then cut out each shape using scissors. Cut around the right hand edge of each letter - do not cut out the middle of letters such as D or B.

Step 4

Cover both sides of each letter page with patterned scrapbook paper. Use a different pattern paper for the letter than the paper used for the remainder of each page. For letters such as D and B, which have “cut outs” in them, create these by pasting a piece of paper the shape of the cut out to the front of the letter.

Step 5

Mark the place for the holes on the left-hand edge of each page and then punch out with a hole punch large enough to pass the book rings through.

Step 6

Decorate the book taking care to have anything that sticks out or over the edge of the book does so on the outer edge or the top, not on the bottom edge. This is important as the book should stand up when assembled.

Step 7

How we decorated our book.

Page 1
Stamp the name of the person on a sheet of plain white paper and cut out words. Ink the words with distress inks and adhere to the page using gel medium.

Step 8

Back of page 1
Cut elements from wartime history and adhere to the page. Print text using a faux Dymo font onto a sheet of paper, cut and adhere to the page. Alternatively, use words embossed using a Dymo labeller.

Step 9

Page 2
Adhere a photo to a sheet of white cardstock and then adhere to the page. Adhere a Monopoly game piece to the page using gel medium.

Step 10

Back of page 2
Adhere a portion of the person’s war record to the page and trim around the edge of the page. Adhere a faux medallion and additional printed text to the page.

Step 11

Page 3
Adhere a piece of wartime history to the page then adhere trimmed photo over the top.

Step 12

Back of page 3
Adhere portions of war record and photo to the page. Adhere text journalling created in faux Dymo font. Adhere charms to represent family members.

Step 13

Page 4
Adhere portions of the war record to the page. Create journaling from excerpts of war record and adhere to the page.

Step 14

Back of page 4
Cut small elements from wartime record to illustrate the page topic. Add strips of photographic film and button as well as text created using faux Dymo font.

Step 15

Page 5
Cut strips from war history and adhere to the page. Type a message using a faux Dymo and adhere to the page.

Step 16

Rear of page 5
Adhere photos to page along with elements from war history. Adhere typed journalling to the page and embellish with metal studs.

Step 17

Jewellery
Create book jewellery by stringing alphabet beads on beading wire. Attach buttons and metal shapes to a thick chain.

Step 18

Assemble the book
Allow all the pages to dry thoroughly. Link the pages together using book rings and hang jewellery elements and a key to the top book ring.

Handy Hint

Consider creating a book like this for a loved one’s milestone birthday or anniversary. Imagine presenting parents with their wedding photographs from 30 years ago, juxtaposed with contemporary images.

Handy Hint

Use gel medium to adhere the text pieces to the page. Paint the front of the printed page with gel medium and allow to dry. Cut out the text pieces then, to adhere, paint the back of each piece of text and the page surface where the text will be placed with more gel medium. Adhere the paper to the page. Sealing the text with gel medium first ensures the paper won’t wrinkle when adhered to the page. Gel medium also works well for adhering bumpy embellishments - just use plenty.

Handy Hint

Use photocopies of war history as these are more stable than inkjet prints and the type won’t bleed when painted with gel medium. If you have a relative who fought in a war for Australia, you may be able to find details about their war history at this website: www.naa.gov.au.

Please Login or Sign up to share, vote, favourite or comment.