Paint chip mini book

By Spotlight

When your photos are colourful go over the top with this high octane paint chip book. An exclusive design from Helen Bradley.

These photos were captured on the island of Burano in Italy. Because the photographs & the paint chips are so colourful the pages themselves need minimal decoration. Simply stick to the theme of using plenty of colour & err on the side of ‘less is more’ when it comes to embellishments.

Final Result

Materials

•12-14 colourful paint chips
• 2 book rings
• assorted coloured brads
• multiple small photos
• porcelain light switch plate
• metal plain light switch plate cover
• rub-on alphabet
• scroll rub-ons
• barcode rub-on
• sticker letters
• chipboard stickers - punctuation mark shapes
• black felt tip pen
• adhesive mesh
• metal punctuation shape brads
• 3 small bulldog clips
• 6-8 assorted plain colour ribbons 20cm long
• felt ribbon
• small flat buttons
• coloured mini safety pins
• metal charm and chain
• coloured photo flips & brads
• large circular brads
• discarded dry cleaning tags
• 3 small metal frames
• curly bracket stencil
• mini clothes peg
• corrugated cardboard
• scissors & paper trimmer
• adhesives
• large hole punch
• file folder mini punch
• stapler

Step 1

To create this book, take four of the paint chips that you plan to use and cut two pieces of corrugated cardboard to the same size as the paint chips. Stick the paint chips on each side of the corrugated cardboard.

Front cover
On the front of the book, adhere a porcelain light switch plate with a photo placed underneath. Affix coloured brads through the holes in the light switch plate and affix rub-on letters to spell the album title.

Step 2

Back cover
On the back, adhere a plain brushed metal plate, adhere a photo to it, apply a rub-on scroll and place coloured brads through the holes in the switch plate. Affix a rub-on barcode to the back of the book. Punch holes for the book rings in the covers and all the paint chips. The pages in this book are constructed from two decorated paint chips adhered back to back. You’ll find it easier to decorate the pages before gluing them together so that you can fix brads and other items through the page. Here is how we decorated our book:

Step 3

Inside cover
Attach a large photo using coloured photo flips and brad. Punch a small shape cut from a scrap paint chip and handwrite the journalling onto it.

Step 4

Page 1
Use the curly brace stencil to mark and cut a curly brace from a paint chip. Cover with dimensional adhesive and allow to dry. Affix a photo to the page and affix the curly brace shape over the top. Affix a small clothes peg to the page using dimensional adhesive.

Step 5

Page 2
Trim a photo leaving a white border around and affix to the page. Attach coloured photo flips using coloured brads to the page. Handwrite the journalling on the page and over the photo.

Step 6

Page 3
Affix two small photos overlapping each other on the page. Use three small frame charms to draw attention to elements in the photos. Affix the charms to the photos using dimensional adhesive and loop the chains onto coloured brads. Punch a small file folder in a paint chip, fold in two, staple to the page and write the journalling on it.

Step 7

Page 4
Affix a photo full width of the page and handwrite journalling below it. Attach coloured dry cleaning tags to the page.

Step 8

Page 5
Assemble a small charm on a length of chain and affix to the page using coloured brads. Crop a photo and affix to the page at an angle and write journalling below it.

Step 9

Page 6
Trim two photos and affix to the page. Affix a punctuation curly brace metal brad over one of the images and glue three small coordinating buttons to the other. Handwrite journalling on the photos.

Step 10

Page 7
Affix three large coordinating colour brads to the page. Affix rub-on letters to the brads and create the remainder of the title using sticker letters. Affix a photo to the page.

Step 11

Page 8
Trim the photo leaving a narrow white border and affix to the page. Punch two long holes in the page and loop through them a length of coordinating felt ribbon. Punch a small file folder shape from a paint chip, cut in half, write the journalling on it and pin it with a coloured safety pin to the felt ribbon.

Step 12

Page 9
Affix a large photo at an angle on the page. Glue a series of different size buttons in the same colour tone over the photo and page. Punch a file folder shape from a paint chip, cut in two, adhere one part to the page and write journalling on it.

Step 13

Page 10
Stick adhesive mesh to the top of the page and adhere a photo below it. Affix a scroll shape metal brad to the top of the page, punch a file folder shape from a paint chip and cut it in two. Staple pieces together and fix to the page at an angle.

Step 14

Page 11
Adhere two photos to the page and affix a chipboard ampersand sticker over the top. Handwrite journalling direct onto the page.

Finish the book with three small bulldog clips with ribbons knotted through them.

Assemble the book by linking the pages using coloured book rings.

Handy Hint

These colourful photos deserve an equally colourful mini book & paint chips make a wonderful alternative to scrapbook paper. All you need for this book are a series of same size paint chips, a hole punch & some book rings. If you’re using light switch plates for the covers, supporting them with corrugated cardboard sandwiched between paint chips ensures that the book will stand up when assembled.

Handy Hint

Shhhh! Bunnings is a great source of paint chips but your local paint store will probably be more than happy to oblige too.