Purse mini book

By Spotlight

Find a book with plenty of room for expansion & have fun creating wonderful lumpy & dimensional pages. Exclusive design from Helen Bradley.

Final Result

Materials

• chipboard purse book with handles
• corrugated cardboard
• chipboard alphabet
• chipboard frame
• chipboard photo frames
• chipboard curly braces
• chipboard flowers
• chipboard photo flips
• chipboard tree & bird
• chipboard triangular tag
• metal mesh
• adhesive plastic mesh
• large metal brads
• small coloured metal brads
• epoxy alphabet shapes
• 50cm thick string
• 60cm felt flower tape
• paper flowers
• open weave fabric
• striped denim fabric
• lengths of contrasting ribbon
• white paperclip
• icy pole sticks
• assorted photos
• thick gel medium
• light modelling paste
• crackle medium
• acrylic paints - pink, aqua, cream, white, blue green
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Vintage Photo
• Crop-o-dile or heavyweight paper punch
• knitting needle
• paper trimmer
• paint brushes & small painting sponges
• scissors

Step 1

Cover
To make the cover of the book cut narrow strips of corrugated cardboard to surround the front of the book. Cover with a thick coat of gel medium and allow to dry. When dry paint front and spine of book with white paint. Allow to dry, then paint with a coat of crackle glaze and allow to dry according to manufacturer’s instructions. Finish with a coat of pink paint applied using instructions on the crackling medium bottle. Set aside to dry. Trim a photo to place inside the frame on the cover. Paint the edges of white chipboard letters with pink paint and adhere to the photo. Adhere the handles to the book - trim away some of the frame if necessary to fit them. Add a knob and tie assorted coloured ribbons through the handle and knot to finish. Because this book can take very lumpy pages I’ve created highly dimensional pages with lots of texture to showcase my photos. Here’s what I did to each of the pages.

Page 1
Cut a piece of metal mesh to fit the page and adhere with a very thick coat of gel medium and allow to dry. Paint the mesh with cream paint and, when dry, rub with a small amount of pink paint around the edges - apply with a small sponge. Paint the edges of chipboard letters with pink paint and adhere the chipboard letters to the page to spell the page title. Trim a small series of photos and adhere across the bottom of the page.

Step 2

Pages 2 & 3
Paint a piece of adhesive mesh with aqua paint. Paint both pages with cream paint and adhere painted mesh to one page sealing the edges with gel medium. Paint a decorative photo frame with aqua paint and paint three chipboard flowers to match. Trim a photo to fit inside the frame and adhere the photo, frame and flowers to the page. Adhere a series of trimmed images to the mesh covered page and affix small epoxy alphabet shapes to spell the page title.

Step 3

Pages 4 & 5
On the left hand page, temporarily adhere a strip of felt flowers and cover with light modelling paste before removing the flowers leaving the modelling paste texture behind. When the paste is dry paint with pink paint, allow to dry and then brush over the raised areas with cream paint. Adhere the felt flowers you used on the previous page to the side of this page using gel medium. Paint cream and, when dry, brush with a coat of pink paint on a foam sponge so that the paint only adheres to the raised surface. Adhere photos to each page and trim a single felt flower to adhere over one of the photos.

Step 4

Pages 6 & 7
Cover the pages with a thick coat of gel medium and, using a knitting needle or similar tool, write the page titles into the modelling paste before allowing it to dry. Paint over the page with cream paint and then puddle aqua paint into the letters and brush unevenly across the page. Paint chipboard photo frames with cream paint and then brush the edges with aqua and pink paint to distress. Paint three chipboard flowers with aqua paint and dab dots of white paint in the centres. Adhere a sheet of adhesive mesh to one of the pages. Assemble the photos on or under the frames and adhere to the page. Finish by adhering flowers over the images.

Step 5

Pages 8 & 9
Adhere a strip of open weave fabric down the inside edge of each page using gel medium - scrunch it as you glue it in place. Set aside to dry. Paint the edges of the page pink and the inside of the pages cream. Paint the edges of the chipboard letters pink and adhere to one of the pages. Adhere a photo to the other page and attach a white paperclip to the photo. Spell out the page title down one edge in acrylic letters adhering these with a generous coat of gel medium.

Step 6

Pages 10 & 11
Tear strips of denim fabric and adhere to the page using gel medium - scrunch the fabric as you do this. When the page is dry, paint the page pink brushing roughly around the fabric. Temporarily adhere some adhesive mesh to the page and paint over with cream paint before lifting the mesh leaving just the texture behind. Break the ends off the icy pole sticks and paint pink. Punch holes in the sticks and affix coloured brads through them. Gather two or three paper flowers and pin with a coloured brad. Assemble two large photos, one on each page, cover the photograph with an icy pole stick and adhere paper flowers to finish.

Step 7

Pages 12 & 13
Place the chipboard stencil left over when you remove the curly brace shape on the page and fill with light modelling paste. Smooth the top and remove your stencil. Repeat on the second and allow to dry. Paint the pages cream and white and paint around and over the curly brace shapes in aqua paint. Paint two chipboard photo flips with pink paint and brush the edges with white paint. Adhere acrylic letters with gel medium. Adhere two photos to the page and affix photo flips over photos.

Step 8

Pages 14 & 15
Adhere a sheet of felt flowers to one page using gel medium. Paint the page cream and then paint over the raised surfaces and around the edge with pink paint. Paint the edges of a chipboard brace with pink paint and adhere over a photo on the page. On the second page, cover the page with modelling paste and push a piece of string into the paste winding it around the page. When the paste is dry paint the page with pink paint and then brush the raised surfaces and around the edge with cream paint. Create a small frame using broken icy pole sticks - paint them with pink paint and edge them with white paint. Affix a piece of adhesive mesh under the frame and place the photo over the top. Adhere epoxy letters and a paper flower using gel medium.

Step 9

Page 16
Mix a small amount of modelling paste with green paint, mix some with blue paint and some with white paint. Apply small amounts of modelling paste to the page to shape sky, hill and clouds. While the modelling paste is still wet, ink the edges of a chipboard tree shape with vintage photo distress ink and press the tree into the wet modelling paste. Set aside to dry.Paint a chipboard bird with pink paint and edge with white paint. Affix over the top of the tree. Set the page aside to dry.

Step 10

Back page
Make chipboard brace shapes using modelling paste and a stencil as for pages 12 & 13. Paint the base page aqua and the braces shapes cream. To make the tag, adhere string around the edge of a large triangular shape tag. Cover string and tag with gel medium and set aside to dry. Paint the tag and string pink. Paint the edges of a set of chipboard braces with pink paint. Adhere a piece of mesh over the tag and place the chipboard braces over the top. Paint three chipboard flowers pink, edge with white and adhere to the tag. Adhere a photo over the mesh. To affix the tag, punch a hole in the rear of the book and attach the tag with a large metal brad.

Handy Hint

Whenever you have a book like this that can accommodate really lumpy pages take the opportunity to build up the pages with all sorts of fabric, modelling paste & dimensional elements so that you get a nice chunky feel to the book. Bubblegum colours such as the aqua & pink used here combined with the dimensional elements, give a fun feel to the book.

Handy Hint

Allow yourself plenty of time to make this book as some of the pages will take a day or two to dry properly. Work on a book that has solid chipboard pages so they will not buckle when they get wet with modelling paste, gel medium etc.

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