Cedric's mini make

Well hello there, it's Cedric here, I've sneaked up to the desk while the other bears are busy arguing over the last Cadbury Freddo bar! I thought I'd try to make some mini books using what stash we have. Now I can't remember where I originally saw this idea but I think there was something very similar in Craft Stamper magazine a while back.
This is a use your stash tutorial and all you'll need is one (yes, just one) sheet of double sided 12 x 12 patterned paper - if you don't have any with a pattern on both sides a sheet of 12x 12 cardstock will suffice - some scraps of either patterned paper or cardstock, or both, ribbons and any other embellishments you care to use.
I remember the first instruction of the tutorial I read/watched, was to take your chosen 12 x12 paper, and fold in half. Goodness, that's difficult.




Oh, I think It meant fold the paper in half, *blush*




This is the other side of my patterned paper, and will be the book's cover.




And this will form the pockets




Next, fold back the halved paper again,




And again, like so (it's half, then half again) think paper aeroplanes at this stage - but don't actually make a plane!!




You should end up with this shape.




Flatten your paper, the 3 creases will run from top to bottom as you look at it. Now fold the paper in half again.




You now have three folds down and one fold across.




Open your paper again, then score a line two inches away from the top of the paper (which should be in the same position as the above picture, so you have three folds running up and one across).




Fold the score line over to produce a flap, then score the other end of the paper and fold that back too, below you can see one of the folds already done.




Now, along the middle line that goes across and now has the folded back flaps, cut along 3 quarters to leave one 3 inch line intact




You should now have this, 3/4 cut line, folds to each side, 3 intact lines running the other way.




Gather this together, like so




And push the ends, to make this shape (you may need to persuade the paper to fold at first, but it should give after a little gentle nudging).




Now you should have this, a misshapen star.




With pockets inside




And a lovely patterned cover.




Most of your pockets will be self sealing, but you will have this open edge.




Which you need to adhere, I used double sided sticky tape.




Like so, ooh, sorry, I've gone a bit blurry, must be all the hard work making me unfocused.




You will also need to glue down the edge pockets, as they won't be self sealing.




Now you should have this lovely concertina style book, with a fixed middle page where you adhered the long sides together.




Rummage in your ribbon stash for some coordinating ribbon to add to the cover.




Run double sided sticky tape from the front of your book,all the way round the edges and to the back of the book, the ribbon adheres all the way round (apart from the opening of course!)




Before starting to stick your ribbon, make sure it's long enough to fit all the way around, with extra to tie the book together.




Then stick away, mind those furry paws don't accidentally stick to the tape!




Add embellishments, stamping, anything you want to add interest to your mini album




The bears received some fabulous crocheted flowers from our friend Ike, and I decided these would look great on the mini books.




In true Blue Peter style, here is my finished make, along with two I made earlier.




'But we didn't use our scraps of paper and card',I hear you say, fret not, my friends, now you can cut ATCs, tags etc from your scraps, and add them to your pockets. You could decorate these with sentiments, or leave them blank, to be filled in at a later date.




Fill each pocket with the tags or ATCs.




We're going to make these for Christmas presents for our friends, as you may know, the bears can't work so don't have their own income, paw made presents mean we can still give to our friends, which we love to do. Why don't you make a mini album for one of your friends, it could be filled with friendship sentiments or uplifting quotes, or left blank for your friend to fill in. You could make a book or two for yourself at the same time. They're fun and you don't need to buy any specialist equipment to make them, just use what you have.
With love from the bears