DIY Minibook Tutorial Guest Post: Satomi

I was telling some teenagers that I am saddened by the disappearing art of letter writing... and I don't mean emails or texts or tweets, but real-life letters. You know, the kind you have to sit down to write with a pen, seal in an envelope, and mail with a stamp. Then I realized that I am guilty of not writing letters! So I promised the teenagers in my small group at church camp last week that I would write to them. And since Toshi and I are hoarders of scrapbook paper, I thought I would make my letters a little more fun. And here's what I came up with:



How To Make A Minibook Letter

What you need: 

- 4 pieces of scrapbook paper
- Glue (I used regular glue sticks)
- Scissors and/or papercutter
- Hole punch
- 5 inches of ribbon
- Pen (I use black Gelly Roll pens)
- Photos (optional)

STEP 1: Pick out papers and gather supplies.

I'm only using 4 pieces of paper. Standard scrapbook paper comes in 12 x 12 inch sizes, but 8 x 11 will work, too.

Here's my tip for picking out coordinating paper: Start with a piece that has a bold or colorful design. Look at what colors are in the pattern and choose the other papers with similar colors. I like to choose one with a medium design and one with a small repeating design. Complete the set with a solid piece.



For my four papers, I started with the one on the very left. I liked the orange lines in the flowers, and picked a second paper with that in mind. (Other colors I could have used are blue, yellow, or brown.)Then I found the other two that are green (also because I think it's the girl's favorite color). I liked that the papers gave a summery feel! And lucky for me, the green paper with white dots has a cute apple print on the back!

For the minibook, I wanted the dimensions of the pages to be 4 x 6 inches because I could place photographs in them without a border. So I cut out two 4 x 6 inch pieces of each paper. My book only has 6 pages, but you can definitely add more. You can use the left over pieces for decorations (or when you mess up some writing, like I did!) 

STEP 2: Organize pages and pick out photos.

First I put the papers in random order, then wrote my letter on the pages. I wrote on the back of some extra paper and glued it on, and I also wrote directly onto one of the pages.



Then I glued photos onto the blank pages. I also cut some horizontally and glued them onto the open patterned sides. I didn't embellish the pages any further and to keep it really simple, but you can add stickers, findings, and other memorabilia to decorate the pages. 



STEP 3: Punch holes and tie together.

The last step is to punch a hole at the top left corner and thread a piece of ribbon through. I thought about adding a charm or another piece of ribbon, but I'm sticking to the simple scheme so that's it! Now you'll have a cute little minibook letter for you to send off or keep for yourself!