Mini Album - Paper Bag Book

This creates a unique mini scrapbook. One should note, that standard lunch bags may not be acid free, if that is important to you, be sure and locate acid free bags before starting your project. This is a great project to do with your older kids too. Most all rubberstamps used in this project are from Club Scrap (www.clubscrap.com)

Supplies needed:

~(3) lunch bags, brown or any color (for the book itself)
~Pattern paper
~Cardstock
~Various inks
~Various rubberstamps
~Various ribbons or fibers
~Eyelets, brads, or other book binding materials

1. Take the three paper bags and flip the middle one. So that it is open, close, open similar to drawing (diagram A). (Note: you can use more than 3 paper bags if you like)

2. Sandwich the three bags together and fold in the middle. The dimension of the book will be approximately 5.25 in x 5.25 in.
3. Bind your bags together. This can be in any number of ways. You can use eyelets and ribbon, brads, standard book binding techniques, or just staple it. If you use eyelets, you can go through all 6 layers of the paper bags if you have long shafted eyelets OR I just went through 3 layers at a time with standard eyelets and used 4 eyelets total. It is a little difficult to keep your bags all lined up while punching the holes, one easier way is to just measure each bag separately and punch the holes and then they will line up perfectly. In the project shown, I used 1 inch from the edge as my measurement. (diagram B)
4. Once you have the eyelets in, you can add your ribbon or fibers and any charms you like.
5. Now I did NOT cut the ends of my bags off, but others have to allow for more pages, so that is completely up to you and the look you are going for.
6. At this point I ran ink pads all along the edges of all the pages.
7. I cut out 4 tags (to slip into the openings of the bags) sized about 4.25 x 4.75in and added little flaps for pulling them out (you could easily use ribbon here instead) I wanted the word LOVE for this particular project. (Note: you could easily do up to 6 tags, since there is slots for that many).

8. I then cut pattern paper pieces about 4.75 in x 5 in to cover all of the pages. I inked all edges of my pattern paper.
9. I rubberstamped various sayings and images through out the book.
10. I then added my photos, matting with coordinating cardstock and inking edges.
11. I added various embellishments, such as brads, charms, stickers, metal sayings, and ribbon.

Good luck and have fun!
Debbie Weller
a.k.a. DebDuzScrappin