A mini-book goes back to school.

Oh boy, there's so much fun paper stuff to play with right now! This month, my kit from Scrappy Chic had paper from eight (!) different lines -- about twice as much as a normal month. So I better get sharing, eh? First up, let's start with one of my new favorite projects: a mini book! This one happens to be blank, just waiting for some fun school-related photos and goodies. I'm not really partial to back to school lines usually, mostly because the only folks going back to school in the fall are my husband and I, and we call it "work"! But this line (from Fancy Pants), is just awesome....

See? Cute, right? This little guy measures about 6x3, and I made it following this tutorial from October Afternoon -- it was so easy! I altered the directions a little, making the cover wider than the inside pages and leaving the inside-cover flaps open, like a dust jacket. Here are some of the inside pages:

The bottoms of each pocket are stitched shut, and the pages are bound in by stitching as well, so this is pretty sturdy. I used some of the cut-apart cards to embellish the inside, along with a few circle-punched scraps and some stickers from Cosmo Cricket and Jillibean. I love those little pockets -- you could stuff them full of tickets or notes or other school ephemera. I wish I'd had one of these back in the day when everyone exchanged those little school pictures -- do kids still do that?  They'd look great here instead of stuffed in a desk drawer, which is where mine always ended up!

The sneaker print is probably my favorite :) Now, I used a different sheet of double-sided paper for each set of pages, but it would be just as easy to get two sets of pages from each 12x12 sheet, making this an extremely economical project! If sewing isn't your thing, a good strong adhesive or some staples would do the trick for binding as well. I'm thinking fun little holiday or baby or birthday gifts -- what a way to make a dent in my paper stash!

Let me know if you give it a whirl. In the meantime, you can see this in person at Scrappy Chic -- last time I checked, it was hanging out by the registers.

I have lots more for you, so expect some fairly regular blog posts until I'm all caught up. Also, I'm looking forward to making even more projects this weekend when I crop at Scrappy Chic with the lovely Liz -- if you're at the store on Sunday, stop by and say hi!

Have a lovely day....