The mini book...for Shelby with Love

Like my friend Elise at Mamacow Creations, I too had a mini book project to show to the local 4-H kids a week or so back. These adorable chipboard books are in the dollar section at Michaels. Too cute and perfect for a a small project or, in this case, a gift. My youngest graduates preschool in a little over a month and this is for her. Also, one note, the yellow smileys are to protect the innocent...folks I didn't ask permission from to post their pics in a public place so just smile right back at them. My friend Claire will be laughing I know ;)

I started with a handful of coordinating papers. These are from two different packs by Martha Stewart. I think picking the papers in advance helped to make the process go along quicker versus treating each new page as a separate venture. And since the album theme is the same throughout, this worked for me. To prep the pages, I ordered the patterned papers in a way that was pleasing to me. Then traced and cut out each flower and applied a thin layer of glue to the chipboard with a foam brush and stuck on the papers. Once I knew it was totally dry (in this case overnight), I took a sanding block to the edges to eliminate any ragged spots. Then it was time for the fun stuff!

I wanted this book to be lumpy and interactive, so I grabbed some extra chipboard, my sizzix and some fun embellishments. The awesome butterfly die in from SU! and worked perfect for this book as Shelby's class is the Rainbow Butterflies.

Scallop punches also worked great for this project to add little strips of paper for interest.

I added a folded over piece of cardstock to this page to get a little more room to work with...inside is journaling and another photo. Plus it's fun to open stuff!

The plastic gems come in a ONE POUND bag at Michaels right now in the kids craft area. Woohoo! They are pricey though so bring a coupon.

I added a chipboard butterfly "page" in the middle here to put Shelby's beginning of the year self portrait on. On the right, an accordion pull out....cause it's fun and I had several photos from the Christmas program I wanted to highlight.

More journaling and pics of Shelby with my mom and hubby and with me.

Another fold up to tell the story of the fun game the kids are playing.

A couple of blank pages awaiting pics from the big day...GRADUATION! Wow!

And a little note from Mom to Shelby. Hopefully this is something she will enjoy now and years later when she pulls it out of a box of things we saved from childhood.

This project was super fun and manageable...once the base pages were dry, I assembled everything in a few hours. Thanks for stopping by!