Scrap Booking Techniques

So today/tonight I was overcome with the urge to create something a bit conventional - just to see how it turned out.

This week I found a Youtube tutorial explaining how to make a mini-wallet.  You can see it here.  I guess at this point I should add that I've had stamps and inks and embossing powders and the like for years but I've always used them slightly unconventionally and it's only recently that I've been drawn to more conventional scrap-booking, I'm just not sure that conventional scrapping is for me.  But in order to explore I need to take a couple of first steps....

So, I made a wallet.  I'd made one the night before and realised that the constant opening and closing of the wallet lends itself to the paper-stock tearing.  Card stock is too thick, paper stock is better but it degrades.....unless you add a layer or two of Mod Podge to the surfaces.  If you try this out and cover both sides of your paper in Mod Podge (matte) then make sure it's all dry (really dry) before you start folding.

Here's the front of the mini-wallet.  There's a little card tucked into the front and the fibres are attached to another card accessed from the front folds.  Somewhat cloyingly the word Memories has been stuck on the front...I'll have to change that next time.....

This pic shows you the size of the item.....it's quite dinky.

Here's the back which has the same set up as the front, two cards are accessed in the front folds.  Now, are you wondering what you could use these cards for?  The idea is that you get little photos or bits of ephemera from an occasion and stick them onto the cards.  You can also use the cards to make notes as at least one side of each is not so decorated as to make this impossible.

Anyhow, back to the front.  Here you can see three cards, the two I mentioned before plus another that is tucked inside the front page.  This one has a grommet punched into it and along with another inside the second page this is how you can keep this little treasure shut by tying a ribbon through the both of them.

Open the wallet up and here's what you see.  What may not be so obvious is that there are another two cards tucked away inside the folds, accessed from the centre via the cut outs I have made....  and the moths are printed on a transparency that acts as a little pocket for tickets or other such ephemera.....I had forgotten to add the instruction, "Don't forget your ticket" to this page but did so after this pic was taken.

 Here you can see the two cards and the ribbon used to tie the wallet up...

And here's the back, decorated with some very old buttons....

All in all you have 16 surfaces on which to store memories, plus a little pocket to slide a ticket or even another photo.  Yes, you'd have to get small pics printed from your PC but I think this is a lovely way to offer a gift.  Maybe you could slide a gift card inside the front pocket, or a ticket to an event and then let the owner add their photos of the day or evening?

I hope to make some more of these and be a little more adventurous in their conception and decoration....