MINI POCKET BOOK (single 12 x 12 sheet)

To make this little book, you will need a single 12 x 12 sheet of paper or light cardstock. You can use plain and decorate as you choose, or, as I have done with my finished book, use a sheet of double sided cardstock. I used a Scor-Pal for my scoring, but you don't have to have one of these. The pockets in this book are large enough to hold ATC's or photo's of a similar size.

Step 1. Score your sheet at 6" then turn your card over and score at 2" from each edge. (2" and 10" if measuring from left). Try to score so that the valley scores will be on the outside when you fold your pockets up.


Step 2. Turn your card a quarter turn and score at 3", 6" and 9" (again measuring from left).


Step 3. Now, put a strip of narrow DST (or glue) along the short edges of the four corner scored rectangles.


Step 4. Fold up along the original 2" and 10" scores and stick down.


Step 5. Now, you will make your ONLY cut. Cut from one end up the original 6" score to the top 3" score line.


Steps 6 & 7. Accordian fold each side as shown, and then, making sure the pockets are on the outside, fold over and glue the parts marked A1 and A2 together back to back.


Your book is nearly complete now, but you will see that the back (where I'm holding it) is open and floppy, so you need to bind it.


There are various ways to do this, but I've given you 3 examples.
First, you can use a stitch binding. Follow the instructions in the Domino Book tutorial allowing for the different number of pages. (apologies for this naff pic).


Secondly, you can use your Bind-it-All which works really well. A word of warning though. If you have the original blue machine, (I don't know about the new one) the book is too thick to punch in one go. Do the centre folds first and then making sure you're punching in the same direction, do the outside folds. You also, cannot turn the back round as per the usual instructions so your wire ends will still be on the outside. Twist them to the back and it looks absolutely fine.


The third option, and my favourite, is to simply glue the open backs together so you have a solid little booklet with no openings at the back or the tops/bottoms of the pages. After I'd stuck my pages together I decorated the book with a few stamps, some understated embellies and glued a strip of ribbon right around the book for a fastening. I printed off 8 photographs of my granddaughter to go in the pockets and gave it to my daughter to carry in her handbag.




So there you are. I hope you like it. It's a lovely little book and has all sorts of uses. Try it yourself and experiment with different closures and bindings.