I Love You MiniBook
This weekend I'm bringing you a little valentine book, complete with a how to & downloadable interior pages (includes handwritten "i love you" and lines for journaling). Here's to working ahead a bit rather than scrambling the night before! This is a book focused mainly on words but could be easily adapted to include photos as well. Make one for a spouse, partner, child, parent, friend - anyone you love.
Right now I am really into my sewing machine + I have had this big piece of felt just sitting here waiting to be used for something (purchased it with good intentions for something else over the holiday). I've been inspired by a lot of things Emily Falconbridge has been creating with fabric and stitching and such - she is so great at putting all kinds of different elements together. She, along with Rebecca Sower, continue to teach me that my sewing machine and paper and fabric can be very good friends.
So here's to a creative weekend + making simple handmade things for the people we love most.
Let's start with the end in mind with a look at the completed project:
Supplies:
• 2 pieces of red felt (9.25 x 5 was my end result - I started with a bit bigger pieces and then stitched and trimmed to the final size)
• 5 pieces of cream 8.5x11 cardstock
• chipboard heart accents (K&Company Smitten Chipboard Box Glitter Icons)
• 1 sheet of red patterned paper (Anna Griffin)
• red felt flowers (Making Memories Noteworthy Embellishment Jar)
• adhesive (Therm O Web Super Tape - love this stuff + have been using it a lot lately)
• sewing machine or needle + thread
How To:
This book can be made without felt if you are just not into the whole fabric + paper thing. Simply download the PDF cover and interior pages and adhere them all together (see tips below):
DOWNLOAD COVER | AEvalentines2008_cover
DOWNLOAD INTERIOR PAGES | AEvalentines2008
If you want to play around and create the felt cover you will need two pieces of felt. My finished felt size is 9.25 inches x 5 inches. Cut your pieces a bit larger than that to begin with and then trim down after you have stitched (I found that a bit of shifting happened while I was stitching so I was glad to have the excess I could trim off). Using a sewing machine (or by hand) stitch the two pieces of felt together.
Lay a felt flower and a button on the cover (I used Making Memories Noteworthy Embellishment Jar for the felt flowers). Hand stitch button and felt flower (or use adhesive) directly onto/through the felt. For right now ignore the stitching down the middle.
Next I printed out the interior cover (AEvalentines2008_cover.pdf) and the interior pages (AEvalentines2008.pdf). Each one includes trim marks so you can see where to cut the pages to size (8.5 inches x 4.25 inches before folding). I printed one interior cover and four interior pages (you could definitely do more if you wanted).
Work with the interior cover first. After printing and trimming, fold in half. I used a bone folder to get a nice even fold.
Turn the interior cover over and lay in the middle of the felt cover. Using your sewing machine or hand stitching, sew the interior cover right onto the felt cover.
This is what it should look like when you are done:
Next fold all the interior pages in half with the printed portion on the inside.
You will now be adhering these pages all together back to back to create the inside contents for the book. For my adhesive on this project I used Therm O Web's Super Tape.
This is what you are going for as you are adhering:
After adhering those pages together you will create an initial cover using patterned paper. This part came about because when I went to add the pages into the cover they stuck out due to not coming to a point when they were adhered together (they did not fit into the stitched seam). To get around this I cut two pieces of patterned paper (9 inches x 4.25 inches) and glued them back to back (so that you see pattern on both sides).
Fold the patterned paper in half and adhere the booklet into the patterned paper. I left a bit of room near the fold of the patterned paper. This whole part took a bit of messing around and trimming edges, etc. Just go with it.
This is what it looked like when I was done:
Now you are ready to adhere the booklet into the cover page. Lay the booklet in, match up the seams, and adhere.
There should be a bit of patterned paper sticking out of the edge of the cover page. Add a felt flower inside the cover to hide the stitching from the front.
Add chipboard hearts (or photos or anything you have on hand) and journaling and you are good to go.
Enjoy!
I also wanted to let you know that I did set up a Flickr group for sharing photos and creations that come about through these weekend prompts. You can access the weekend creative Flickr group here.
Thanks for the templates - I love it when I just have print and assemble, I just happen to have the sewing machine out on my table at this very minute.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
dang this is nice. I have a sewing machine. I have leftover red felt that I also bought for a christmas project that was never accomplished. I have mega sweet valentine paper that I haven't touched...not much into mushy v-day photos and used to get "kits".
Thanks for sharing. I need to make one of these love books for my kids. Need to write down the measurements! thanks for sharing!
Paula
Sign in or sign up to comment.
This is so great. Thanks.
by the way, I have the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster, too. It's my mantra sometimes :)
Annie
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Ali. You are always so generous!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
love the great valentine's book.
but love what you love about your husband even more.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh.. I love it!! This weekend however I plan on making valentines cards inspired by you in the Paperkuts magazine.. I believe from last year!!! Can't wait to start them later today!!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
LOVE THIS! thanks, Ali - love you for sharing so generously with us! (and cannot WAIT to meet you at the INSPIRED event!) Happy Weekend!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh.. I love it!! This weekend however I plan on making valentines cards inspired by you in the Paperkuts magazine.. I believe from last year!!! Can't wait to start them later today!!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
you. are. so. cool.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
you are so kind, creative and all around wonderful! thank you so much!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Thanks ali! for taking time to share! Love this idea! simple but really meaningful! i shall attempt to try this !
LOVE IT!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh, how very cute. Thank you for sharing this and encouraging creativity in all of us! :)
Sign in or sign up to comment.
There goes my weekend AGAIN! But at least when we are in the midst of our upcoming adoption (eeeeeee!!!!! Just decided for sure last night!!!!!!!!!) I will have this already stashed for hubby.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
thanks a lot, ali! this is beautiful and will surely do this after the weekend. again, thanks for sharing your weekend craft.
happy weekend!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
You are so awesome, Ali. :)
Jennifer
Sign in or sign up to comment.
So beautiful. So full of thought.
Thanks for sharing Ali.
A.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I like the felt cover idea...I have been making little sewn books for my son to author...this seems like a great new idea....I think that you can take this lots of places!!! Thanks!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali, thank you so much for sharing this. I love it.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Thank you so much for sharing this Ali, it's BEAUTIFUL!!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Thank you so much for sharing! I am excited to create this project -- it's beautiful AND doable.
I'd like to share something with you: www.beautifulson.com
The film will air on PBS -- it's a documentary by a husband-and-wife team who tell the story of their autistic son.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
thank you!
so kind of you to share.
may it be returned back to you ten-fold.
happy valentine's day.
AE
Sign in or sign up to comment.
TFS, Ali!
I needed this to jump start my saturday! My album is complete...though I took a bit of a shortcut: I created the album minus the felt cover. I had a peice of felt but wasn't happy with the look when I opted for the album without the slot to insert, so I just went without altogether and I love it!
Here's to being ahead of the game. Thanks again!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
ali...you are so generous with your time, talent, and energy. i just want to say thank you for this fun, little book.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
This is weird. I found your site because of the "word of the year" and weeks ago decided that my word this year was going to be "calm." And then today I saw the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster on your Web site. Naturally, I have to have one! Thank you for the inspiration.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
What a wonderful idea!! I will be making this for my Hubby!
Sign in or sign up to comment.