Halloween Paperbag Mini Album Directions

Hello again, and welcome back.  I am always glad to have you stop by.  As I promised in my previous post, I am going to share with you my directions for making this mini paperbag album.   For this post, I am only sharing the supplies used to make the book, since my previous post includes the supplies I used for embellishing the book after it is put together.  If you missed it or would like to see it again, here is the link to that post.

This book started out as packaging inserts, that is, pieces of cardboard to protect the box contents.  I knew as soon as I saw it that it was going to be the beginning of a fabulous book.  Well, here is a picture of the front cover, what do you think?

Supplies used:

Corrugated cardboard packaging for cover (9" x 5-1/4" x 1")
Cover:  6" x 9" for outside (2), 3" x 5-1/4" corrugated cardboard scrap for outer spine, 3" x 6" for inner
             spine, 5-1/8" x 8-5/8" for inside (2)
3 Orange, 3 Black Paper bags (9" x 4-3/4")(Michaels)
Paper bag sizes:  4-1/2" x 7-1/2"for bag front (6), 4-1/2" x 6-1/4" for bag back (6), 4-1/2" x 2-1/2" for
                           bag pocket (6), 4-1/2" x 5" (pocket flaps)
Paper bag pocket tags:  6-1/4" x 4-1/2" and 7-1/2" x 4-1/2"
Small pockets formed by bottom of paper bag:  #8 black tags (Ranger) or cut CS to measure 3-1/8" x 6-1/4"
Small ring binder (Tim Holtz)
Cardstock:  Black Bats Glitter, Pumpkin Glitter,  Bones Orange, Ghost Camo Glitter, Halloween Glitter Stripe, Haunted House, Orange Glitter Crackle, Pumpkin Heads, Purple Bats Glitter, Purple Glitter Crackle, Spider Web Glitter, Witch Accessories Glitter (The Robin's Nest)
Martha Stewart PATP spider web punch set
EK Success 1-3/8" square paper punch
Maya Mists: Orange Juice
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists:  Black Magic, Fully Purple


Directions for making the book:

These scraps of cardboard came in an appliance box, or something like that.  The white piece was already folded and looks very much like the beginnings of a book.  And guess what, it is going to be a mini album very soon.  I tore off the top paper layer on the larger piece of cardboard for that shabby chic look.  Measurements are listed above, so you would, of course, change them to suit your album cover.  These instructions apply to my piece of cardboard.  You can, of course, make your own from chipboard cut to the same size.

Spray corrugated cardboard spine with Orange Juice, Black Magic, and Fully Purple mists.  Let dry.

outside spine cover

Adhere black bats glitter spine piece to inside spine.  Make creases where the book folds before the glue dries.

book inside

Make tiny slits where the book folds and then turn excess CS over and adhere to the inside.

Mark and punch holes for the binder rings.  Do not attach the binder ring yet.

Mark holes on outside and punch

Adhere Pumpkin Glitter card stock (CS) to outside cover, mitering corners and turning excess CS to inside.

outside cover

Then glue two Black Bats Glitter CS to the inside covers.  Add ring binder to the inside spine now.

inside cover

 The binder ring brads show on the outside of the book.

You will need to cover that by adhering the cardboard spine to outside cover.

cardboard spine adhered to outside cover

Trim off open end of envelopes to measure 8".

Trim various printed papers using measurements given above.  I laid my papers out first to decide which ones would be my covers and spine, and which ones would be placed on each of the paper bags front, back, and pocket sections.  I have listed above all of the Robin's Nest papers used in the making of my book.

Adhere each piece to your paper bags.  You can arrange the papers in any order you desire.  You will need to punch two holes along the bottom edge of each of the bags to accommodate the ring binder.  

To make a thumb hole, punch half of the 1-3/8" square punch in the top of each bag to allow for easy removal of your tags.

Glue each of the bag bottoms down to form pockets for insertion of tags. Below is pictured an orange bag with pocket on the left, a black bag covered, with flap, on the right.  Each bag will have a pocket on one side and an opening with a flap on the other.  I used black #8 tags for the pockets formed by folding the bag bottom up (left side of book).

To make the pocket flaps, I again chose coordinating, but contrasting, papers and cut them to size.  I punched each flap using the spiderweb PATP punches, and made a score line at the 2-1/2" mark from the punched edge.

In order for the PATP punches to punch accurately, your flap has to measure 5".  This, however, is just slightly too large to insert into the 4-3/4" wide paper bag.  So, I trimmed off slivers from both the top and bottom, angling my cut from the edge of the punched web to the edge that will be inserted inside the bag.  Adhere flaps to the bottom gusset of each bag, as shown in photo.  You want to be able to insert a tag when you open the flap.

To make the tags, I cut 6 pieces of black CS to 7-1/2"  4-1/2", and 6 pieces to 6-1/2" x 4-/2".  Then I adhered various print papers to each tag, trimming the print papers slightly smaller (1/4") than the tag.  Two tags will be inserted into each paper bag.  The shorter tags fit in the back gusset of each bag.

I hope you have enjoyed my book in progress.  I will continue to post my progress throughout the month.  You can follow along if you like now that you can make your own book, or simply do your own thing.  You are the artist.  So have fun with it.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful week.

Barbara