Hellllloooo!
It has been a while, so much going on with the family these days, but finally, summer is here! A lit bit slower pace and fewer commitments, hopefully, I can get more crafting done!
I am sharing a frame with a little mini book I made for my local scrapbook store. I was tasked to come up with a project using Photoplay’s “We Bought a Zoo”. My little guy was the inspiration for this one as he likes to have pictures in his room when we do special days like the zoo and aquarium. I am still enamored with interactive projects, so I couldn’t just make a frame with one flip and a picture. What fun is that?
Paper Inspiration came from the plaid paper with the oranges, blues, and greens. I cut two pieces of chipboard one at 6×8 and one at 5.5x 7.5 (plaid paper). Orignal I was going to do the cut apart as a flip and be done…..but, it never works out that way for me. I guess I just don’t know when to stop!
Here is a photo of the front:
This front of the mini book is a 4×6 cut apart found in the collection. The corners sport some little beads from a jar of embellishments I bought years ago. I love when I can use up some old stash!
Opening up the book, I used two tabs from the sticker sheet to create a place to pull the page open. It is magnetically closed.
A photo a little smaller than 4×6 if you want a mat can go on the left. On the right is a belly band that opens to reveal a tag and another spot for a photo.
The printed paper hides a pocket for another tag that can hold two (front and back) 4×4 size photos. In the original design process, this would be it, but something happens when I start putting things together, and I can’t stop adding more… 
So when you close up the book and open it to the right, you will see these two pages. The frame on the right will hold a 2 x 3 picture. Again the white paper hides a pocket at the top for another square tag. The page on the left contains two ATC size tags and hidden cut-a-part from the collection which has a spot for a picture. That was as far as I could go without it getting too bulky and falling over.
The back has a chipboard stand that I engineered with a collapsible piece inside for stability. 
As much as I love paper crafting, there is a joy in figuring out the construction process and engineering a fix for these projects.
Below are some detail shots of the tags. I just recently bought the new Graphic 45 steel dies. I have the long one with the ATC tag and the square one. I was itching to use them so it may have influenced me a bit.
The gray ones are the ATC size, and the brown polka dots are the square die. I still have not used them on the actual graphic 45 tags but love the sizing for just a paper tag.
This project lends to any paper you like, I was assigned the Photoplay Collection by the store. If you are interested in doing this project you will need the following:
- Chipboard
- A pattern Paper collection you like and hopefully one with 4×6 “cut- a-parts”. Again this was made with Photoplay’s “We Bought a Zoo.”
- For the base color cardstock, I used a full 12×12 and a partial second.
- Matching die cuts or sticker sheets to make life easier
- tags either by die cut or by hand
- ribbon: I used seam binding for the large tags and a zebra or print for the smaller ones.
- Twine for the smaller pieces on the tag.
- two pieces of cardstock or pattern paper for the back and hinge stand.
I have been considering doing videos so if you would be interested in seeing a tutorial on this leave me a comment.
Thanks for stopping by,
Until next time……
The paper I used is some older Bo Bunny Surprise collection. I liked the bright colors and patterns for this sign. Considering this is for birthdays covering a wide spectrum of ages, it was important to have it look more timeless than based on age.
