Small is beautiful, - A Christmas project and a freebie

 Hello friends and welcome. Christmas is coming ever closer and I am in full Christmas creating mode. But before I continue, let me start by saying that I hope that all my American friends and followers had a great Thanksgiving!

First off I am showing  a couple of Christmas cards I made recently, I show them because they kind of relate to the main project I am sharing with you today:

I made these cards with a combination of some Tim Holtz 3D embossing folders and 3D embosslets and some of my own papers available in my Etsy shop HERE

I made the card bases from Kraft coloured file folders which I cut to size. I then was left with a strip of the folder, about 4" high and about 17" wide when folded open. This formed the base for the little notebook folder I am showing below: This project is similar to one I shared a while back here, just simpler and quicker to do. Perfect to make as little gifts for friends.

Let me quickly talk you through how I put it together:

Start with a strip of a file folder, roughly 4" high, score at 4" from each side and also 1/4" on each side of the centre fold of the file folder strip, this will be the place where you will sew in your little notebook.

Next cover each panel on both sides with your chosen papers cut to size. Make pockets on some of the panels, create tags or little journal cards to put in the pockets, and then embellish as you like. Below I will show you what I did and at the end of the post you will find a freebie that you can use as well.

I started by sewing right around the outside of my strip and inked all the edges. Here is the first panel, it has a side pocket made with an element from one of my Etsy collections, you can find it HERE The journal card which you can see more clearly in the last photo was collaged with elements of that same collection.

Here you can see the next two panels, again one with a side pocket and one with a wider pocket at the bottom. The background papers are from another collection HERE

Here you can see the front of the notebook that I sewed inside. I used coffee stained papers, cut to size and folded in half. The notebook has 8 double pages and I simply sewed it in the centre with my sewing machine.

Here is the panels at the back of the notebook, again with a collaged tag inside. The tag was cut with a large decorative tag punch. I will link some of the products I used at the end of the post.

Here is the final panel, again with a large pocket at the bottom, and below finally some of the tags I made.

And here finally is the freebie. I put that together after I finished the project, so have not actually used any of the tags and embellishments here, but you could easily use them in a similar way. Like usual, if you want the full resolution one for printing just email me

And just in case you are interested in some of the products I used, I will list them below, I have no affiliation with any of the linked shops, they are really just there for your convenience, specially for my UK visitors.

Kraft coloured file folders: Here or here

Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder (used in cards): here

Tim Holtz Embosslets: here and here

Decorative tag punch: here

Well, that's it for now, thanks for your visit and happy crafting!

xxxxx