This is a pattern to make a very simple 5" x 5" 'memories' book which you can then embellish however you want: with photos, tickets, menus, bookmarks, whatever. Mine is going to be a gift to commemorate my mom's visit here for a few days in June of 2005.

Ingredients

• Two regular 10" tall lunch bags
• About 2' hemp cord
• Two 5" x 5" dark papers
• Six 5" x 5" neutral papers
• Two 4 3/4" x 4 3/4" light papers
• One 2.5" x 5" light paper
• Five 2" x 5" dark papers
• One 2" x 5" light paper
• Two 2" x 5" neutral papers
• One light paper sized to your quote stamp
• One neutral paper sized 1/2" larger than above
• A thematically consistent stamp set
• About 2' matching-color ribbon

Also used was adhesive, scissors, a hole punch, a small sea sponge, a tag-making whale-tail punch, a set of tag stamps, tasty nibbles and drinks, good music, and good company. They're not all required items, but it was nice having them there.

Directions

You will need to select papers and ink in a dark, a neutral, and a light color. Add matching ribbon if you wish. Also, keep in mind everything here is changeable -- experimentation is encouraged. As an example, at the class we had folks do this in the colors I used, as well as in a neutral pink and dark chocolate color. Further, I saw three possible stamping themes just in the class, and many more are (of course) possible: a slightly cartoony French style, the more antique-y style I used, and a sort of modern 50's style that had a lot of circular star patterns in it.

As the thumbnail above shows, I used a dark blue for my dark color, a sort of antique gold for my neutral color (the Stampin' Up! folks refer to it as "mustard"), and a pale cream for my light color, which they called "vanilla," if I remember correctly. The stamp set was called "Gentler Times," I think, and Kristy said the pretty gold ribbon was "grosgrain" (sp?).

The Binding

The binding technique we used is called a pamphlet stitch, and is really nice and simple to do. First take the two lunch bags and lay one on top of the other, end to end. Don't unfold the bottoms or anything (if you want, the open ends can be used as a place to put little presents or trinkets, and the folded ends can be used creatively as folding pages with more decorations behind them). Fold both bags in half so you have a 5" square. Take a hole punch and punch 5 holes in the folded edge, so the holes go through all the bags but overlap the edge of the fold.

Now take your hemp cord

The Cover

Front and back and how to make them

The Center Pages

How to make them

The Remaining Pages

The first ones, and the last ones

Further Embellishment

Photographs

How I re-sized and cropped and used them in the book, with the computer's help

Commemorative Papers

Any? Tickets, menus, postcards, bookmarks, anything else?