April Birthday Bash Paper Bag Book Tutorial

As promised, here it is, but I apologize for getting it to you so late!  I made this book with my March Counterfeit Kit, and if you want you can see the whole post here...I think it turned out awesome, with lots of places for journaling and pictures!

I used grocery sized bags to create this book, three in all.  Two were for the pages of the book, and one was for covering the covers, which were made of chipboard, covered with grocery bags, and decorated with my March kit papers.  It created 6 pages with pockets in each, then with papers I created two more pockets on the inside covers.  To bind it, I punched holes in the pages and the spine and used ribbons to bind.  Because grocery sack are so sturdy, it made for nice thick pages.

Here is how I did it.  I used a smaller lunch sack this time for the tutorial...the concept is the same.

You will need three sacks, two for pages, one for covering the book covers.

For the pages, decide how tall you want them, and add 1/2".  I trimmed off the rough edge (recycle this), then decided I wanted my pages to be 6 1/4" tall (which fit this size bag perfectly), so I cut off a section that was 6 3/4".  This gives you the page size and the 1/2" you need to create the tabs forming the pockets.  Save the bottom of the bag, we will use this for hinges.

I cut the bag open on one of he existing creases to create one long strip.  It came out to be 6 3/4" x 21".  On one long end, score at 1/2" all the way across.   Each bag made me three pages.  If you want wider pages you can, you will get less pages per bag, but just add another bag to the book if you want.

I figured that three pockets with 21" of paper gave me pages of 3 1/2".  You will have six of them, because two make the pockets...does that make sense?  So I scored all across at 3 1/2" intervals, and accordion folded the paper.  At the 1/2" score mark, cut out tabs.  I angle corners to make them fit nice.

Once the accordion fold was done, and the tabs were cut, I just folded the tabs up to adhere to the next 3 1/2" page, and taa daa...the bottom of the pocket was formed.  Do this across and you will have three pages with three pockets.

Top view showing the three pockets.  Don't worry about the openings at the spine side...binding takes care of this.  If I allow 1/2" for that, I will  have a pocket that is 6 1/4" tall by about 3" wide.  Plenty for a journaling card!

Remember this bottom piece I asked you to save...cut off a 2" x 6 1/2" piece, recycle the bottom...

Then score at 1" down the middle...

Adhere to the last page to make a hinge...make another set of pages, and attach them to this hinge to create more pockets.

DONE!  Cover with your gorgeous papers of choice, make a cover, bind and you have a recycled mini album using grocery sacks!