Envelope Flipbooks and Squash Books

     Some fails and success.

     So, Myra over at Those Secrets We Keep sent me a gorgeous mini flipbook album a while back. It looked so good and me being the crafty person that I am, of course I needed to learn how to make one! She mentioned the YouTuber Maymay Made It Crafts so this was my first stop. I checked out some of her mini album and flipbook videos and set off to make some of my own!

     Although not all my attempts were successful.

     I’ll start with my failure. I started making this to send off to Myra but it went downhill so that idea got scrapped! This one was meant to be an envelope flipbook but it went wrong for me. I think I must have made the wrong size envelopes or something because when I started putting it together, it just wasn’t right.

     Still, I didn’t want to waste it completely because I used some really nice papers on it! Guess I shouldn’t use nice papers on first attempts. I started messing around with it but that made it worse. Eventually I cut the two top flaps off and made it so the middle section was the same height as the sides. Then after a bit more messing I decided to close the flaps on the outside parts like you would an actual envelope to make a pouch (rather than have them flip open like the flipbook should), and I added some more paper to make some more pockets.

     I realised it was a mess that I wouldn’t be giving away so instead of being neat I just cobbled it together with washi tape and started putting random bits and pieces I have lying around my desk area into it, things I might use to decorate my planner or my snail mail.

     I’d even made a nice large matching envelope to send the flipbook off in, so now it’s getting stored in that on a shelf by my desk so as to keep it tidy and stop things falling out. The envelope part is handy as I can store bigger things in that, pieces that might someday be passed onto pen pals.

     My second attempt at recreating something from one of Maymay’s videos also went a small bit wrong but much more successfully!

     For my second attempt, I went for the mini squashbook album and I’m quite happy with my results – it’s quite cute!

     I used 6×6 inch card for mine so my album is only 3×3 inches, pretty small! I decided to go with a pinky/purple theme and it worked really well. The card is from a pack my sister bought me last Christmas and is quite sturdy which you need for a squash book because of all the folding it does.

     In all, I used 6 pieces of 6×6 card to make and decorate this – 3 to make the squash book and 3 to decorate the squares. I also used two flower images stuck on card (to make them sturdier) for the covers and a small length or ribbon for closing it. It really doesn’t take much to make these and their pretty quick once you figure out what you’re doing so they’re a handy craft to have in your repertoire for quick gifts. You could leave as is and give to someone or stick a few pictures into those squares and some extra embellishments and you’re done.

     The card I used was double sided so in this case I can use the back for pictures as well:

     The back shows where I went wrong. See the flower pictures on the inside squares that make up the covers? Well, those are actually meant to be on the outside squares. Luckily though, I was still able to fold it up so it all closed so not nearly as big a problem as I had with the first craft!

     See, still folds:

     My several failed attempts at the envelope flipbook make me unsure about if I like it or not but I love these squash books – you just gotta remember to use sturdy card for them. I made the smallest using 6×6 card to make a 3×3 album but obviously larger card will make larger albums. 8×8 card makes a 4×4 one and 12×12 card makes 6×6 one. All you gotta do is fold the paper and stick it together in the right way so no special tools are required and no real measuring either! (Regular readers know how bad I am at measuring!).

    So yes, two crafts today that make great albums and things to send to your pen pals! Hope you enjoyed seeing them. Definitely check out those videos I link to if you want to learn how to make them.