Tutorial Tuesday - Tabbed Concertina Mini Book

This week we are making a tabbed concertina mini book. This little book is great for listing your top favourites of something or capturing little snippets of an event or occasion.

You will need:

- Chipboard or Greyboard

- 12x12” Patterned Papers/Cardstock (you will need 3 sheets, I used My Mind’s Eye Lost and Found Two Papers)

- Double Sided Tape

- PVA Glue (or other wet glue)

- Score board and bone folder (optional)

- Ribbon (optional)

1. Cut 2 pieces of board for the covers measuring 41/2” x 61/2”.

2. Cover with your chosen patterned paper using a wet glue.

Check out our pocket mini book tutorial here if you would like details on how to neatly cover chipboard for mini book covers.

3. If you want to add a ribbon closure make sure you do this now! That way you can add the ribbon to the inside and then cover with a piece of paper to finish off the inside. I forgot to do this and had to stick the ribbon to the inside covers and then cover with another little piece of scrap paper to hide the end of the ribbon!

4. Cut another piece of patterned paper or cardstock to 6” x 12”.

5. Mark the following measurements on the paper or use your score board and score at: 2” in from one edge, then at 3”, 4”, 5”, 8”, 7”, 8”, 9” and 10”.

6. Make concertina folds on these lines.

7. This will give you the spine of the mini book.

8. Put double-sided tape on 3 edges of the ends of the concertina spine. Attach this to the front and back covers so that you create a pocket for adding in extra photos, journalling etc.

9. Cut 12 pieces of patterned paper measuring 3 1/2” x 1 3/4”. These will be your tabs that you stick onto the concertina spine. Alternatively if you wanted full pages you could cut 4 pages measuring 6” x 4”.

10. Start to stick the pages onto the spine as follows:

 Stick the first 2 tabs onto the front of the first concertina fold at the top and the bottom.

Stick the 3rd tab on the back of the first concertina fold in the middle.

Stick the 4th and 5th tabs onto the front of the second concertina fold, again at the top and bottom.

Stick the 6th tab onto the back of the second concertina fold in the middle.

Continue adding the next 6 tabs to the last 2 concertina folds in the same way.

11. Cut 2 pieces of paper/card to fit into the pockets on the front and back covers.

12. You can now have fun decorating and embellishing your mini book!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and making this little book. If you make one we would love to see. Feel free to share any links below or put pictures directly on our Facebook page.

Happy Crafting,

Maxine x