Envelope Book Tutorial

Hello, G45ers!

Here we go!  We have an action packed blog for you today, starting out with announcing the winners of our Holiday 2022 Sneak Peeks!  Following, we are honored to introduce Graphic 45 Brand Ambassador, Cal Summers.  For Cal’s #G45Expression project she has gone above and beyond creating this gorgeous Cottage Life Envelope Book, complete with a video tutorial, and a printable cutting guide.  Wow!  Be sure to leave a warm welcome for Cal in the comments below!

BIG thanks to everyone who shared our Sneak Peeks, left comments, and joined us for the unveiling.  We are absolutely honored to have such a wonderful community. Prizes will be shipped out early July when the product is available.  Winners, please email info@g45papers.com to claim your prizes.

Sneak Peek Day 1: Warm Wishes

Sneak Peek Day 2: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas – DCE

Cal Summers – UK

I am so excited to be here as a 2022-23 G45 Brand Ambassador – it’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember but I’ve been too scared to try out for it! Moral of this story – just go for it, you never know where you might end up!

I have been crafting in some form for most of my life but I made my first minibook with Steampunk Debutante and have been a G45 superfan ever since. I even have a special G45 corner in my craft room!

I’m very lucky – I have been able to make my hobby into my living and I teach people to make minibooks with free to take part classes in my FB group and on my YouTube every week. You will see that G45 is a regular to my classes – because it is my favourite without question. Currently I’m really pleased with my Alice’s Tea Party Tunnel Book I’m teaching in a face to face retreat later this year.

I live on the edge of a big, dark, and magical forest in the centre of the UK with my husband Mark and our cats. I have a grown up daughter too who lives on the other side of the country but we speak almost every day.

I wish you the very happiest of crafting years – may your glue bottles be unstuck and may you find the courage to cut into that beautiful paper!

You can find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/paperscissorsstory or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/CalSummers. My website is calsummers.co.uk.

Cottage Life Mini Album Tutorial

By Cal Summers

Hey G45ers – I’m so happy to be with you today to tell why I love Cottage Life so much!

I love every G45 collection but there’s something about Cottage Life that reminds me of my grandmother Lily to whom I was very close. The gentle colours and the images of the cottage and its garden just take me right back to a very happy childhood. She crocheted and baked and tended to her garden and my home is now filled with the lace she made for edging bedsheets and towels – my whole guest bedroom is a homage to Lily with bits of her furniture and photos on the wall. I love the feeling of nostalgia and security and I get that same feeling every time I look at Cottage Life. You will see some photos of her and my grandfather Jack in my minibook.

-Video Tutorial-

Envelope Book Tutorial Featuring Cottage Life by Cal Summers

PRINTABLE CUTTING GUIDE

I’ve used one of my favourite types of binding in my mini – accordion binding. It’s so quick and easy and I show you in my tutorial how to size it up for any eventuality. My mini book is a little bit like me I think, not very organised or formal but full of surprises.

It’s very easy to make – it’s a zigzag of card that you glue your envelopes or pages to. Let me show you how to make it.

First work out how many pages you have – for this mini album I had six envelopes to accommodate. I made my envelopes but you can use ready made ones. I worked out the height of my binding by measuring the tallest envelope – in this case it was 5 inches. So the height I have to cut my binding is 5 inches. As I have six pages I worked out the width of my binding giving each “page” an inch – then I add one inch more to account for the front and back covers. That means my binding piece is 7 x 5 inches. I cut this out then score on the width side (7 inch side) every half an inch.

Next you fold your binding in an accordion style – that means backwards and forwards – and I made sure I burnished it well. You can then attach your pages to the front of each fold but make sure you leave the first and last to attach your covers (I cut mine out of thin chipboard and covered them).

I love this binding, you can use it to attach  pretty much anything into a book. Greetings cards, photos, patterned paper pages, cuttings or letters – and they all stay together and look great, such a versatile binding to use.

I added flaps to my envelopes and then decorated by layering up lots of the images and cut-a-part sheets. Lots of fussy cutting too – the flower images in this collection are so pretty!

I do hope you have a go – it really is easy to make, especially if you use ready made envelopes and I believe it would work wonderfully with any G45 collection. I’d love to see yours if you give it a try!

Thank you for joining me today – and happy crafting!” ~Cal

Supply List:

Two x Greyboard A4 1500 micron sheets

Patterned paper – I used 12 x 12 (collection and patterns & solids), 8 x 8, Cottage Life by Graphic 45. Approx 12 sheets 12 x 12

Ribbon – I used approx 50 inches

Four Tags (I used Graphic 45 Regular Tags)

Happy Papercrafting!

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