Hidden Hinge Memory Book Under Construction.

This project is still under construction. 

It's taken me the best part of two days to get it this far and there is still a lot of work to do on this project.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take photographs of the construction of the book cover and making the pages, so that should make this post a little shorter.

I started this memory book to teach a friend how to make them.
The idea was that she would follow me as we made them together.
We did the cover and the hinge on Monday, but Tuesday she was stricken with a bug, so she has not been able to complete her book.

Once I start a project, I like to keep going with it until  it's finished. So I have continued with this project without her.


I usually make these in black card,  but this time I decided to try cream card as I am contemplating making one as a wedding gift and I wanted to see how it turns out before I commit to doing the wedding album. 

So far the disadvantage of the cream card is that any smears of glue show up quite badly. I know Tom bow can be rubbed away,  but it does take quite a bit of effort to get every trace of it off.   If you don't get it all off it attracts dust, glitter and all sorts of small particles, making the card stock look grubby long before the project is finished.

So this the basic book. It has five pages, which may not seem a lot if you have never seen one of these books before you won't know just how much stuff they will hold.

Each of the five pages has at least one hidden pocket to conceal lots of photo boards 
or mini photo books.

The flip out pages also have places to add photo books tags, journalling, photo mats,  small keepsakes and embellishments. 
In fact these books hold so much it's sometimes difficult to find enough stuff to fill them.
This is the inside cover and first hidden pocket page.

The flap you see in the photo conceals the opening to the large pockets and will have magnetic tape or strong magnets attached to keep the flaps closed when turning the pages and to prevent items falling out of the pockets.

I have punched fancy edges into some of the flaps for extra interest.

In this photo  you can see I have used large strips of magnetic tape.  
This tape isn't very strong which is why I have used large pieces.
I will also use paper as opposed to card to cover the magnetic tape.
The thicker the paper or card covering the magnetic strips the less attraction they have meaning the flaps will flap.

In this photo I have added very thin strips of decorative paper to the outer edge of each page.
I am not sure I like this effect, but it's something I haven't tried before and  I love to try different techniques.
It also creates glue issues.

In the next photo you can see one of the flip out pages.

The shot below shows the same flip out page covered with decorative paper.

The papers I chose are, The William Morris collection , from Joanna Sheen. I have to confess I bought these papers at least ten years ago. I didn't like them when they arrived and threw them in a drawer. That's where they have lived ever since. Until yesterday that is.

I have totally changed my mind on these papers now. Well apart from three of the designs that is.
So I have mixed in some other papers to complete the book.
In this next shot you can see  the magnetic tape covered in paper. 


You can also see the notch I punched out to make accessing the photo board easier. This was created  by using a 1" circle punch to cut the semi circle out of the cream card.
I used a  1  3/4" punch to cut the larger semi circle from the polka dot paper.

The back inside cover of this book has a fancy packet which will hold either a booklet or some large tags.

I am  contemplating adding a waterfall mini album to the left hand page  on the shot below.

This little pocket has not been stuck down yet, I am undecided on this at the moment so, I'll hold off on this untilI have decided what I can put with it on the corresponding pages.

Well that's all for tonight I will post more pics  when the book is nearer completion.