Great things come in small packages

The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge is "Little Paper".  As I'm not a scrapbooker I rarely, if ever, work to a 12x12 inch format so 6x6 pads where the design has been shrunken down frequently work better for me.  Take the cover of this mini art journal for example - if I'd used the 12x12 version of this paper (from the Destinations pad) it wouldn't have looked nearly so effective!  That's one of the reasons I like Tim Holtz's paper pads so much, they include 12x12 and 6x6 versions of the same design - so versatile.

I saw a journal similar to this in a shop recently and admired it enough to pick it up to see the price.  Let me tell you, I put it down again pretty quickly!  The prices was craaaazy.  I figured that I could make something just as nice at home and this is the result.

The covers are 5x5 pieces of chipboard covered inside and out (taking care not to cover the inside until all the brads were in place, so that their legs wouldn't show).  The strap and spine are grungeboard, inked with distress ink and overstamped with Archival Black.  I used narrow ribbon for the binding but you could also use butcher's twine, raffia or jute twine.

"Treasures" was printed from the computer and encased in one of Tim Holtz's ornate plates.  The large brads on the spine are some that have been kicking around in my embellishments box for donkey's years (American Crafts I think).  The thick eyelets are from We R Memory Keepers.

I've prepared a template that you can use if you wish to make one of these yourself.  Print it out with a width of 5 inches and everything will be to the correct size.  The pages I've used for the inside are 4 7/8 by 5 1/4 inches.  I've also created a video tutorial for this, which I'm still editing.  You should be able to find it here in a day or two, along with an itemised supplies list with sizes, so check back! :)

Supplies I used included:

InLinkz.com

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

Don't forget, Simon Says Stamp have a great Facebook page too!  Check them out here!