by Jane Pinder
I have been meaning to make a memory book of sorts since my dad died three years ago. It was only when we had a tag book card sent in for our Card Swap, from Pat in Norway, that I thought this idea would work well for what I wanted.
The hardest part is finding the right papers to use! Having done that, the rest is quite easy!
We used:
Step by Step:
- Trim both of the 12 x 12 sheets of paper to measure 11.5 x 12 inches. (29 x 30.5cm)
- On the longest side make a fold at 8.5cm.
 - Turn the sheet round and fold the opposite edge up at 8cm. Apply double-sided tape to seal where the edges overlap.
 - Repeat this with the inside page as well.
 - Fold both pieces in half to form the book, with the open edges on the left hand side.
- Trim off a narrow strip from the open sides on the inner page only.
 - Take the outer page and make a fold over the spine at 1.5cm. Turn over and repeat with the back of the book.
 - On each of the pages is a decorated panel of Canvas Cloth. Each is done in a similar way, just the colours changed. Cut a piece of the Canvas cloth to a suitable size and dab your chosen colours of Paint Dabber onto each one. Use about three shades on each piece. Take a piece of corresponding mulberry paper and stamp the Ancient Script on it with embossing ink. Emboss with gold embossing powder, then tear out a rough shaped piece and attach it to the piece of coloured Canvas Cloth, using Glossy Accents.
 - Some of these panels are also embellished with a heart shaped piece of background paper that have two gold eyelets in that are threaded with a piece of raffia.
- Trim your photographs to a suitable size, then layer each one onto brown card. Trim to leave a narrow border around each one.
 - Play around with the layout of each page, before attaching each of the elements in place, some with double-sided tape and some with sticky foam pads for added depth.
- For the tags that fit inside each page of the book, cut four pieces of the hammered card each to measure 12.5cm square.
 - Decorate each of the tags – we used the stamps from the Complex Creation plate.
 - Cut out, or die cut, some hearts and dab them with the Copper Paint Dabber. Overstamp each one with one of the Texture or word stamps. Attach one or two eyelets to each heart and then knot a piece of raffia through the holes. Use these to further embellish the tags.
 - Add a little journaling to explain the photographs.
 - Punch a hole in the centre right of each tag and loop a piece of ribbon through each hole.
 TIP: If you don’t have the right colour of ribbon, do what I did. Simply hold the ribbon on the surface of an ink pad in the correct colour, and gently pull the ribbon between the pad and your finger. Repeat on the other side of the ribbon and you have a perfectly matching shade! Messy but it works really well. I have to admit to wearing some latex gloves! - I kept the front cover very simple. A rectangle of brown card, offset with a rectangle of cream hammered card. The cream card was first stamped with the Double-sided Crackle stamp in Walnut Stain ink. Then it was stamped with the words from the Words Plate in the same colour of ink.
 - The inside front page has a booklet made from cream hammered card stamped in the same way as the panel on the front. Inside the pages are made from paper stamped along the bottom with the Collage Splatter stamp and Walnut Stain ink. A hole is punched in the top left and threaded with raffia and the booklet is then attached with double-sided tape.
 - The outside back simply has a decorated heart and the With Love stamp in the bottom left hand corner.
- Place the inner pages inside the outer page and punch two holes in the spine. Thread ribbons through to hold the pages together and tie in a bow on the front of your book.
Take a look at the pictures of the Tag Book Card that Pat made for the card swap and you’ll soon see how different it can look. You’ll also realise just how many different occasions can be featured in a tag book like this. The Finished Tag Book!
Have fun! 
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Japanese Lace Paper Set
