Photo Tutorial: Tall Tag Book

Thanks for joining me for another fun photo tutorial in my 2011 Back to School Tutorial Blitz! The project I have to share with you today is a Tall Tag Book, made with a single sheet of Designer Series double-sided paper (DSP). This is a fun thing to do with those random leftover single sheets of DSP remaining after another project!

I made mine into a little gratitude journal using the Day of Gratitude stamp set. It is also mailable, using the Small Open-End Envelopes (item #107286 on page 182 of the 2011-12 Idea Book & Catalog). That makes it a great gift for grandmas or aunties, as well as a wonderful gift card holder–it has six pockets!

To start, you'll need one 12×12 sheet of DSP (I used Spice Cake from the new Holiday Mini Catalog); your Simply Scored board; two 8-inch pieces of ribbon (I used the new Pool Party ruffled ribbon); Sticky Strip (regular SNAIL is not sufficient for the stress this project undergoes); the Round tab punch; Wide oval punch; and stamps, ink and coordinating cardstock to embellish the book and to make the tags (I used River Rock, Pear Pizzaz and Soft Suede.)

Score your DSP in half (6 inches), then turn it 90- degrees and score it at 3, 6 and 9 inches as shown here with the handy-dandy place markers on the Simply Scored tool. Fold it up on that half line so that the fold runs along the bottom towards you, and accordion-fold on those 3, 6 & 9 inch scores.

You will see that you have four "quarter panels." Fold down the corner on the last quarter panel as shown (I held it down with a dimensional). Then flip the whole thing over and fold down the corner on the last quarter panel on that side as well.

Put a little line of Sticky Strip on both of those folded quarter panels to form the first two pockets. You'll also need a little piece of Sticky Strip on the bottom-edge inner fold of your accordion, as shown below:

That forms your third pocket in the center "page" of the book. Right now it is four thicknesses, but we will be changing that to be only two in the end.

Now, there's two different steps in the photo below. First, you're going to use Sticky Strip to attach the long ribbon across the back, leaving the two ends hanging to tie the book shut later.

Next, slice down just one thickness of the center page's two-ply fold about three inches, and then tear across back towards the spine. Then slice down to the tear and detach that piece entirely.

You'll need to add a teeny piece of Sticky Strip to the triangular point that is left out there on it's own, as shown below (ignore that piece we detached, it doesn't belong in this photo. I get a little messy when I'm on a roll and my stamping area shrinks and shrinks until I end up working in this little 6×6 inch workspace, using the paper trimmer on my lap and sitting on the floor to do the Big Shot.)

Put Sticky Strip on the sides and bottom edges of the detached piece and adhere it to the inside of the front "cover" as shown above. This makes another pocket. Then take the corner of the facing page and fold that back and secure with a dimensional just like we did to make the first two pockets (no photo for that, sorry).

Remember how that center page started with four thicknesses? It should be down to two at this point. Use the Wide Oval punch, inserted about half way, to notch out an opening as shown. That completes the sixth and final pocket!

Then all that is left to do is embellish your book and make some cute tags with the Round Tab punch. You may have to slice a little off the edges of some of the tags to get them to slide easily in and out of the pockets, depending on which type of pocket the tag is going in. The large center tag can be 5.5 by 2.5 inches wide, but the others may have to be 2.25 or 2 inches depending.

Here it is all tied shut. Once you have made one, you probably won't even need to refer to the tutorial any more–the scoring is simple and you just turn each quarter-panel into a pocket. What an easy project! Enjoy, and thanks for popping in! Let me know if you need to order some of the Spice Cake Suite products used here, or click here to go to my shopping website and browse!