Hi All!

Cecily here – guest designing for October and super excited about it! Today, I wanted to share a new way to utilize the beautiful ten things templates. I crafted a ‘mini’ (I use that term loosely) book specifically to document my ten favorite things about fall and these templates are to die for! They made the process super quick and there’s plenty of ways to make it your own, which I love. My book’s total size is 12” x 12” inches, but because I love the effect of different page sizes (and the fun visual interaction they create) while browsing through scrapbooks, I decided to utilize the 12” x 12” template set and the 8 ½” x 11” template set in conjunction. To make this work, I simply alternated between sizes making sure to keep each page layout slightly different from the previous so it felt fun and intentional. I love the layered effect this technique lends the book and by binding the book myself and crafting a cardboard cover and tilte, I was able to make this book extra unique, which I love!

For the first page of my book I utilized the circle shaped clipping mask from the collection and simply layered some digitized watercolor strokes I had scanned in along with a hand-lettered title. I simply cropped the hand lettering within the clipping mask and it was done! I used my own title so I was able to appropriately title my page but you could also use an image or a font generated title if you’d like!

For the remainder of the book, I utilized the various templates available in the kits and switched up the placement of title and photo pages so the book felt varied. I also utilized a variety of the page options – full-page image, circle cropped image, etc etc to keep the book looking fresh as you flip through. To carry some repetition from my title page throughout, I clipped the various watercolor strokes to one of the circles from each template, and used that to place the title of the thing that I was discussing on the page. That was a fun way to vary the color palette of the book and really make it work for my theme!

Throughout the book, I added journaling when it felt right to me, as well as notations sporadically where I felt they added benefit to the page. Aside from that, it was a really clean and simple process with the use of the templates.

When my templates were all done and I was happy with each layout, I simply printed the pages out onto Canon Pro Premium Matte paper (it was a 13”x19” paper size), trimmed each one, and attached the two sides together with spray adhesive. You could definitely choose to print yours double sided, but because I was binding mine by hand I wanted the added benefit of two thicknesses together. Once I had my sheets printed, I wrapped the edges that were getting bound in scotch tape to help reinforce the edge. I then crafted the covers out of cardboard (including the fun title which I cut out with an x-acto and then painted with white acrylic paint), punched the binding holes with an awl, and stitched everything together using the single sheet binding method. If you’d like to learn that yourself, check out this youtube video.

That’s all, folks! I hope you’ll run and purchase this template set and give it a go in a new way – it’s great design is wonderfully versatile and you can use it to list all sorts of top tens. In fact, I may make a new ‘mini’ book for each season, will you?

Xo,
Cecily | The Paper Curator

Products Used: Ten Things Bundle (12×12 and 8.5×11)