A Paper Magazine As a Gift

This Christmas, I received FLOW: A Book for Paper Lovers, a delightful collection celebrating the art of paper. (Thank you so much for the wonderful gift Jennifer!) 

Inspired by its beauty and creativity, I decided to craft a handmade paper magazine for two special people in my life: my sister, and my mom as gifts.

I gathered a variety of papers—textured, patterned, and plain card stock. To reflect their personalities I went through my craft and card stock paper. For my mom, I chose soft pastels and floral prints, lots of bicycles and for my sister, Jennifer, bold and vibrant patterns, lots of Halloween themed paper and stickers. Each of these piece of paper is a canvas, to inspire their creative uses/ideas. 

Creating this book was so much fun and I look forward to their reaction and creations. This experience reminded me of the power of handmade gifts and the inspiration that can come from unexpected places.

As we all like to make and create sometimes sharing our crafts with friends and family can be just as fun. The following steps will show you how I quickly made these fun gifts that share your paper crafts, stickers or card stock.

This book keep in mind, is not for reading, but for sharing a collection of cool printed paper for your friend to use and create their own fun paper arts. So, make sure that there is all different types of paper stuff so that they can have fun making paper crafts too!

I used packing tape for attaching anything, or covering stickers so they never peel off

Stacks of my own craft paper, note pads, stickers, card stock and other paper items.

A paper cutter and scissors

A stapler

Permanent markers

Decorate your title page, I used a very large shiny sheet of 11x17 inch paper.

My title of my Magazine is "Paper Works" and I used stickers and crafting tape for the boarder.

On the side of the magazine for keeping the center pages in place I used the stapler to put 3 to 4 staples along the edge.

You can add as many pages as you like, but be sure to anchor them inside the cover with staples.

I wanted my front page of my Paper Magazine gift to explain why this gift was made and how special it is to be able to share my hobby of paper crafts with them. I made two, one for my mom and one for my sister, so I cut the printed page out with my paper cutter.

After trimming the description page, I used packing tape and attached it to the first inside page.

I then moved on to making paper holders/folders to hold the paper gifts.

Using pretty paper you can fold and make a holder for the card stock paper or scrap book making paper. I cut all of mine stock into widths of 6 inches. The stickers and other odd shaped paper i made a holder with the sides and bottom closed so that nothing can fall out. I taped them to the center page of the magazine and the last page.

I used a index card to allow me to place a large loop of tape on the back to attach the paper stock holder.

Since this gift is from you, you can add anything else you would like to your paper book. If you like you can add calendar pages, stencils, note pads and other fun paper items.

You can add fun maker hints, quotes or decorate your gift book however you would like. Draw or create instructions for your paper ideas.

Make the gift special by adding fun paper items you have made: greeting cards, games, or a picture frame with a photo of you and your loved one!

Have fun and keep making!