More fun with office equipment (no condoms required)
Another project to share with crafty_tardis - Welcome, if you've come from there.
Here are pictures of the Mini Scrapbook I made for my action figures...
I ran out of pictures and ideas before I ran out of room, so there are still some blank pages to fill at the end when I find others. I thought I'd just paste them into the hard copy as I found them. This scrapbook is themed so that it can be Ianto's and clearly, I've just made stuff up... I didn't keep it canon or anything - I worked with what photos I had and made up stories around them. If you want to make one of these yourself, I provide an empty, generic copy of the template as well as the exact one above.
Scrapbook for 1/6 scale action figures (or Barbie's)
Mine is Torchwood themed - Ianto-centric, but feel free to make your own!*
Finished book is just over 2" wide x 1.5" high x .25" thick
You need:
My pattern files in THIS ZIP (right mouse-click, save link as) or at the end of this post
A color printer
Good quality paper - letter/A4 sized
A piece of medium weight cardboard (something thick enough to be a hard cover but still thin enough to work in miniature.)
A *dry* glue (like a gluestick or rubber cement)
Scissors
First of all, if you can't figure out my instructions, I got the basic idea of how to build this from the "Print-Yourself Mini Book" kits and there is a massively fabulous video tutorial at this page. Watch the assembly and cover vids and you won't have a whit of trouble with this. The only thing I do different is that I'm using paper and glue instead of a custom cut sticker paper.
1) Print out the cover and interior pages with a color printer on the highest quality setting (or your pictures will be grainy and blurred.) I suggest you use a premium Laserjet paper rather than your average budget recycled copy paper. The premium Laserjet paper is a little bit thicker, much whiter, and has a smoother finish - This will help in the final construction and your photos will be crisper.
2) You should let the printout's dry thoroughly (a couple of hours even) to minimize smearing ink and to ensure the pages dry really flat. When dry, cut out all the pages as precisely as possible - everything is going to have to line up in the folding process. You will cut off the excess white space from both the printouts and on the the interior page printout cut apart the rows of scrapbook pages ONLY WHERE I'VE INDICATED ON THIS DIAGRAM. You will wind up with a long zig-zag strip of paper with the scrapbook pages all lined up in a sort of filmstrip.
3) Fold the interior scrapbook pages. Start with the first frame at the top left corner of the block. Fold that first frame forward over the second - like a book. :-) Then fold the second frame in the opposite direction. Then fold the third frame forward. Etc. when you reach the end of a row and are forced to go to the next one, I think you can see which way you are supposed to fold... Keep going - This is going to work in the end, I promise. :)))
4) When you have finished the folding (and if you have done it right) you will find that you have the innards of a book which should have all the pages in the correct direction and order - The pages just need to be glued together now. Glue all the backs of the pages together and let the whole thing dry, as flat as you can manage. Use a drier glue for this or your paper will saturate and the printout ink will get ruined! I used rubber cement but you may find a better glue to use.
5) You will need to cut out the pieces of cardboard needed for the cover. You need two separate pieces for the cover, each measuring 2" wide x 1 5/8" high - and one piece for the spine which measures 1/4" wide x 1 5/8" high.
6) Build the outside cover: Take the printout of the cover and fold or mark it on the back side in some way to guide you in placing the cardboard pieces - I did this by folding the cover on those lines on the printout where the spine creases and becomes the front of the book - it's a distance of 1/2" between them. Lay the printout face down an line the cardboard up against those fold lines and center in the middle from top to bottom - glue the cardboard pieces in their proper spots - Use a drier glue for this or your paper will saturate and the printout ink will get ruined! Fold over and glue down the excess cover printout on the two long sides of the cover. Then do the ends - There is a helpful little corner technique illustrated in those vids I pointed to above which make this work well - I don't know how to describe it. You will also need to fold/score/glue the open spaces between the cover and spine cardboards into a working shape at this point - Again, watch the vids - It's really easy but I'm not sure how to instruct you here how to manage it.
7) Attach the inside of the book to the outside of the book: Set the spine edge of your scrapbook pages down into/on the cover spine strip of cardboard - Don't glue this down, it needs to move around in the handling of the book. Position and glue the front and back endpages to the hard covers in their proper positions. The hard cover is marginally larger than the interior pages so don't glue the endpages down right up to the exterior edge of the cover - Play around with positioning to find a place that looks good and allows the finished pages to turn properly and the spine to remain flexible.
That's it!
*You can make your own individualized scrapbook in the photo editing software of your choice or just create a blank one - Please feel free to use my templates as a starting point for making your own, I don't mind. I have included a generic, non-Torchwood version with blank pages for you to customize and use for other things. With the blank version, you can print out individual photos as you find them and glue them in the same way you would in r/l!
The pattern files are in THIS ZIP (right mouse-click, save link as) or, save them one by one here:
(These are full sized jpgs - I have just reduced the viewing size so my journal layout doesn't go wonky - When you save them, they will be bigger than they appear.)
A non-Torchwood, blank-interior version for you to customize and use for other things:
