Mini accordian books make a nice addition to your pages and are easy to make. There are endless ways of customizing them, and provide a way to include several more photos on your layout without over-crowding!

The first thing to do is to choose your paper. It needs to be 12" x 12" even if your layout is a smaller format. I recommend using cardstock for this to add stability.

For this first example I am using a piece of plain, white cardstock.

• Using a ruler, draw a line at four inches and at eight inches. I used a pen so that my lines would be visible to you. When you construct your mini-accordian book you will want to use light pencil lines so you can erase them later.
  
  
  
  Cut your cardstock into three strips at those lines. Using a paper cutter will give you straighter edges than if you cut by hand.
  
  
  
  
• Once you have three strips, mark three quarters of an inch at one end of two strips and fold back at the three quarter inch mark. For the middle strip you will need to fold back ONE HALF of 3/4 of an inch on both ends. This space at the ends of your strips will be where you attach the strips together. Do not unfold this area when dividing the strips into thirds to construct your pages.
  
  
• Erase any visible lines that you have drawn.
  
  
• Attach the pages together in a straight line. The best thing to use for this is a sticky two-sided tape. Be sure to check the labeling for the acid-free status.
  
  
• Now you are ready to fold the pages of your book. Carefully determine where to divide so that the pages will take up exactly one third of the remaining space.
  
  
• Fold one third of the page up then the last third of the page down so as to form an accordian fold.
  
  
• Repeat with the other two strips.
  
  
  
  You now have nine pages all ready to embellish! The possibilities are endless! Some ideas are mesh, tags, serendipities or deco squares. You may use many photos, or a few photos with lots of journaling or embellishments, the choice is yours. When including photos in your mini-accordian book you will want to crop your photos down to a mini size or print them in one quarter to one half size. My Canon photo printer has the option of printing photos in these mini sizes, and it is a feature I use a lot.
  
  One thing that my family really enjoys visiting the zoo. I have many, many zoo trip pages in my albums. I have to get creative so that all of my layouts don't start to look alike. Using a mini-accordian book can help. There are so many ways to customize it, and don't forget the advantage of being able to add in several more photos also.
  
  I chose a green 12 x 12 sheet of Magic Mesh to cover the front of my mini-accordian book. You could insted run two strips of the regular rolled Magic Mesh right next to each other on the cover of your mini-book. I added a strip of Mrs. Grossman's Stickers by the Yard for a border at the bottom. To continue the giraffe theme throughout I added small squares of giraffe print paper to each of my mini-accordian book pages. The Mrs. Grossman's Stickers by the Yard continued as a border at the bottom of each page.
  
  This mini-accordian book was put into a memorabilia pocket on the outside of the page protector.
  
  
  
  Here is what the inside of the book is like:
  
  
  
  
  
  Mini-Accordian Book Supplies:
  Brown Patterned Paper, Scrapbook Wizard
  Light Brown Cardstock, DMD
  Mrs. Grossman's Stickers by the Yard
  Giraffe Stickers, NDR Designs
  White Cardstock
  Giraffe Charm, Watch Us
  Wild Things Giraffe Paper, Paper Pizazz
  Tiny Black Buttons, Leaf Button
  Script Font, Sizzix
  Memorabilia Pocket, 3-L
  Additional supplies used on layout:
  Patterned Paper, Provocraft
  Brown Cardstock, DMD
  Green Magic Mesh 12 x 12 Sheet
  
  In this rhino -accordian book, I purposely "beat it up." The book is constructed slightly off center, and I used a "Scrapper's Block" to distress the pages. You could use some light grain sand paper instead. My daughter remembers the rhinos as fighting with one another, so the beat up look just fits with her memories of her visits to the zoo.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Materials used:
  Pieced Leather Paper (Karen Foster Design)
  Brownish patterned (Provocraft)
  White cardstock
  Silver 12 x 12 Magic Mesh Sheet
  Textured Stickers (Sticker Studio)
  Rhino sticker (Sandy Lion)
  Black Polka Dot stickers (MAMBI)
  Black Stripe Slide Mount sticker (Memories Complete)
  
  Your mini-accordian books can be on any topic you choose, of course. They can be of an educational nature, such as my zoo books, or they can be pure fun!
  
  "Let it Snow" is embellished simply with just Magic Mesh and stickers.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This fun little book can be used in your winter pages to illustrate so many things! Use quarter or half-sized photos, or use it as a mini-journal to record your memories of a fun day of play in the snow.
  
  Our final example is taking us to the opposite extreme, weather-wise. Just as we used the colors white and a cool blue mesh to illustrate the feeling of a winter day, this example will uses color to give the feel of the topic. Again, we are using mesh and stickers to embellish our book.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I hope you have fun with the possibilities of a mini accordian book. Don't forget to show us in the gallery what you do with them!
  
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