Hopping with Tombow! {Mini Color Book}

Hello! I'm so excited for today. . . .I'm blog hopping with the designers from Tombow! 

Tombow makes all kinds of great adhesives and supplies for papercrafters.  Today I am sharing a project that was inspired by one of Tombow's products - their Fastener Tabs.  

Tombow Fastener Tabs  are like velcro, but they're paper thin, and perfect for papercrafting! I used the tabs to create an interactive book for THIS cute little guy. . . .

You may have seen this project last week on the Paper Crafts Connection. (If you missed it, you can click over and check out more pictures there!) Today I'm going to share a few tips and tricks about creating your own board book. 

Here's the premise of the book - each page focuses on a color.  Each image on the page is attached with Fastener Tabs.  That way, I can pull all the images from the book, and my son can match them on the pages where they belong. I had a great time going through my stash of stamps to find images to match each color.  I stamped and colored each one, trimmed it, and adhered the Fastener Tabs.  In the next two images you can see both sides of the red pepper. If you look carefully, you'll see one side of the tab attached to the book, and in the second picture, you can see the coordinating tab on the pepper.

Let me talk for a minute about the actual BOOK.  I created this book with 6x6 sheets of chipboard.  You can trim pieces from a box or packaging - or you can buy a premade chipboard book.  I covered the 6x6 sheets with patterned paper, on the front and back of each. After covering each piece with patterned paper, I adhered them together using We R Memory Keepers Washi Adhesive Sheets.  (Think washi tape, on a sheet.) This stuff is great - you can cut it to whatever size you want (in this case, I trimmed 2x6 inch strips) I adhered each chipboard piece to the next, and then used one strip to cover the outside covers of the book.

{Note: Words or images that you want stamped directly onto pages should be done BEFORE attaching the book together - otherwise you might have a not-quite-flat surface to stamp on.}

A few other tips and tricks that I learned along the way:

*Use extra heavy cardstock or adhere two sheets of cardstock together, for extra strength and sturdiness of your images.  You could also laminate them before adhering the tabs, to make them more durable for little hands.

*Even if you don't have children at home, think about gifts for family members, or even a friend who might be a teacher or childcare worker. 

*Choosing images that have coordinating dies, will make less cutting work for you!

*Other board book possibilities: a number or alphabet book, or an interactive album with family pictures. The possibilities are endless!

If you're just joining in the Tombow blog hop, here's the lineup! 

Tombow Blog:
http://blog.tombowusa.com/

Debbie:
http://debbiedee.blogspot.com/

Melissa:

http://www.inkclinations.blogspot.com/

Jennie:

http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Marie:

http://mariebrowning.wordpress.com/

Laura: (you are HERE!)
http://lauralooloo.blogspot.com/     

Tombow Blog:
http://blog.tombowusa.com/

The more blogs you comment on, the better your chance of winning a FABULOUS Tombow prize pack, including the Fastener Tabs that I used on today's project, plus Tombow Foam Tabs and Power Tabs. The winner will be announced Friday the 23rd at 3:30 EST.

Thanks so VERY much for stopping by today! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, or email me any time! Hugs!

xoxo

Supplies: stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn (including Quinn's alphabet stamps), Paper Smooches, and The Stamps of Life (including the crayons and their coordinating dies) washi adhesive sheets - We R Memory Keepers, patterned paper - Pebbles Inc