Valentine's Day Flipbook for Friend Mail
Hey there!
Who doesn’t love going to the mailbox and finding a letter or card from a friend? Everyone loves friend mail. Saturday I showed you my friend mail exploding envelope. Even though it’s an easy craft, it does require quite a bit of paper stash. I wanted to create something that everyone could make with minimal purchases.
I thought making a flipbook with you might be the easiest and it doesn’t require anything fancy. You just use what you have or if you are starting out a few simple things that you will have to purchase. You don’t have to do everything I do. Feel free to pick and choose. And, I know that this might look intimidating but it is super easy! Don’t worry.
One of the things that you are going to need is a paper pad or at least 4 sheets of paper. I like paper pads for these projects. The reason that I like paper pads is because they generally come with cutouts. You might spend $7 or $10 on a paper pad but you can get 10-20 (or more) gift ideas from it. That’s worth it in my book.
Where do you get paper pads? Michaels, JoAnn, Hobby Lobby, Target, Walmart, almost any place that sells glitter and glue.
I wanted a 6” X 6” flip book. I made mine with 6 pages in between a back and front cover. All I did was cut my back and front from a piece of 12” X 12” paper by cutting it in half.
I used clear tape to put the two halves of the 12” X 12” paper together. You don’t add double tape to the pages. You just add regular tape in the middle to get a hinged look. If you do this, you’ll have 6 pages plus the cover. If you don’t want to do this, just fold the paper over and you’ll have the covers and insides. That’s just as pretty.
Once I had my book in place, I added patterned paper to the blank sides of the paper. I used paper from my Valentine’s paper pad. I didn’t use really busy pages because I knew that I was going to add decorations.
So what are you going to decorate your friend mail with? I use lots of things that are inexpensive.
I always pickup stickers from dollar stores. They are cute additions to friend mail. I use to worry about them being too kiddie but if friends find them to be too kiddie for themselves they will give them to kids in their lives. But, most folks will like them.
I always say that pockets mean more places to hide goodies. I like taking paper and gluing three sides down and leaving one side open for a pocket. I did that but I also took some of my Dollar Store hearts, overlapped them and created a pocket out of them.
What do you put in your pockets? Everything! I used cut outs, cupcake picks (hey! They make great additions for DIYs) and a shaker flag. You know I love my shakers!
The wooden clip is a DIY. I painted some clothes pins and covered others with paper. Then I went to town decorating them. So easy!
I did the same type of thing with the plastic paper clips. Sticky back foam hearts and a dab of glue for extra security and you have a fun friend mail piece. You can also make them for your planner. Last year I made clips and tassels. This year I made a tassel but it will be for my closure.
You can keep decorating as much as you like or if you have paper left over, make a second flipbook for another friend. No one will say no thank you to these.
I linked my how to post for the paper clips and tassels but if you’d like to see how I made my clothes pin clips, come back Saturday for a tutorial. Afterall, you bought a paper pad -- we have to use it!
