Make It! Mini-Coloring Books!

Originally the plan was on making teeny tiny notepads for Maggie's party favors.  However, before starting I ran into a stack of copies I had made from Lincoln's Disney Ice Capades coloring book.  Hmmm, I suppose that was illegal for me to do but what was happening was Lincoln would color a page in his book and then be crazy irrational when his favorite characters were no longer available for coloring.  [side note: Maggie is also happy/sad/irrational at the exact same moments her brothers choose to be.  So considerate of her because the only thing better than one kid throwing a fit would be two or three!]   Can you blame a mom?  Out of NECESSITY I made like a dozen of the Mad Hatter and Alice sheets for him and Maggie, since she too had taken up Lincoln's cause,  but of course they lost interest shortly thereafter.   Stuck with these papers, and not wanting them to go to waste, it seemed necessary to revamp the mini-notebook plan and make mini-coloring books.  It took a while to figure out how to fold them since we were creating them on the fly.  Jack was also hard at work trying to perfect "his" mini-coloring book as well.  Once I created the best folding strategy, they were easy to crank out.  We made the girl's mini-coloring book opened to Alice and the boy's to the Mad Hatter. 

After Jack and I finished, both Maggie and Lincoln were still napping....really, what would you have done?   Is it totally weird that I made an extra one to color myself?  Errr, I used it as a lesson on how to shade with crayons for Jack!

Really, you could make these out of anything but I loved those mini parcel tags and had to justify my purchase at Knot&Bow somehow.  For the boys' Sherlock Holmes birthday party, I'm going to do the mini book using the library cards that I also purchased from Knot&Bow....can't wait!
 

Make It!

1. Supplies: Mini Parcel Tags, Baker's Twine, Glue and 8x8 paper.  2. fold all mini parcel tags in half and cut 16" twine for each tag.  3. Take one 8x8 sheet, image up.  4.  Fold image in half, folding upwards (mine had the Mad Hatter on the back, don't let it confuse you!).  5.  Again, fold in half going upwards.  6.  Unfold and prepare parcel tab at corner.  Paper should have 4 horizontal segments.  7.  Place glue on part of tag that you are going to attach to paper, leave a little space free of glue near folded edge.  8.  Secure tag to corner of paper, making sure that it is centered within first segment  9.  Fold paper upwards back into previous four segments from step 6.  The turn so that back side is facing up.  10.  Fold in half, upwards.  11.  Take the segment folding in step 9 and fold only that segment in half BUT this time fold back.  12.  flip booklet so tag is on table and fold last segment in  13.  Double knot baker's twine in mini-tab circle, leaving a 4" tail on the short end and the other 12" on the other end.  14. Wrap longer end around booklet twice.  15.  Meet back at original double knot and secure with a bow.