Hello, friends! Today, I want to show you how to make this cute mini 12-page Instagram photo book. It’s perfect for a personal collection or as a thoughtful gift for someone special. What I love about this little book is that it requires no adhesive or sewing. All you need is a sheet of paper, a small piece of scrapbook or chiyogami paper for the cover, a ruler, and a craft knife.
Cut an 11″ x 2.75″ strip from an A4 or Letter-sized sheet of paper. Fold the paper in half lengthwise, then unfold it and fold it in half again in the other direction. Next, accordion-fold the paper to create eight panels. Unfold it—you’ll see the crease lines as shown in the sketch below. Using your craft knife, cut along the vertical fold between the six inner panels, then mountain-fold the paper in half lengthwise (see Photo 1). Finally, accordion-fold the paper (see Photos 2 and 3) to form the pages.
Note: The last page will be slightly narrower than the others, but this won’t be noticeable once the cover is added.
For the cover, cut a 5.75″ x 3″ piece of scrapbook paper or colored paper (see Photo 1 below). Fold the top and bottom edges inward lengthwise so they meet in the middle, ensuring the cover is slightly taller than the pages (Photo 2). Wrap the cover around the pages, aligning it so there is an equal amount of overhang on each side (Photo 3), then fold the flaps over (Photo 4). Repeat the same process on the other side. Finally, insert the end pages into the cover flaps (Photo 5).
And there you have it—a 1.5″ x 1.5″ mini book! (Photo 6)
To add photos to the pages without using glue, I cut a diagonal slit at all four corners of each page, allowing me to tuck in the photos (see image below). Another option is to print the images directly onto the paper before folding. I’ve created a template (click to download) in Adobe Illustrator, where you can easily insert your images into the designated spaces. (Basic knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is required.)
So that’s it! Below is the mini Instagram photo book of my Jackie. I designed the cover myself, and if you’d like to use it, feel free to download the free PDF file. :)
You could use this mini book for other things as well, like a stamp book or for flower petal collection, poem, little journal, drawing… anything you could think of that’s small enough to fit. Total adorableness! :)
This is great! I’ve made books with a similar fold, but never with so many pages or with such a sweet little cover. Well done!
Thank you (^。^)
Well these are simply adorable. So tiny & perfect! I can’t believe you didn’t use any glue to put this together – very ingenious. Thanks for sharing!
I am proud of you LiKim
Thank you m.e. I love your miniature egg shell bedroom sculpture, they are amazing! I love all things miniature as well. :)
Thanks Jocelyn. :)
Love it, saw this a few minutes ago and made one already :)
Hannah.
http://surfjewels.tumblr.com/
Omg these are brilliant i dont have any scissors and they still worked! Used stickers for front cover and named my book minecraft to build book. Defonatley going to recomend. Sorry comment is so long i dont mean to be a bore
I’m glad it works. Stickers are a great idea!
Saw your mini book, really nice! And i love the heart shape paper you used on the cover. ♥
I love this so much!! But I’ve been trying to figure out for so long now how you made the thicker version? Did you just use a longer strip of paper, or did you make several and somehow attach them together?
Thanks so much!!
Hi Kristi, the thicker version is made from several of the small one but i have to use glue. I just added to my picture thought they look good together. :)
I read this and just had to make one – voila! Dang if this isn’t the cutest thing. I too have made the simpler one with fewer pages from 8×11 sheet but love this mini size. I wrote the instructions and dimensions inside this one so I will have it for future reference. Thanks so much. I can see myself making lots of these in the days and weeks to come.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoy this little mini book :)
I really want to make the thicker one (in the last picture) is there a tutorial for that one somewhere? I love this little book tutorial , so C U T E ! (I made it two seconds after I saw the photos!
Thanks so much for the toot and also for the freebies!!
You’re welcome Sheree. For the thicker one, you make 4 or five of the page (pic 1-4) and glue them together. Cover size will be the same just wrap around the spine, should have plenty to fold back inside the front and back cover.