Anything Book Tip: Adding A Photo Group

I'm currently working on a special Anything Book of my own. My book is Mermaid, and it is recording my personal and business transformation. What I'm sharing today comes from my personal book.

This week, I visited my local IKEA and ended up taking a series of pictures that I wanted to add to my Anything Book as a group. I could have added them as a gallery and take up a whole page. But I decided I wanted to try something different.

So I got the idea to use an IKEA showroom map brochure (tri-fold) to hold these pictures together. They are free and available in the store.

I used a showroom floor mpa from IKEA to create a mini book inside my Mermaid Anything Book (art journal).

First, I trimmed the brochure down to just under 6 inches, the height of my Anything Book pages. Then I glued it into the book at the outer edge of a page.

Next, I started adding the photos. I created both wallet size and 2x2 inch sizes of the photos. I laid them out and started looking for items to fill in between them. Mostly, I used postage stamps and matchbook covers because they are about the same size and my photos. I also added in some washi tape and I made a tab from some scrap paper. It's an art journal, so anything goes!

Here's what the finished mini book looks like:

The IKEA brochure installed as a mini book at the outer edge of a page.

Here's the front of the brochure covered with photos, stamps, washi tape and a matchbook cover. If you pull on the tab, the accordian fold opens up to show you all three panels.

The IKEA brochure opened up to show all of the images inside.

I chose items with the lime green color of my top for extra fun. As you can see, I took some silly pictures of my shoes on the escalator and at one of the ubiquitous blue arrows located throughout the store.

I called this my Cheeky Monkey day because I felt silly taking pictures of myself in the mirror front of various cabinets (and in one showroom mirror). But once I started taking them, I was on a roll.

On the back side, I wrote the story of this day and why I was taking the pictures.

The back side of my mini book has my journaling about this day and these pictures.

You might want to use this idea for a visit to a park, attending an event, or anything else that provides a brochure. By using the brochure as the basis for the mini book, it ties together the photos with the place. I covered the brochure with image, but you could strategically place them so that your brochure is still readable. There are no rules! Do what seems good to you.

Anything Books tend to get bulky at the rings. So by adding some bulk to the outer edge of the page, it helps to balance out the thickness of the book. It also keeps from adding even more bulk to the ring area.

I loved this idea so much that I immediately added more brochures to the edges of several unfinished pages. These are still empty. But when I fill them, I'll share them here.

You can do this! You can create a beautiful record of your normal, everyday life with an Anything book. Check out my Etsy store for more information about my Anything Books. An Anything Book is an art journal where you add your own art or use it as a scrapbook of your daily living.