Tuesday Tutorial with Brooke

Aloha CTK friends!

Brooke here, to share a quick and easy way to add a fun element to your traveler's notebook!  More and more I see people jumping on the TN train and that makes me so excited!  I hope this easy tutorial will be the push you need if you're on the fence about starting one.  There really are so many ways in which to use the TN system in memory-keeping and scrapbooking.  I approach it as a sort of mini album that I work on one spread at a time as inspiration strikes.

When I recieved the March Pocket Life Kit, I knew I wanted to use the 6x6 papers to create a pocket on one side of the spread in my notebook.  I started out by choosing papers I thought could work for what I had in mind.

After cutting the paper that would be the back of the pocket to size, I cut the paper that would become the front of the pocket, keeping it a quarter of an inch larger on the the two sides and bottom.  This would allow me to create a pocket that's nicely finished, with a little more room and less chance for tearing.

I scored the front pocket piece of paper at about a quarter of an inch on three sides.  These sides would eventually be folded in to create flaps that I would adhere to the notebook page.

Because I didn't really measure the paper size precisely, I made sure the front and back pieces matched up, before going any further.

The next step involved stitching because I love the way a stitched pocket looks.  Here I used the stitching as decoration only.  I was careful to stitch on the inside of the score lines.

At this point, I started questioning my paper choices and weighed a few options.  Because I knew my photos were being printed in b/w, I wanted the pocket to be colorful.

After deciding on the yellow patterned paper for my backing (if yellow's in the mix it almost always wins), I folded the scored sides back and rolled adhesive onto all three sides.

I glued the front of the pocket down first (which may seem a little odd, but wait....) and then trimmed the tinest of slivers off the background paper so the bottom portion could easily slide into the pocket to create a backing.  This is important because as you can see below, the pocket is now smooth on the inside, allowing you to slide your photos or cards into the pocket without getting stuck on the flaps from the front.

Here's a look at the completed pocket:

I edited my photos and placed them onto a gride format using an app on my phone.  Then I printed and cut them down the center to create photo strips.  After adding my photos into the pocket, I played around with the placement of a few die-cuts from the Pinkfresh Studio pack.

The pink gltter alpha added just the right amount of pizazz for my title and I loved that I could fit the letters right onto the banner die-cut.

The right-hand side of the page was kept simple.  Journaling, along with a few of the exclusive wood veneers from the kit, added the perfect finishing touch.  Here's a look at the final spread:

This fun, intereactive pocket concept could easily be translated for a traditonal pocket page spread or even a miniu album or scrapbook page to include some hidden journaling.  I hope this tutorial has you excited and inspired to use your kit!  Please let me know if you any questions, I am more than happy to help!

Thank you so much Trina and her team for their kindness and support!  I am so excited and honored to have been chosen as the Guest Designer for March and I cannot wait to see your projects using this kit in the gallery and be inspired by you all!!!