Happy Birthday, Rose!

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday! If you read this, Happy Birthday, Rose! And here is a sneak peak of the gift you will be receiving when we visit next weekend. :) It's a brag book (this particular one is called a Squash Book--you'll see why later in the post) that measures about 4" that is easy to put in your purse and show off to whomever is willing to look at darling pictures of 2 of your grandchildren! ;)

For the top and bottom, the directions called for 4" chipboard or coasters. I cut my squares from the most similar thing: a box of diapers (I can make a LOT of these, as there are many boxes of diapers in this household)!! To prevent advertisements such as 'leakproof' or 'drier nights mean drier mornings,' I covered the box with attractive paper from ScrapHappy. The flower die-cut is from Joys of the Season, and I used my white Signo pen to draw little dots around it.

A side view, showing the ribbon that holds it closed:
A view of the back: If you make a Squash Book for yourself, it is important to note that the ribbon is only adhered to one side of your book-either the front or the back (you'll see why in the last picture). I attached mine to the front, so the ribbon is just pulled across the bottom in the picture below--not glued on. Here is what it looks like fully opened:
It is hard to see, but if you look closely you can tell that the front of the book is attached at the lower left-hand picture, and the back of the book is attached to the upper right hand picture. This is why it's important to only adhere the ribbon to one side or the other--otherwise your book will not open. I chose to cut some of my pictures diagonally, but other options would be to use pictures that can fit into smaller triangles or to include journaling or other embellishments in those areas.

It is called a Squash Book because as you pull the front and back of the book together to close it back up, the pictures fold up onto each other, 'squashing' them.

There are several sets of directions for Squash Books on the web, but I used this video tutorial on YouTube from LytleScrapper. If you prefer written instructions, you can find them here on Splitcoaststampers.

Thanks for looking!