flew the coop: Black Hat Society Art Coin Mini Book

Until a few months ago, I could not have told you what an ATC coin was. Well, the name says it all so maybe I could've made a pretty good guess. It took the May Kit from Alpha Stamps to introduce them to me (yes, I live under a rock) but I am here to tell you that they are a whole lot of fun! But you already knew that.

It isn't just coins that Alpha Stamps created; there are also square art coasters (clever!) and pockets, folders, and holders for all of your new art. Neat! I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the bits sent to me because, honestly, what couldn't you do with a bunch of these? In the end, I smashed a bunch of the pockets and folders together to make a mini album. I think a group of the little pockets and coins would be cute if glued vertically along a ribbon and hung on a wall. Maybe next time.

The book has two signatures, each of which is made from two 3" coin holders.

Page one is a 3" Simple Pocket:

Page two is a 3" Wallet and page three is another simple pocket:

The closure of the wallet is a spinning arrow attached with a brad. There's a small gold jump ring under the arrow to accommodate the width of the wallet's flap.

Pages four and five are made up of a 3" Square Folder:

Another great thing about these coins is getting to use up all of those scraps of super special paper that you cherish. You know, the paper that makes you feel like Gollum with his Precious? My Precious paper is for sure Authentique's Nightfall series. Love it!

The construction of the album is very basic. I used this chipboard for the album's covers and spine. The cover is made from two 3 1/4" squares and one 7/8" x 3 1/4" rectangle (spine). See third picture below. The first picture shows the hinges for the book pages. It is a 5 3/8" x 2 1/4" piece of cardstock with score marks at 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", 2 7/8", 3 3/8", and 3 7/8". Mountain fold the two creases at 2" and 3 3/8" and valley fold the others.

Mountain Folds at Red Arrows

Add glue to the back side of the mountain folds and pinch together, like so:

Cut out a rectangle of cardstock that measures 4 1/2" x 8 1/2". Glue your spine piece in the center followed by the front and back covers. If you score some guidelines on the cardstock, it makes it easier to line up the pieces. Be sure to leave a little space between the pieces.

Snip off the corners of the cardstock and ignore these measurements because they're wrong and I had to pay Twin 2 five dollars to edit the picture above. Apply glue to edges of the cardstock and fold over.

Align the hinge piece along the spine and glue in place.

All of the finished "pages" which are actually just the coin holders:

To make the book pages, slather glue along the top, side. and bottom of one folder. Clamp a second folder to it. Let dry. Repeat for the other folders. You will attach the pages by adding glue to the hinges and sliding the unglued portion between the pages over the hinges.