Making a Friendship Book Tutorial

MAKE A BASIC FB by AlwaysAmy

Supplies you will need:

• scissors
• stapler & staples
• paper for pages of booklet
  
• paper for cover of booklet (in this case, business cards or promo items but you can also use greeting cards, scrapbook paper or any other decorative paper)
• colorful ink pens to spice things up
  
• stamps with your business info (optional)

(Another reason I love swapping is because I get to play with office supplies & I am a bit obsessed with them!)

First gather up your supplies at your work desk or TV tray or whatever flat surface you use to make stuff on.

I am going to assume (for simplicity) that you will be using business cards or post card promo items as the 'cover' of these FBs. You don't have to do this. You can find other ways to add your business url to your swaps & then decorate the cover with collage. That's fine too. I do both but my new robot post cards are just too cute not to use for some FBs! I think my swap pals will love them!

Anyhoo, next you need to add all your info onto the FBs. Each Friendship Book needs to have the same basic information on them. Shipping info, swapping prefereneces, rather or not you are looking for pen pals & your shop info (in our case). I write my info in colorful ink & stamp my shop/shipping info onto the FBs. I also have a stamp that says, 'Free Shipping on Your First Order' that I add to some swaps. Or I write, 'Free Shipping to Swappers!' depending on the mood I am in.

(If you click on this picture you can see what I've written on the swaps more clearly. The empty blobs are where my address usually is.)

After you've got all your info on your swaps, it's time to make them into little books. Take some nice paper & staple your covers to your pages. I do not add very many pages, usually just 2 or 3. A lot of people have to sign a swap for it to get filled up & returned to you. If you add 8 pages it will take literally years & years for a swap to get back to you (if it ever does). So I like to keep them short & sweet with the hopes it will get them home safe to me.

(Stapling is fun!)

Then after everything is stapled neatly to some fun paper, it's time to cut them into little books. Remeber, these little things will go through dozens of people's hands. They are a direct connection to your business. Keep them neat & clean & fun looking. Make them eye catching with fun cards or collages on the covers & interesting paper for the pages. You want people to see this swap in a pile & pick it up & give it special attention, right? So don't make sloppy swaps!

(Snip, snip!)

& there you have it! These cute little FBs are ready to be sent to your swapping pals! These are some simple & fun Friendship Books that you can send out into the swapping world. Hopefully you will get them back (in a year or more) full of swappers signatures & pen pal requests. & along the way, they just might snag you a customer or two or more! One can hope!

If you have any questions at all about making swaps or passing swaps please just convo me on Etsy. I would love to chat with you about it & help you get started. Also, if you want to be my swap pal, I'd love to have you!

Have fun swapping Friendship Books!