I love wallet-size photos. Even more, I love to show off my kids. This photo wallet is a quick and easy way to do just that! I can see myself making these for Christmas. The concept is easy. It's a piece of paper folded up and closed like a wallet. Inside, you will find a place for photos and journaling. It fits perfectly inside a purse and you can decide what size to make it.

Supplies needed:

• 2 sheets of double-sided patterned paper OR 2 sheets of cardstock
• adhesive
• paper trimmer

Instructions:

1. I started off with a 12" x 12" piece of double-sided patterned paper. Placing my photo on the paper, I measured where to cut my paper giving a nice bit of space around my photo for other papers and embellishments. If you don't have a photo as a guide, cut your paper to 12" x 6". This will fit a 3" x 5" photograph.
   
   
   
   
2. Score the paper and fold it at 3.5", 7", and 10.5". This should leave a little piece left over. This will be your "flap" for the wallet.
   
   
   
   
3. Holding your second sheet of paper, place it on your photo wallet. You're using the wallet as a template of where to fold the paper. You want a nice mat around the paper. Fold the paper in half, leaving the same distance around the three edges (bottom, left and right). See photo for visual.
   
   
   
   
4. Once folded, cut your paper at 3", 6" and 9". This will give you four pieces of folded paper. Put one aside. Glue your folded pieces of paper inside the photo wallet as shown. Since I will be journaling on the inside of the folded papers, I like the flaps to face different directions so that it's not too visually overwhelming.
   
   
   
   
5. Now glue your photos inside the folded pieces of paper. You can mat your photos if you want, and if you have room. Embellish as desired. I plan on journaling on those stripes. Keep in mind that the wallet will be folding to close, so don't make your pages too lumpy.
   
   
   
   
6. Remember that extra folded paper that you set aside? Pull it out and unfold it. Cut a vertical strip 1" wide from it. It will be long and skinny.
   
   
   
   
7. Wrap your strip around your closed photo wallet and secure it with glue. Be sure not to glue to your photo wallet. You're just adhering the strip to itself to make a "band" around the wallet.
   
   
   
   
8. See where you glued the band together? You're going to put an embellishment there. Pull the band off and decorate as you wish. The point would be to cover the ends of the paper band. Slide the decorated band back onto the wallet and you're done!
   
   

This project was so fun and easy to make. You could make this an interactive greeting card (no photos needed). You could even rotate the wallet to open like a portfolio for your vertical photographs. It only takes two sheets of paper! That's $1.50 for a gift and it only took about 10 minutes! Enjoy and be sure to post your wallets in the gallery for us to see.