On page 72-73 of the May issue of ScrapBook inspirations Jane Dean shared her ideas for adding interactive features to your scrapbook layouts. From a milkman's magic wallet to a concealed flap there are lots of things you can do to hide little surprises around your pages.

One design was a push/pull feature that reveals two hidden photographs when you know the trick. If you fancy making your own you can find a PDF of Jane's instructions for a Push-Me-Pull-You feature on her blog now. Have fun!

The May issue (40) of ScrapBook inspirations goes on sale next Tuesday, 29th April

In this issue you'll find...
* Eye-popping ideas make interactive pages and mini books with moving parts
* Fuss-free family portraits liven up group shots with our creative ideas
* Your designs 10 pages of layouts about days out and using circle designs
* Record conversations easy ways to document more on your layouts
* Touchy-feely ideas make a fabric mini book or add textiles to your pages
* Butterflies galore treat yourself to gorgeous new embellishments and papers
All this, plus loads more!

In the current issue (May, number 40 – on sale 29th April) of ScrapBook inspirations we featured Claire Malvern’s cool pop-up mini book about her sons. If you’re keen to make your own, here are step-by-step instructions for making the pages. Warning, there are lots of images to load on this page so it might take a while.

Step-by-step pop-up mini book

Basic supplies
Four sheets of cardstock
Double-sided tape
Craft knife, metal ruler and cutting mat
Paper trimmer
Pencil
Bone folder or scissors

Before you start: I strongly suggest you do a trial run of this mini book, before cutting into precious sheets of cardstock. I actually made two prototypes following Claire's instructions: the first one I made using paper, just to get a feel of the basic construction, and the second one I made using old cardstock. I learned a lot by doing this: like, you really do need strong adhesive because the cardstock is folded into so slightly awkward shapes! Also, accurate cutting and folding is key to making this book properly.

Making the outer and inner accordion books

1 Using a paper trimmer cut one piece of cardstock 26cm x 13cm and four pieces of cardstock 27.5cm x 13cm. So you can see what I'm doing I've used different coloured cardstock to make my mini book. Here you can see one orange piece (26cm x 13cm) and four pink and purple pieces, each measuring 27.5cm x 13cm.

2 Score and fold the smaller piece in half and sharpen the fold with a bone folder (you can just see this peeking in at the top). For the other four pieces, measure and mark at 13cm and 26cm points.

3 Score and fold the four pieces at the 13cm and 26cm points. Sharpen with the bone folder as before.

4 Starting with the piece without the flap (the shortest piece), Join all five pieces together using the 1.5cm flap on the four longer pieces to join each piece to the last one. Use strong adhesive such as double-sided tape along the entire length of the flap.

5 You now have the OUTER accordion book of your nested pop-up accordion book. Fold the outer accordion book into 10 pages. Leaving a page at the front and one at the back.

6 Cut one piece of cardstock 9cm x 26cm and thee pieces 9cm by 27.5cm. Measure and fold these in the same way as in steps 2-6 to make the INNER accordion book. (This INNER book will have 8 pages in total). Here I've used orange cardstock to make the smaller piece and turquoise to make the other three pages.

Joining the OUTER and INNER accordion books together

7 In each of the mountain folds (see the tip below for an explanation) of the eight inner pages you need to make two slits, one 2cm from the top and the other 2cm from the bottom. Measure and mark at these points.

Tip What is a mountain fold? When you look along the length of the page a mountain fold looks like a peak. A valley fold, helpfully, looks like a v-shape or a valley!

8 Use a craft knife and metal ruler to cut each slit. Each one should be 5cm in length and be cut through the pages on both sides of the mountain fold. Go steady here, the cardstock is thick and takes some cutting!

9 At this point you may also find it helpful to score a line between the two slits at the 5cm mark. To score, I use the back of scissor's blade and run it along a metal ruler.

10 Fold the double piece of card between the two slits backwards, folding the card along the scored lines you made in step 9. Make a sharp crease with a bone folder.

11 Here's another view: you should end up with two narrow mountain-folded pieces at the top and the bottom of the pages, and the middle section folded into a valley, towards the heart of the book.

12 Repeat steps 10 and 11 on all four mountain folds. Your book should look like this! Yay!

13 Attach double-sided tape to the back of the INNER accordion book, put one strip either side of the valley fold on each of the four valley folds.

TIP Put your paper and photos on your inner accordion book now before you stick it to the outer accordion book it is much easier than doing it when you have stuck it into place.

14 Remove the top side of the double-sided tape from one section of the INNER accordion book at a time and slot it into the valley folds you have made in the OUTER accordion book and stick in place.

15 Repeat this step for each of the four valley folds on the inner accordion book. Your book should now close and open to reveal your “pop ups”. Hurrah!

16 This is the basis of the pop-up nested accordion book, now you can complete the decoration of your book how you wish.

Here is Claire's finished book. For the finishing touches, you need to make covers for the front and back, they should both measure 17cm by 14cm. Cut them from mat board or heavy card and cover in co-ordinating paper. Make holes in the front and back covers to thread ribbon ties through to keep your pop up nested accordion book closed. Making the pop-up book is great fun, and once you have mastered the basics you can alter the size and number of pop up pages if you wish.

Have you had a go at a pop-up mini book? We’d love to see it! Send photos to our email address, scrapbookinspirations@futurenet.co.uk and tell us all about it!

It's been quite a while since the last update of clubs and crops listed on the blog. I've just added lots of new details and thought it was worth posting a reminder of how to find a club or crop near to you.

There are currently almost 200 clubs and crops listed here, and they're based all over the country. To help you find one close to you, I've divided them into geographical regions (it's all quite general and the groupings were done by me, so I hope you can find what you need).

Here are the regions:
* Scotland
* East (including Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire)
* North West (including Cheshire and Manchester)
* North East
* Wales
* South East (including Kent, London, East Sussex, West Sussex, Brighton & Hove, Essex, Surrey, Middlesex, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire)
* South West
* South coast (including Hampshire, Dorset, Southampton and Jersey)
* Yorkshire
* Midlands (including Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire)

If you click on any of these you'll be taken to a page with all the clubs I currently have details for in that area.

Alternatively, you can search the blog for placenames near to you. Using the Search box in the top-left corner, type in the name you're looking for and then choose 'Clubs and Crops' from the menu below. Click the 'Search' button and that will show you any blog posts I've made that include the place you're looking for. However, unless there is a club or crop in the specific place you're searching for, you won't get any results - that's why the geographical regions are handy!

If you run a club or crop and your details aren't on the blog, drop me an email at scrapbookinspirations@futurenet.co.uk. I need your club name, meeting time and place and contact details. If you want to update your details, email me at the same address and tell me what's new.

If you're planning on going along to any of the clubs or crops listed here, it's definitely a good idea to contact the organiser first, as the details may have changed. Every club varies - some charge a small entry fee to attend, some provide tools or materials and others nothing at all, so it's best to call or email first so you know exactly what to expect!

Did you see BBC Breakfast news this morning? I caught the end of what looked like a very interesting segment on a new book, UK at Home. Featuring around 250 photos of homes all over the country the book provides an interesting snapshot into people's lives. The guy they interviewed, Rick, had a very interesting statistic too: in a fire the first item most British homeowners would grab is their family photo album. I can only imagine that this is even more so with regard to scrapbookers.

© 2008 Caro Swan / UK At Home

As you know I'm exceptionally nosy so this kind of thing always catches my eye, but there is another reason to flag up the book! You can order your own copy of UK at Home with a custom cover. I love the idea of a book with my family's photo on the cover!

You may recall that we featured the lovely Moo in our December issue last year.

The good news is that they are running a promotion on their sticker books for the month of April - 3 for the price of 2. Sticker books cost £4.99 for a matchbook of 90 high quality vinyl stickers, so you will be able to get 3 books for under £10!(not including postage)

To claim this special offer simply enter the promocode moostickersfree on the payment page.

You can use the code on any 3 packs of stickers; 3 different packs or 3 identical packs. Just make sure that there are 3 packs selected in the basket, before entering the code. This code can be used as many times as you like before the promotion ends on 31/4/08.

MOO StickerBooks are pocket-sized books, containing 90 vinyl stickers, on 15 individual sheets. Each sticker can carry a different image/design/illustration/icon giving you up to 90 different stickers in a pack. The print is high quality, full colour, and the finish is a scratchproof gloss. The stickers are acid free so they are perfect for scrapbooking.

You can use images from your Flickr account, or upload images directly to the Moo site. There are also designs on the Moo site that you can use if you don't want to upload your own photos. These would make great mini portraits on your layouts, and kids love having little sticker pictures of themselves to use!

Send us some pics of your layouts using Moo stickers at scrapbookinspirations@futurenet.co.uk.