I'm going to follow along with many others and create a December Daily album (see Ali Edwards Blog for more info). Essentially it's a way to document the Christmas season by creating a page each day of the month (or from Dec. 1-25). I plan to create a page each day through the 31st of December, because those quite days at home after Christmas, when all the hustle and bustle has ended, are some of my very favorite days of December.
So I've taken some time this Thanksgiving weekend to put together my album and blank pages. I've seen albums made from a book, and decided that's what I'd do. It's really very easy. Here's a tutorial, beginning with a supply list:
1. A hardcover book. I purchased mine at Half Price books for $1. It's approximately
9" x 6" and is in excellent condition. I suppose you could also choose a book with a little more "character" if you want. I chose this size because I wanted to use an 8.5" 3-ring
binder mechanism. I also chose one with a thicker spine so it would hold more pages. The book I chose was titled "The Religion" which I found to be very appropriate documenting the days leading up to Christmas, a religious holiday.
2. craft knife
3. chipboard to fit the spine of your book (I used a piece that came with some paper I had ordered)
4. patterned paper to coordinate with the theme of your album. I don't plan to use coordinated paper on each page. I want to mix it up! But the coordinated pages I saw in the December Daily Flickr gallery were beautiful.
5. Mod Podge and a foam brush
6. A strong adhesive. I used Fabri-Tac
.
7. 3-ring binder mechanism that is about 1/2" shorter than the
spine of your book. I found them in 5" and 8.5" lengths. I searched all over the internet for these and could not find a place in the U.S. that sells them individually. I ended up ordering mine from THIS
company which is located in Canada. The cost of shipping was more than the cost of the binder mechanisms (for lack of a better word to call them), so I purchased 4 of them to justify the shipping cost.
8. 1/4" binding posts - you will need two of them. Also purchased these from the same company listed above
9. hole punch (I used my Crop-a-Dile)
Here's the book before I began.
Now it's time to remove the pages, which is very easy. Using a
craft knife, simply cut into the book at the spine. Be careful not to
insert the knife too deep to avoid cutting through the back of the
spine.
It comes apart very easily.
Now turn the book over and do the same on the back.
And there you go......you have now separated the pages from the
cover, which is what you'll use for your album. But don't throw out
those pages. You can use them for other purposes. The pages are
little sheets of patterned paper that can be used to make alphabets,
backgrounds, flowers, etc.
The spine of the book needs to be stiffened a little to help keep
its shape. I cut a piece of chipboard to fit the length and width of
the spine.
Now cover the chipboard with patterned paper that coordinates with
your album. Coat both the chipboard and the back side of your strip of
patterned paper with Mod Podge, adhere the patterned paper to the
chipboard and allow it to dry.
When dry, cover the top of the patterned paper with another coat of
Mod Podge, and allow it to dry. This protective layer will keep the
paper from tearing.
Adhere this strip to the spine of your book cover. I used Fabri Tac, but you can use any strong adhesive - although if you don't use Fabri Tac on a daily basis, you are missing out on a great adhesive!
Now you are ready for the final step - adding the binder mechanism.
Lay it on the spine of the book and use a pencil to draw where you need
to punch holes. After you have punched the two holes, connect the
binder mechanism to the spine using the two 1/4" binder posts. Mine
was still a little loose, so I added 3 washers under each binder post.
You may not have to do this if your binder mechanism is thicker.
The album is now ready to be altered. I plan to leave the inside
covers as they are, so they don't detract from my album pages, but I
will alter the front and back.
As for the pages themselves, you can
use anything you want. My goal was to use things that I have! The only items I purchased are the book itself, the 3-ring binder mechanism, and the little screws. That's it. The pages themselves, paper, embellishments, etc, will all be things from my stash. Okay, I must admit I purchased a few vintage tags from Etsy, but I couldn't resist. Here are the items I chose for my pages:
A sheet of 140 lb. watercolor paper and a page from a Cosmo Cricket Blackboard album. I have a basket full of mini albums so I dug through that to find some of my goodies.
On the left you'll see a page from an acrylic album, and a piece of
cardboard on the right (from a Muse mailing box I retrieved from the
trash). I used decorative tape to reinforce the edge where I punched
holes.
Here I've used a piece of Grunge Board (cut to size) and a file
folder. I will eventually reinforce the holes on the file folder since
it's rather thin.
In this photo you can see the back side of the file folder. I used
one that had a pocket so I can tuck something inside. On the right is
the back side of the piece of cardboard cut from a Muse box. On this
side I tore off the outer layer to expose some of the corrugated paper
inside. I know it may look like trash to some of you, but I love the distressed look of it.
And here's another piece of water color paper and a page from a Basic Grey bracket album
Now I can't wait to begin documenting December! Many other December Daily followers are making their pages now, but I've decided that I'd rather actually create each day. So I'm leaving my pages bare until I'm ready to use them.
