For the Record

I love to pick up old binders from thrift stores and give them a make-over!  I just finished this cute binder to record my daily efforts to exercise, take my vitamins, read my Bible, etc.  Echo Park Paper Company has this pretty collection called For the Record.  It's bright, funky and fun!

You can do this with any size binder.  I simply take an exacto knife and strip off all of the vinyl cover.  That leaves you with three heavy chipboard pieces: front, back, and spine.  Then I carefully put the binder back together after covering all of the pieces with scrapbook paper.  I use Thermo-Web adhesive sheets to attach the covered spine, wrapping the paper around to the front.  The adhesive sheet adds strength.

It's fun to embellish the front of the binders.  I try to keep them fairly flat.  If I glue big flowers on the front and they get caught on something, they can easily get torn off, leaving a mess behind.  I used crochet lace, stickers and chipboard pieces on the front to add some texture and interest.  Here's a peek at some of the dividers.

The cute little tabs are from Basic Grey.  Love these!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  

Best Friends Mini Album

I love scrapbook retreats!!  I also love a special place here in Wisconsin called Camp Joy!!  Our family has been attending Camp Joy's Family Camp every summer for the past 15 years.  The camp is located on a beautiful lake in Whitewater, WI, and they have recently added an annual scrapbook retreat to their  schedule.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to teach a couple of workshops at Camp Joy's Scrapbook Retreat on May 10-12, 2012.  In one of my workshops we will be making one of these cute little one-page mini albums:

Here is one of the samples I've made for the workshop.  This mini is about my daughter's friendship with a little girl named Corrin.  They have been friends from the time they were very little and are still good friends today!

I used My Mind's Eye Bloom and Grown papers to make my mini-album and the little photo mats peeking out behind each picture.

For the little journaling cards opposite each photo, I used Bo Bunny Gypsy Cut-Outs.  I trimmed them down to fit my mini pages.

I added only a few embellishments in order to keep the mini album simple and easy.

 I used some dies to cut a felt flower and some paper buttons to add to a few my pages.  Love this one:

I decided to leave the tops of two pages open and make tags to be pulled out of those pages.  The tags could be used for journaling and/or more pictures.  Cute, eh? 

I can't wait to share these cute little mini-albums with the ladies at the scrapbook retreat next month!  Thanks for visiting today!