Recycling a Children’s Book into a Scrapbook

I recently put together a scrapbook of photos for my father-in-law. He and the family spent many summers in Connecticut where he worked as an entertainer at a summer resort called Banner Lodge. We had quite a few photos from over the years & I was inspired by an idea a saw in a library book “Mixed-Media Journals: Creatively Chronicling Your Life” by Katherine Duncan Aimone.

I began by purchasing a Children’s book for less than 50 cents at the thrift store. I got one with the thick cardboard pages & I was looking for a unique shape, but rectangular ones will work just fine. Then I bought a variety of scrapbook sheets that I felt fit the theme of a summer resort.

I first used a sharpie to color over the print down the seam of each page. I used mod podge to coat each page and smoothed a sheet of the paper over the top with a brayer, placing the sheet just to the ouside of the seam of the page so that it wouldn’t wrinkle & bunch in the fold when closed.

After it dried, I flipped it over and used an exacto blade to cut around the edge.

 

I scanned and printed my photos so they would be the size I wanted and cut decorative edges on some. I also printed out a few phrases to cut out. Rather than the scrap paper, I did use a photo of one of the buildings & photoshopped my title over it to use on the cover.