Sara Scrappin' It Shabby Chic Style: Re-using Paper Packaging...

I love eco-friendly crafting... so any chance I get to use scraps or otherwise-considered-trash, I am in heaven.

This album was made in about 9 hours, nearly non-stop. It was for my niece, Madallyn, as she turned 7 last week. We got home from Nevada Thursday eveningish, made this Friday, and her party was Saturday at 2 (but we had our 1st birthday party at noon so I had to have this wrapped up before Saturday...)

So I started with scraps of cardboard. I cut four 8x8 squares and 3 *mixed* shapes. In total, 7 pages, 14 sides. I left it for her to personalize, the theme is BFF and her favorites. I made one last year inside a pencil box that folded out accordian style. I used pics of her and all her family. She seemed unimpressed at her party (what 6 yr old wouldn't) but I found out later she likes it, took it to show & tell, etc.

I painted all the edges with black acrylic paint. Some of the smaller scalloped rectangles, as well as the back page, I painted all black. The back of the book I used silver rub-ons to personalize, then covered with matte finish mod podge.

I used Best Occasions Doodle Quick Page pack with embossed 8x8 papers. It made it fun to just add embellies, titles and journaling prompts. I mean, I still managed to make it a 9 hour project but it would have taken me days had I done all that colorblocking on my own. And all the doodles, so cute. Madallyn, my niece, is into Hannah Montana and Camp Rock so I thought this was a cute, girly, but fun and cool album. *notice a thumbnail missing? I used it later on!!*

You won't see any holes yet, so be mindful of your page "gutter" and think of future holes. I knew by the mixed sized of my album, I would want it to be stable. Planning to have 3 holes eventually, I just kept that in mind while embellishing.

Because of the intended use for this scrapbook, I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue and gluesticks to completely cover the cardboard and the paper before adhering. I wanted it to be on there nice and strong for durability with Maddy & her friends hopefully filling it up with fun pictures and memories!

Below, on the center heart, I covered it using a thumbnail from the cover of the Doodle paper pack I was using. Another green scrapbooking technique!

The bff letters above I have owned since early 2000! They are from a sheet of cardstock letters that had coordinating diecuts. Thrilled to pull them out and use them after they've been collecting dust!