New Uses for Hand-Me-Downs

Cleaning out our garage for preparation for a yard sale unearthed a bag of jeans from Marcus's cousin Jordan. Great, right? Well - not pants!! Jordan is tall and lean, and no chance will his pants ever fit Marcus. When Marcus was 2.5, his waist size matched Jordan's when he was 6! So I found a new use for them!! In scrapbooking, of course!
I ran errands with the fam, and cut circles... circles... circles....

Then I put all the circles in a larger-sized ziploc bag, added water and agitated with my hands. Really give it a nice massage :D

So you don't lose all your circles in your dryer vent, dump them all in a pillowcase and tie it in a knot. Then toss it in the dryer until dry or at least frayed to your liking. Stack and tack together with buttons, needle and thread or floss.

I cut many with the seam, just cause I liked the authentic detail it gave it. To remove some bulk and help it to lay flatter you can cut the edge of the inside seam off, as shown below. I recommend doing this after you've "washed" and dried them.

Happy Hallow-what?

Another Accordian Album... it is among other projects & cards I am working on furiously. My sister Rene, and many others, are organizing a Craft/Vendor Fair at her house next saturday. A Garage Sale-Esque Show and I am setting up my Scraps & More by Sara Swan table.

Backside:

Using Posterboards:Accordian Albums a plenty...

So we were buying a posterboard for MIL & SIL's bf's son's graduation (got that?!) and me had me an id-eer :D

1) buy inexpensive posterboard...comes in a myriad of colors now, and usually for under a buck or $2

2) Sure you can do some major measuring to get your sections perfect, but since I had more than one posterboard, I used it as a guide. I made sure to line the bottom two edges up, always, that way I knew I was relatively straight. Then, with a pen, drew a line. You could use exacto knife and cut them now, I just didn't bring my pad and didn't want to ruin MIL's desk :D

3) Since the posterboards are large, cutting long-ways and varying my heights, I got 4-6 strips from each board. You can use decorative edged scissors along one edge for a different look.

4) Now to score. Regular posterboards are 28" long. So 7 equal lengths of 4" or 4 lengths of 7" (easy just to predecorate for someone to plop a 4x6 photo if you cut height big enough) But you don't have to.... I did many @ 5" and 6".... no rules. I slid my strip along my trimmer and scored at each increment. I used a bone folder to get even bottoms so they would stand properly, but I wasn't so concerned with perfection at the top, since I had hand cut them. If you didn't use an even cut, then simply at the last score, leave a flap, or cut it off instead of scoring.

5) Decorate. I didn't worry about my pen marks because A) I ink. A Lot. B) The poster board I had was white core, so I sanded as well. and C) Many I covered completely with paper just as chipboard.

It's inexpensive (mine were at the only small town store, so from $.79-1.29 for mine.) But cut into strips, you are getting mini albums at RIDICULOUSLY cheap price, and there are different colors to choose from, so you have a lot of options!

Here are a few I have completed:

This one was the one commisioned for Dev, the graduate I mentioned above:

And now a double sided one, on the larger side, about 7"x7" approx. This one I made for my MIL and FIL as a thank-you for letting us stay so long!!

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!

So this one has a secret!! Rotate the photo turn to reveal the hidden journaling....