Week of Dollar Store Projects - Mini Album

Today starts a week of projects and tutorials on my blog featuring items I found at the dollar store. Like I have said before I enjoy finding cheap items and turning them into something crafty. Today I am going to start with something a little familiar - it's a little like the book I made last October from a children's book I found in the Target dollar spot.
I started this project with a pack of Elmo chipboard books from the Dollar Tree. Where a normal person might see these as just children's books I get excited and see "cheap precut chipboard"!1. Take the book apart by cutting the pages with a craft knife. I cut both books up and ended up using 6 pages. Note: you could leave the book together and just cover in paper and add photos - however if you take it apart you can add extra pages and the book will sit flatter when you add photos.
2. Sand down the rough edge
3. Measure the size of your pages and cut paper to that size - these were 4x4
4. Adhere the paper to the chipboard pages. I used a UHUstic because I find that to be the strongest glue stick out there but any adhesive will work. I go over the top of it with a Basic Grey rubon tool (or bone folder) to make sure the paper is stuck on really well.
5. Trim off any excess paper and sand down the edges to make them smooth.
6. I used a blending tool and rusty hinge distress ink to ink the edges of all my pages. This helped the chipboard edges blend in a bit better.
7. Using a doily (I found this one from the cake decorating section of my local craft store - the dollar store did have some larger ones though) I changed the color by blending the rusty hinge ink over it. I made a couple of these and used them throughout the book.
8. Punch holes and set eyelets in the holes. Decorate the book and add photos! I added 3.5x3.5 mats throughout the book alternating with doilies. Unfortunately my photo printer at home ran out of ink so I haven't been able to add the photos yet!

Be sure to check back every day this week for more projects featuring dollar store finds. If you aren't already I would love for you to become a follower of my blog or facebook page! (see link on right side of my blog!) I will be doing a giveaway when I reach 500 google followers (I'm so close!). And be sure to visit my Etsy shop here.



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