When thrift shopping, I always keep my eye out for treasures and vintage pieces with potential for creative greatness. Over Christmas, I came across several old children's books that were much cheaper than what they should be (which NEVER happens). I didn't have a particular plan for these special little treasures but I knew that I had to have them.
A month or two had gone by and the books were still just sitting there with no purpose. But I needed a spectacular gift because my brother was leaving to study abroad in Australia and I had to send him off with something special. Then it hit me! Make the vintage books into photo albums! My brother, who is a photographer, would be able to fill the unique pages with his works of art and capture every moment of his adventure "down under".
First, I started by collecting other items that could be used as pages in the album (newspaper, maps, card stock, phonebook pages, fabric, etc) and unique details to assemble my finished product (needle and thread, wire, twine, burlap, leather and buttons). Next, I removed the front and back cover of the book and all of the pages that I wanted to use. I cut all of my paper, newspaper, maps and fabric down to page size and assembled them in the order that I wanted them. Since the inside of the book covers weren't very attractive, I glued pieces of burlap to them and it gave a nice clean canvas for more creative possibilities (such as: safety pinning or sewing souvenirs to the fabric). To bind the album, I layered the covers and pages in the order that I wanted them and took a large nail and hammer to puncture a hole all the way through (just make sure there is cardboard or scrap wood underneath the album, so you don't ruin your surface). Then I simply wrapped wire through the holes to make rings. To keep the album closed during his travels, I used the nail to punch 4 holes near the edge of the front cover and attached a large button with the wire. Then I was able to wrap twine around the whole album so it would stay nice a secure. I then took a needle and thread to sew some pictures onto the pages to get his collection started. Its a good idea to include ways to secure the pictures to the pages when you give the album as a gift (such as: glue, picture corners, and for fun a sewing kit and safety pins).
Some other great ideas are: making a storybook album for a wedding guestbook or baby book, make an album out of a vintage cookbook.... so many possibilities!
I hope that this gives you an idea and inspiration for your next gift! If it does, I would love to see pictures of your creations.
