Upcycled Book Photo Album

I love taking photos but like many of us, they don't often make their way off of my devices.  I'm determined to not let that happen as often so I wanted to come up with a simple, inexpensive way to display them after I get them printed.

 Using one of the many old books I have, I began by decorating it with these slide holders, ribbon, etc. You could use anything you want -- so many possibilities! But since I already had these, that's what I went with.

I started by gluing some decorative paper on one half of the slide holder, trimming the outer edges.  

Using an x-acto knife, I cut out the center of the paper.

A really simple way to get nice, clean edges after you trim paper is to use an emery board to file the excess paper away.  Just make sure you are filing down/away from the top of the paper so you don't pull the paper away that you've glued.

When you've finished, this is what you'll end up with.

You could put photos in here but I chose to use the words, "Life is Sweet" and added some ribbon and an old key for embellishment.  

For the photos inside, I simply gathered 8 pages, punched a hole in the top and inserted a brad.  I gathered 8 more pages, punched a hole in the BOTTOM and inserted a brad.  You want to alternate top and bottom so your book doesn't get lop-sided.  Note:  The fewer pages you gather, the less of the book you'll be able to use because the brads will make it get 'thick' quicker.  I chose 8 pages and was able to use the majority of this 1.5" thick book.

 You could use photo corners to hold the pictures in and then change them out if you wanted to.  I didn't have any so I just used photo adhesive to attach them to the pages. At this point you could also add scrapbook embellishments, stickers, etc. but again, I wanted to keep it simple so I didn't add anything for now.

I tucked the opening pages of the book under the ribbon that wraps around the cover but you could leave them or just remove them if you want.

 

 I went ahead and made all the sections I wanted and inserted the brads so as I get new pictures, I just have to put them in.

A quick, easy, inexpensive way to keep up with the photos you VOW to print out from now on!