autograph books

We are about to take a family vacation.  I'm sure from the pictures you can guess as to where.  We have gone before and spent a little bit of money on an autograph book for our oldest.  This time I have a little bit more time to prepare, or at least it feels like I do.  I decided that instead of spending the money there, I'd make both kiddos a book.  Our youngest will be able to enjoy the characters this go around instead of screaming and clingy on to his parents for dear life.

 

I found at one of the craft stores a 5.5" x 8" journal back in the artist section, which always use your 40% off coupon or you might as well of bought the book at the park.  The covers are brown.  This won't work for my kiddos.  The girls wants pink (of course) and a plain black background works better for characters.

 

 

 

I have a Cricut machine that I have had for years.  The cartridges I used were Mickey Font, Tinker Bell & Friends, and Disney/Pixar Cars.  If you use the Cricut Craft Room software there is a neat feature called "weld".  You can place all your letters on the virtual mat and then weld them together to have only one cut out instead of having all the letters cut individually.  Big time saver.

 

To customize the covers, the book had to be disassembled (in my head that was said in Number 5's voice).  I traced the holes on the paper with a pencil, used a normal one-hole hole punch to punch out the holes where the spirals would be. I used a thin layer of clear Elmer's glue and covered the covers (front & back) with the chosen color.  While it was drying, I glued the layers of the characters together with the same glue and several Q-tips.  Once the cover was dried, I glued the characters & name in place.  After I let it dry for a while, I used clear contact paper to cover the covers (front & back) to protect them from all the handling they will endure.  I have a small one-hole hole punch that I used to punch the holes in the contact paper once it was on the covers.  One helpful hint, remember how the books were put together before you took them apart so when you try to put them back together you won't spend what seemed like an hour trying to figure it out.

 

Here's the finished products.  I know, I know.  I was trying to keep the kiddos names a secret on here, but without really blurring them, you wouldn't get the idea of the welding.

 

 

Oh and here's the back.  They are both the same.  This was done with the Mickey Font and using a Cricut pen for the numbers.