Tutorial: Cute Counting Board Book from Recycled board book

I love, love, love to make board books! They are so easy and really fun. You can't really mess up on them! Here is one I made for my youngest when she was about 3. She loved looking at it. I used lots of pictures that would catch her eye.

I thought some of you might like to know how to make these. I used a old board book that was just laying around my house! If you have young kids you probably have a board book that the kids don't really like that much......PERFECT! Follow these directions to make a lovely little book that your children will treasure! Here is what you will need:

*Old board book that is still in relatively good condition.

*Scrapbook paper (it's fun if you use coordinating paper. I used Basic Grey Lucky paper line)

*Modge Podge

*scissors

*letter or number stamps (optional)

*paper punches

*old magazines

*pictures of your child

*brayer (or I used my handy dandy Pampered Chef plastic scraper)

*ribbon

*glue sticks

1. Find some adorable Scrapbook paper. If you scrapbook, you probably have a ton just sitting around like me. If you don't, go to your nearest craft store, like JoAnn's (sometimes they have 5/$1 sale). Paper really isn't that expensive.

2. Trace the shape of the page on the paper. Do this for each page. For the front and back cover, I use 1 piece of paper and glued it all the way around the book (make sense?). I wanted the binding covered up, because it didn't look so good!

3. When you have all the paper cut out, take the Modge Podge and cover the front and back of the book. Try not to over do it on the Modge Podge, but if you don't put enough, the paper won't stay. Lay the paper on top, matching the edges all around the book. Use a brayer or something with a hard flat edge (you could even use a ruler) to smooth down the paper. You want to flatten out any bubbles that appear. Don't worry if the paper doesn't match perfectly around each edge or goes over the edge, you can fix that later!

4. Let the paper dry completely (an hour or so).

5. Trim around the edges if needed, and you can use an emery board to gently file around the edges if you want to give it the "worn" look. Don't file to much though. The paper might start peeling up.

6. Now is the fun part! Figure out what you are going to do for each page. The possibilties are endless! You can use foam stamps and paint, buttons, pictures or letters from a magazine (i did this on several of my pages).

It's fun to use pictures your child will like and even use pictures of your child. On one of the pages I used Mickey Mouse pictures, because my daughter had an obsession with Mickey for a while! I used lots of paper punches, die cuts and some ribbon. Have fun with it! You can't really mess up...trust me!

7. Let your book dry completely.

These are great gifts! You could give one to a friend as a baby gift, or make one for your Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa (not with numbers of course, but pictures of you with them!). The possibilities are really endless.


I hope you will try this and have fun with it! If you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me or leave a comment here.

Have a great day!!