Friday, July 15, 2011

Homemade Smash Book




Has it really been three months?!?!?! WOWZERS! Things have been a bit crazy around here; this was the first year that the girls have done ballet and dance and recital week was absolutely insane! I will have to go into it in another blog post, as well as our trip to Lake Powell. Which was an absolute TRIP, because I have a crippling fear of large bodies of water. Well, onto crafty things...

Last CHA, K & Company premiered a new line of products called, Smash Books. Here is the somewhat viral video that's been sweeping the crafty blogs and message boards by storm:



Pretty cool, eh? Well, it was SO COOL that as soon as the Smash books hit the shelves, they flew off in an instant. And I mean INSTANT. As soon as I received the in-stock notifications in my email they were *poof* all gone. No. more.

Well, I FINALLY was able to track down a Black Smash book through the K & Co. Website and ordered it about a week ago. But then I read a blog post by the fabby-mc-fab-fabulous Shimelle which questioned (in a round about way) why can't we just make our own Smash books? Haven't we been doing something like this already... like in our high school days before all of this pre-made stuff was around?

I kinda like the idea of a Smash book because I'm a list maker and super note taker. I have lists for everything, Post-it's all over the place, pads of paper with notes, quotes and lyrics on them, etc... So, to have a fabby little place to put all of my little smatterings seemed like a good idea to me.

And so, the race was on. I wanted to make my own Smash book. And this is the final product:



I wanted to create something that was pretty close to the original smash book. I saw that it had a thick chipboard cover, so I grabbed a piece of 12x12 chipboard and scored a spine down the center. I then used green floral tape to tape off some sides and painted the spine and connecting portions turquoise. Also, it looked as if the chipboard cover on the real smash books had been embossed. I was on a new mission now. I knew my Vagabond and Tim Holtz texture fades would emboss the thick chipboard, but I couldn't fit the whole cover through the Vagabond. Hmmm... google to the rescue! I found This fab blog where the super smart lady figured out that you can turn your cricut blade, get this... are you ready??? UPSIDE DOWN. And then you have an embossing tool! How cool is that? Now, there are a few more steps if you want to emboss paper or foil, so watch her video, but for my chipboard purposes, I just put my cover onto my mat, taped it down around the edges (to prevent sliding) and "cut" my design. OK, given it's shallow and hard to see, especially in photos, but it actually did work. ( You can double-click any of the photos to see a larger version.)




Next up was that flowery thing you see on the front of the book. I saw that the original Smash books came with some elastic bands (sold separately) to help keep your book "together" especially once you start "smashing" more and more loveliness into it. I wanted to make my own. I took a piece of elastic band (found in your local craft store in the sewing section) and added it to a felt circle that I had topped with some baubles. I sewed a few fun ribbons on the bottom, and voila! Cute little band to keep your book intact.

OR....

A CRAZY HIPSTER HEADBAND! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Just kidding.... don't do this.

Next comes the insides. The original Smash book seemed to have fun quotes, prompts and decorated papers within it. I found a fabulous website, Incompotech Graph Paper that lets your customize your own graph paper in all types of styles and colors and then download it in a PDF format. Seriously, go take a look... it's fabulous. Once I downloaded all of my paper, I opened them in photoshop and added quotes or listed numbers to each. I then printed it out on regular printer paper. In hindsight, I wish I would have printed on some non-textured white cardstock; the computer paper is a bit flimsy. Here are a few of the pages:





I also did some patterned paper pages that I added some pockets to...


.

I did one page using a darice mirror, which you can find in your local craft store around the magnets and velcro section.


I also cut down and glimmer misted some water color paper for fun and maybe added a stamp, too...






I added some Kraft pages, because who doesn't LOVE kraft??? Plus, any kind of rub-on looks FABULOUS on them...






You can also see I added some tabbed page dividers to the book, too. These were from Target on clearance. (Yay clearance!)

Once I acquired all of my pages, I ran them through my Bind-it-All (which I've had for years and just now learned how to use it properly... oops) and the last page of my book was a thin piece of plastic paper/acrylic. I made an almost seamless pocket using kraft paper on the back cover and trimmed the plastic page slightly smaller then slid it in! Voila! Now you don't have to see the rings on the outside of your book!



Pretty fun, huh??? If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them at me. The Smash book that I ordered is here and sitting in a box in the corner of the studio. I promised myself that I wouldn't open it until I posted this blog. Hopefully on Monday I'll give you a run-down of all of the pages and goodness inside of the Smash book. Plus, I have some SUPER exciting information for you all. As in, JUMP UP AND DOWN, PEE IN YOUR PANTS, THIS IS SO FRACKING EXCITING, kind of information. Oh yeah... it's THAT good.

16 comments:

Teresa (Smeared and Creased) said...

Your 'Smash' book is so awesome, Sara! It's fun, crazy and inspiring, just so you!!! I love every bit of it.

Jenny said...

Sara- you are brilliant. I'd actually rather buy a homemade Smash book from YOU than buy one...because it's completely one-of-a-kind and therefore a piece of ART! How do I put in my order???? : ) -Jenny

Renee said...

I agree with Jenny and Trexann....I love it, too! I have 12x12 chipboard. It's the scoring and the binding that would the challenge. Thanks so much for a beautiful work of art, Sara!!

thezenofmaking said...

Love it!

Tina Campbell said...

Love your book! What size did you decide on?

Sara Carns said...

Tina- I trimmed down a large peice of 12x12 chipboard to 9 1/2" x 12 and it has a 1" spine. The pages themselves are 5x9". Hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

love this and thanks for the link to Incompotech Graph Paper.

jasmine said...

Awesome!

Shells said...

Love this, great ideas, so inspiring.

Sonia said...

Hi Sara
I found your blog.. Love your creation, thanks for your inspiration. GREAT JOB!
-Sony
http://sonia-studio60.blogspot.com

ScaryCheri said...

Love it. Thanks for sharing. No bind it all so will keep looking for some cool way to bind it but loved all your ideas

Arielle King said...

Hello!
I love your book, it is beautiful!
Could you explain how you did the spine? Did you score 2 lines for the folded parts then wrap in green floral tape, then paint it?

LemondropOnTheLoose said...

Fantastic! I was looking for Smash Book ideas and found your DIY version. Even better because each page is just what you want. I'll have to up my paper crafting skills before I try this one....great job!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea. you really did a good job putting this book together, I like it more than the "real" one I recently bought.

RhennRainbow said...

Definitely the best how-to I've seen yet. And I've slogged through a lot! :P

Bravo. Love this.

Anonymous said...

Can you give me any tips on ideas of cool things to do in my smash book Sara because I know whatever you come up with will be awesome as your so inspiring

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