My Aunt has a friend (now in her late 60's), who throughout her married life has kept a schedule of house maintenance and a record/plan of which rooms in her house would be decorated each year.
Now whilst we love planning all the things we want to do in our house, actually getting round to doing them is not so much fun, and the big things like external painting, windows, the roof, tree maintenance and fencing are no fun at all.
Some of these things it would be really good to have a record of, just to remind ourselves to keep on top of it all, and even keeping a note of which paint was used where isn't such a bad idea.
So here's a little book "About the House" filled with card and paper pages for noting down useful stuff plus the occasional little plastic sleeve for adding cuttings, business cards and other bits and pieces.
To make a book like this you'll need:
papers, stickers and cards from the Studio Calico "Home Front" kit
card, plain paper, ribbon scraps, brads etc from your stash
Some chipboard or empty cereal packet for the covers
pocket pages made from plastic or acetate
Bind it All or book rings to hold it all together
Start by making the covers.
Sorry for the rubbish photos at the start of this project!
1. Cut 2 pieces of chipboard/cereal packet each measuring 6" x 7"
2. Cut 2 pieces of "Floor Plan" paper 6" high and about 7.5" wide (so that the writing goes keft to right across the shorter edge). Glue these pieces to the side of the covers which will be the open edges of the book, fold the margins over to the reverse, mitre the corners and stick down.
3. For the edges where the binding will be cut two strips of "Brown Fuse" measuring about 3.5" x 7.5" We're using the reverse of the paper, with the little houses design, so make sure the houses are the right way up - running across the shorter length of the strips.
Stick to the covers, overlapping the first paper just slightly, fold over the margins and stick down as before.
4. Cut narrow strips from the reverse of the "Odds and Ends" cards sheet,: my strips are 2 squares wide. Ink the edges of these and use to cover the joins of the first two papers and add an extra splash of colour.
5. Use the alphabet stickers from the kit to make the book title, squash the letters quite closely together onto a strip of white scrap card, edge with a dull yellow/amber ink and mat onto a scrap of card which will match the other colours on the front of your book.
Glue along the lower right edge of the book, ending near the right edge as shown
6. Make some decorations for the cover using elements from the papers:
*Cut out one of the chairs from "Conversation Piece", mat onto scrap card and cut around it, ink the edges
*For the lamp, roughly cut out one of the lamp shapes from "Brown Fuse" stick onto scrap card then cut around more neatly. Cut a scrap of the squares pattern on the reverse of the "Odds and Ends" paper and glue over the white lampshade section. Ink the edges
* Make the picture using two of the cards on the "Odds and Ends"sheet. I inked over the green picture frame with blue and grey inks to get a colour which matched those I was using, I cut out the middle and around the frame then glued the frame to the little house sketch which is also on the sheet
I split some of the fibres from a length of twine to make the hanger and glued the ends to the back of the picture.
7. Arrange all the decorative bits on the cover, overlapping them as in the photo.
Add a brad to fix the string of the picture in place.
8. Have a search through your stash of buttons, charms and other "that might come in useful one day" bits and bobs for other house and home themed things to add to the cover. I found some flat backed "DIY Tools" buttons in a drawer and a little paintbrush that I think came off a card I received years ago. You could also use die cuts - Quickuts do some so others probably do too
I made the paint pot from scraps of card, coloured with inks. The handle is a couple of strands of wire twisted together and glued behind the can shape.
9. Neaten the inside of the covers with 6 x 5.5" pieces of "Conversation Piece", paper, ink the edges before adhering in place
10. Fill your book with plain or lined paper,sheets, pockets made from pieces of folded acetate or cut down a few of those those plastic file pockets you can buy from stationers shops, make card dividers to section off your book in whatever way suits you best.
11. Finish by punching holes in the covers and pages using a Bind it All as I've done, or use a cropodile and book rings as an alternative.
I've found that you can open the Bind it All bindings relatively easily by pushing the handle of a wooden spoon into the rings and prising apart - useful for adding more pages or for rearranging if you need to
12. To separate the sections I've added tabs to the top of the various pages.
I printed out the headings, cut them out using a circle punch then sliced off the lower edges.
I cut two larger sized circles from card, glued one large circle to the top of the page, then the second to the reverse, sandwiching some scraps of ribbon or tape between. The label was then added to the tab
I've resisted the urge to add ribbons to the bindings but I just couldn't leave the book without any ribbon adornment.at all!
That's about it, you can adapt the basic idea to whatever you want to use i t for - maybe you're planning a specific house-y job such as a new kitchen and want something to keep all your ideas and clippings safe and together, or perhaps you just love collecting design ideas for future reference - this would make a great traditional scrapbook just for pasting those dream-room ideas that you cut from those glossy house magazines!
The Studio Calico kit Caroline is currently selling in the SHOP has lots of inspiration for home and hearth themed projects and are just perfect for something like this which can build into a really useful and worthwhile record of all things "House".
I hope you've enjoyed seeing this project and that you'll feel inspired to have a go at making one for yourself.
Thanks for looking
Happy Crafting
Kathy xxx
All text and images ©Kathy Black 2010
