Creating Altered Board Books

Board books are an exciting addition to the scrapbooking landscape. If you aren't familiar with what board books are, they are the material that toddler books are made out of. If you have some old toddler books laying around, you can alter them into a neat little scrapbook album or you can purchase the blank board books at your local craft store or online.

The benefit to using board books as scrapbooks is that they typically take less time to finish than a traditional 12x12 scrapbook album. They are completely customizable and your end product can be something truly original and unique. They are smaller than the traditional albums so your product use will be less. They are less expensive then traditional scrapbook albums.

One drawback to using board books as scrapbook albums is that they do not have page protectors. So whatever you use as embellishments will need to last through repeated handling. Also, due to their size it can be difficult coming up with ideas that will fit the smaller pages.

If you are purchasing blank board books, you will be surprised to learn that they come in more than just the square shape. You can now find board books in a variety of shapes and sizes. They come in the traditional square shape. You can also find tags, purses, houses, circles, flowers, hearts, stars, and square albums with tabs.

Board books can be decorated the same as traditional scrapbook pages. You can paint the board book to match your pages. Glue or tape papers to the pages. You can hole punch through the pages and set eyelets into them. You can set brads through them.

Altered board books make great gifts. Create unique handmade altered board book scrapbook albums and hand them out this Christmas. They are sure to be the hit of the party. Know someone who is having a baby? Create an altered board book album that she can insert her sonogram and pregnancy photos into. If you have an office or cubicle, you can create a mini album to display on your desk. It will be a nice conversation piece and provide you something fun and interesting to look at. The ideas and uses of board books are as boundless as your creativity and imagination.

Some tips for creating altered board books.

-When painting the book to match your pages, do only one page at a time. Let it dry before moving on so the pages won't stick together.

-Remember to use flatter embellishments so that the pages will close.