Repurposing A Board Book

I've been wanting to repurpose one of Riley's old train board books (surprisingly this bothered Andy who wanted to preserve the torn and tattered book that he use to read to Riley) but I went ahead with it because I've changed my pack rat ways and figured it would be better off repurposed, than in the trash or hidden in a box somewhere.

This is what I created with the old board book:

My sweet little niece (actually my cousin's daughter) is turing one.  I've only been able to meet her once - at Christmas - and she's the sweetest little girl.  Since we don't get to see her often because she lives about 8-9 hours away in Wyoming, I wanted to make something extra special for her birthday present.  

Kendall LOVES this book so I'm hoping that Maddie will too.  I plan to make a few books for Kendall.  Colors, Animals, Alphabet, etc.

If you want to make one, they are pretty easy, but take some time to do.  Here's what you need:

old board book

exacto knife

scizzors

scrapbook paper/cardstock

vinyl for lettering

mod podge

cricut

animal kingdom cartridge

lyrical letters cartridge

doodle charms cartridge

cropadile

1 inch rings

The first thing I did was to cut the pages of the board book apart with an exacto knife.  I trimed each page so it had a nice clean edge.

Next, I cut the animal print paper to match the size of the pages and mod podged them onto the page.  When that was dry, I mod podged the blue layer on top the animal print paper.  I also went back and trimmed each page incase there was any paper that went over the edges of the book page.  

I used my cricut to cut out all the different animal shapes and then mod podged all of the animals onto the pages.  The animal kingdom cartridge is awesome fo this project.  Then I used black vinyl to cut out the letters for each animal page with my handy cricut and the lyrical letters cartridge.  Once I was pleased with the look of each page, I mod podged the ENTIRE page to seal everything so it would stay put and be harder for Madison's little fingers to pry off the animals and letters.  

I made the cover and back page using more cardstock and vinyl.  I cut the dog's head out using the doodle charm cartridge.  I thought he was so cute!  Once everything was mod podged down and dry, I mod podged the entire page as well.  I did the same on the back page and left a note on the back for Miss Madison so she would know who gave her the book and when she got it.  

Once the entire book was sealed and dry, I used my new cropadile (a new fantastic tool I just acquired) to punch holes through the thick board book pages.  Then I took 1 inch rings and threaded through each page.  If you've never seen this tool before here's what it looks like:

(You can use it to set eyelets, punch holes through thick material, etc.  I can't wait to see what else I can create with it!)

Viola!  A personalized animal book for Madison's first birthday!  It took me some time to do...about 1 1/2 days of semi-seclusion in my craft room, but worth every minute!  I knew if I didn't get it finished before Andy left next week, it might not get completed for a while.

Happy Crafting!