Thursday 21 January 2010

Playing Cards – Valentine Scrapbook

Cover

This scrapbook is made from an extra large pack of playing cards,  I have seen them in shops like Poundshop, Home Bargains and BM Bargains but  you may have to hunt around for them and I have seen the price vary from £1 to £5.99. I have put a normal pack beside them so that you can gauge the size.

pack of cards (1)

To make the book I have used ten heart cards from the ace to the ten and set them out as below, going up in numerical order, wit  the numbers on the left and the back is on the right. I have then covered what will be the front and back cover of the book with a thin red card before binding.

setting up the pages setting up the pages 2

I have used my Bind It All to bind the book but if you don’t have one a hole punch with book rings or ribbon would work just as well.

marking the centre lining it up on bia

To make sure that the books pages are centred perfectly I have used a joker card as a template, folding it in half and marking the fold with a pen line.  Then I have matched the line to the centre mark of the Bind It All and punched the template.

punched card

I have then put the template over several pages to be punched, again lining the mark to the centre of the Bind It All and hey presto, perfect matching holes every time. With all the pages punched the book is ready to bind.

bound pages

How to decorate the scrapbook is up to you.  I have put a piece of roughly torn graph paper on each of the patterned sides of the book and will write one "thing I love about you” on each page.

Page 1

I’m keeping it quite plain, just adding a few doodles here and there.

page 1 & 2

The teeny weeny playing cards on the cover came from a cracker and add up to ten to match the theme of the book.  Self adhesive Papermania alphabet stickers and punched black hearts finish the whole thing.

You don’t need a giant pack of cards to make this sort of book a regular pack would work equally well.

As there are 52 cards in a pack you can make at least 5 books from one, it just depends on your theme, naturally the hearts are brilliant for a "love" theme - but really, once made up, they can be used for anything - Spades for gardening, Clubs for golf/holidays, Diamonds for an engagament, "You're a Diamond" or  "Diamond Geezer"??????