Have you heard about the new
Smash Book craze? Basically it's a journal with a marker/glue stick attached to the side, a few pockets and tons of sticker and paper accessories you can buy to jazz up your book. I'll admit, the books are super cute, but can cost you $20 and upwards. Who needs to do that? My sister and I have been making "smash" books since high school. You just need a few things you can find around the house, my handy print-offs and you can get to "smashing" in no time.
What you need
a journal (mine is an "Ampad Project Organizer," which I bought for $3.50)
cardstock/construction/graph/news paper
about six inches of elastic
glue (hot glue, tacky glue, Elmer's)
envelopes or small bags
a marker
a glue stick
What you do
1. Buy your journal and decorate your cover. Make it easy by using a single image from a magazine, collage the whole thing or just leave it blank.
2. Find the circumference of your market and glue stick (glue stick = 2.5", marker = 1.5"). Add an extra 1.5" to that number and cut pieces of elastic to that size.
3. Next, cut a piece of cardstock to the size of your back cover. Cover the back cover with glue.
4. With the back cover open, fold the elastic in half and glue it down. Repeat with second piece of elastic. Now place your cardstock on top of the back cover and elastic. Close your journal and lay a heavy book on it for 10-15 minutes until the glue has dried and set.
5. While you're waiting you can print out these handy phrases I've created and cut them out.
6. Randomly open your journal and glue in your envelopes, bags, graph/colored paper and phrases. You can add "tabs" by gluing post-it notes to the edges of your pages.
7. You're finished! You can get to work on your own, inexpensive, handmade smash book!
