This past weekend, I bought a bunch of old books and small binders at the DI so I can make “binder” minibooks.  And being the impatient person I am, I just had to put them to use as soon as possible. So… I decided to axe my original Thanksgiving book idea and go with a new one! (;

I am in LOVE with the idea of using a binder mechanism (as opposed to book rings) to hold all my papers and memorabilia together. All it took was a little finagling to free the mechanism from its original binder, and a little xacto-ing to remove the guts from the old book. No big.

Next came decorating the covers and picking papers + envelopes! Since I chose the book based on the color of the cover, I only added a small amount of green acrylic paint and a few spritzes of Calico White Mister Huey (I told you I was obsessed!), to give it a smidge of texture and interest. While I let that dry, I dug through my stash of scraps to find the perfect mix of papers in all different colors and sizes. Then I broke out my fun embellishments, including these fabulous stamps, Mister Hueys, and lots of decorative tape! And of course, this was all at 10:30 last night when I should have been doing laundry and getting ready for our trip! (;

Now I can’t wait to fill it up with Instax photos, plane tickets, fastpasses (what’s a trip home without a stop at D-Land?), receipts, etc. The very best part of all!