40th Birthday Word Book

I made a word chipboard book for my little brother's 40th birthday in June. This is the first time I've made one of these so it has been a bit of a learning experience! I'm really pleased with how it turned out... I don't think the pictures really highlight it, but they'll work for showing my mom and sister-in-law... "Hi Mom! Hi Shelley".

First pages - it is hard to fit the whole book into the picture, especially on the last pages as they are so long. The book is about 9 1/2 cm tall (4 inches). The picture is of me holding my little brother. I love how unhappy he looks and how scared I look...

On the back of the "H" page and the front of the "A" page. The word art reads, " The best part of life is when your family becomes your friends." Both pictures are of me and my two brothers.

This is the back of the "A" page and the front of the "W" page. It is pictures of my brother with his nephew and nieces. His two sons are also in the helmet picture.

This is the back of the "W" page. These are pictures of my brother with our dad and mom.

This is the front of the "N" page (the last page of the scrapbook). The first picture is my family and the second picture is my brother with his family. The circle word art reads "a family is a circle of love".

All the word art was made by Bethany. She is very talented and has a free word art EVERY day! What a sweetie!

I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot software to create the pages. Thank goodness box board (cereal boxes) are plentiful as it took quite a few tries to get it right. Some box board is too thick to cut with the Cricut. The box board didn't stick well to the mat, even if I sprayed it with tacky adhesive first. I also found it best to tape down the edges to the mat.

I also wasn't very successful with doing a multiple cut. I liked cutting it once with the Cricut and then using scissors to cut all the way through. I had to remember to put the paper for the backside of the letter down on the mat so it was cut backwards. It also pays to go slow and make sure the paper is placed on the right spot of the mat before you cut. (I had to borrow another piece of cardstock from a friend after I messed up because I put the mat in the Cricut backwards!!! Argh!)

If I was to do this again, I would try making the shape of the pages without the inside of the letters cut out and then cut out the letters out of contrasting card stock to put on top of the pages. This would prevent the pictures from peeking through when the book is all closed up.

Thanks for looking,
Kim