Swim Album Made from Scratch

Hi all, again it has been a while.  We have been living up summer with the pool and cool outings.  We just went to a Harry Potter themed event at an Apothecary Museum.  It was cool to learn that the actual herbs mentioned in the books and movies, such as Dragon's Blood, are actually real and where used in medicines.  So back to the title, as I mentioned previously, my daughter was on the summer community swim team this year.  She had a blast and learned a ton.  I actually feel comfortable letting her swim by herself this year.  On the swim team, she participated in a few of the meets and did do quite well.  So because she was getting ribbons and wanted to keep them safe, she asked me to make her a scrapbook of sorts to hold her ribbons and keep track of her times.  Here is what I came up with:

I decided to make a book from scratch.  I took two pieces of chipboard and cut them to 8" x 8".  I then covered both sides of the chipboard with some pretty patterned paper.  I tried to stick to the colors purple and teal, because those are her swim team colors.  I spayed some pre-cut chipboard triangles with Heidi Swapp color shine in teal.  I then used my Cameo to cut the letters out of white paper to attach to the chipboard.  I then used some purple and teal twine to complete the banner.  The photo frame was made using my Cameo as well, and I filled the letters with stickles.  Next I filled the book with plain and patterned paper.  To make sure the pages were sturdy, I used two pieces of card stock for each page.  To bind the book together, I used my crop-a-dile to punch two holes and used some metal rings to hold it together.  Here are some pics of the inside of the book:

This last page is pretty cool.  During the swim season, the team hosted some Olympic and Championship swimmers for a fundraiser.  The kids were able to get their autographs.  I decided to cover the signatures with some vellum that I printed on and attach it to the top of the page with washi tape.  This way you could still see the signatures and you were able to lift the vellum up.

So that is the book.  I hope each year to add more pages for as long as she decides to be on swim team.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope I have inspired you to create your own books from scratch to make them what you need them to be.  Have a great day and enjoy these last few days of summer!!