Altered Golden Book

My Little Christmas Planner

A few years ago, I made a little book for keeping my Christmas lists, craft ideas, sketches and so on.  That first book was made using chipboard and Christmas papers, and LOTS of embellishments.  I loved that little book.  I literally carried it everywhere with me, and when I found the perfect gift for someone, I made notes, either about where to purchase, or better yet, my ideas on how to create my own version of the item.  I was planning on showing pictures of that book, but as luck would have it, it was nowhere to be found.  I know I still have it.  It's just not where I thought it would be, lol!!!

Shortly after making that book, I saw a YouTube video of an altered book made from a Little Golden Book, and I thought it was a really cute idea.    If you'd like to watch that video, I have linked it here.   I thought it was a fun way to re-purpose a fond memory of not only my childhood, but also my children's.  I didn't want to destroy the wonderful artwork and story in the book, so rather then use the existing pages as a base for putting my own pictures on, I decided to add note pages, and dividers with pockets and tags, interspersed between the original story pages.

I used the Picture my Life cards from the Pear and Partridge pack as removable note cards.  The picture above is the back cover of the book.  I added a simple pocket to hold several of the cards that I thought would be nice if I needed to pass on a note or list to a friend or family member while out and about.  I always seem to be searching for a piece of paper to write something on when I'm out shopping, and I thought this was a much prettier way to give someone that information.

  
I have a pretty good collection of these Little Golden Books, (big surprise, lol!) so I pulled out a few of the Christmas themed ones and decided to use the Santa's Toy Shop book for my little planner.

The next step was to disassemble the book.  I simply cut the spine away.

Once I had the book apart, I started decorating the cover.  I used the Yuletide Carol Compliments for the title.  I also used the flower from the Mini Medley Accents Ruby Collection.  I added several vintage sequins that I've collected over the years, but new ones work just fine.  I have to admit, as much as I really like the Christmas collections Close To My Heart has this year, I have been using them so much lately, that I really wanted to take a break and use something different, so I dug through my stash and found some Christmas Paper Packs I had purchased a couple years ago.  Both were Recollections paper packs from Michaels.  

I honestly have no idea whether these papers are still available, but I'm sure there are plenty of options available out there.  Anyway, I used my Cricut Artbooking cartridge to create dividers.

On the opposite side of the divider, I cut a rectangle of a co-ordinating cardstock to make a pocket.

Once I had all my dividers made, I simply arranged stacks of writing paper, graph paper, dividers, original story pages, as well as the front and back covers in a way that I liked and punched the binding holes with my Cinch binding machine.  After punching the holes, I wound the coil through the holes and bent the ends to keep it from un-coiling.   

Here are a few more pictures:

Front cover with pocket also made from Artbooking and decorated with a cute sticker from Yuletide Carole Compliments.

Look, the pocket is the perfect size for the large Picture My Life cards!!

I love the original artwork in these books and I didn't want to lose any of it, so I just added the story pages in behind the note pages.

I added an envelope to one of my pockets.  You can certainly use your Cricut machine to create these envelopes, but I happened to have a package of them that I had purchased at Michaels, so I decided to use one of those.  Since I didn't custom make the envelope, it was a little to long, so I folded up the end and used another sticker from the Yuletide Carole Compliments to hold the fold in place.

As I stated earlier in this post, on the back cover, I made another pocket and added a bunch of Picture My Life cards in both sizes.  You know how we're always looking for something to write on when see someone at the store?  Well I thought I would use the cards to write what ever message or contact info I may want to give them.  Not only is it a pretty way to give that info, but I bet they will be less likely to lose something like this in the bottom of their purse or whatever.

So, that's it for today.  I'm soooooo sorry it took me so long to get this posted.  I had to go back to working outside the home to help support my rescue critters.  Between the 32 hour work schedule and the 1 hour drive each way to get to work, well, I'm really struggling to get everything done.  Not to mention the fact that I went back to working retail, which means being on my feet all day and lots of running around the store to help customers, which is REALLY proving to be hard on my legs and especially my joints.

I'm thankful for the job, as I would be crushed if I had to try to rehome the critters in my care.  I will do whatever is necessary to provide for them, including adding more to my already busy schedule.   I will try to keep my posts more regular, but please, bear with me while adjust to my new responsibilities.  I will be decorating this little planner and posting those pictures as well as  doing other more simple projects in the near future.  

One last note, this project is certainly NOT limited to a Christmas planner.  This would be adorable as a little scrapbook for a baby shower, or first day of school or really, just about anything you can think of.  Since there are literally thousands of Little Golden Book titles out there, I'm sure there's a book that will work for any project you may have in mind.  And trust me, no two finished altered books will ever be alike, so you know you are giving a unique gift, or creating something for yourself that no one else will ever duplicate exactly.

I hope you enjoyed this LONG post, lol.