this precious life.: Tutorial: Recovered Photo Albums

A few years ago when Ellyn and I met in the middle of our very different styles and completely decorated our room red black and white people gave me many red or black albums to store my photos. {please explain to me how it was "meeting in the middle" because it didn't hold ANY elements of either of our personal styles AT ALL!}

Since then, we've finally come to our senses and are in the midst of making our room a place full of things WE love. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave room for so many red & black albums. But you don't know me at all if you think I'd go out and buy new sets of albums just because of that. There has to be a cheaper solution for changing things up!!

I want the albums to be on display to be perused and not tucked under my bed so for the past 6-9 months I've had an idea in the back of my mind to recover them with burlap. But I couldn't find any at our craft/fabric stores {which I seriously must be blind because now I realize that it's everywhere!} so the project kept getting put off... and those albums still sat under my bed.

Then my blinders finally came off last week while I was at JoAnn's and I found a good size piece {which covers 2 albums} in the remnant bin for $2! All other fabric I used is from my scrap bag.

Originally when I envisioned this project, I thought I would sew slipcovers for the albums. Then I resorted to staples and a hot glue gun:) And for me, they've worked great. {Though if you have any intention of using the albums in their original condition sometime in the future, I would recommend going the slipcover route.}

But if you're up for the way I'm going to show you, let's dive in! These are super simple and really don't take much time at all! I'll be making more soon;)

Materials:

enough fabric to cover entire album w/ roughly 2" overhang | stapler | hot glue gun | card stock that coordinates with fabric | fabric scraps, buttons, ribbon, etc

tip 1: if you think the staples are going to stand out against your chosen fabric, try painting them a color that would blend in better

tip 2: It might come to mind that you could easily hot glue the fabric to the album vs. using staples but I would not recommend this. Working with fabric & hot glue can be tricky and get out of hand fast so you want to keep it to a minimum. It's also difficult to achieve a smooth finish {it will likely turn out bumpy, which will definitely show through your fabric} & sometimes discolors overtime.

1} Measure and cut your fabric-- it's better to cut a little more than you need, you can always trim it off in the end.

2} Pull your fabric tightly around and staple to the BINDING first.

3} From there, pull fabric taught as you staple the front and back in a pattern like this:

x x

x x x

x x

Add more staples as needed.

{If staple point slightly stick through front cover, don't worry-- they will be covered later}

4} AFTER fabric is secured to the outside, open one cover at a time and fold the fabric in before stapling. If you need to trim off excess or fold edges under, then do so. Keep everything taught!

5} You'll notice a lot of excess fabric around the binding. Once the fabric has been secured on the inside covers, close the album and carefully trim off excess fabric around the edges of the binding. You want to leave enough to be able to fold the rough edges underneath and still cover the edge of the album. When edge is folded under, run hot glue along the edge, press the fabric down and hold for a few seconds.

6} To cover rough edges and give the album a finished look, take a sheet of heavy duty card stock & cut it to the size you need. Be sure to make one for the back cover as well as the front! {I wanted to keep things fairly neutral but add a little shine so I painted gold brush strokes all over my card stock}

7} Hot glue the piece to the inside of each cover. {Because of how quickly hot glue dries, I recommend working in small sections to be sure the glue bonds well.}

8} Now the fun part!! Embellish as much as you like with fabric scraps, buttons, beads, ribbon, twine-- anything you have on hand! Use your hot glue gun and/or a needle/thread to secure everything.