Yesterday, I told you all about the super awesome Big Brother Kit I made for Quinn. I can’t wait
to give it to him when Baby Dragon
is born!
My favorite part of the kit is the homemade sticker book. I
ran across the idea on Pinterest,
of course, and there are apparently several ways to create your own sticker
book, but I stopped reading each tutorial after “laminate pages.” What, you
want me to laminate something? Sweet. Thanks, I got it from here.
Basically, all you do is laminate some paper, put them
together somehow, and BOOM! Sticker book.
Assuming you’re still reading this post after that in-depth
tutorial, here are some more details on how I made Quinn’s super simple and cute sticker book.
First, I found a tablet of patterned 8.5x11” paper that I
liked at Michael’s, and I borrowed my friend, Robin’s, laminator.
(I’ve GOT to get me one of those!)
I printed the book cover and the inside cover on my home
printer. On the cover, I used the same construction
truck graphics that I used for Q’s Big Brother Kit box, and I thought having a “To Big Brother, From Little
Brother” dedication on the inside would be a nice touch.
Side
note: Why is the little brother’s name blurred out in the photo, you ask? Because we’re not
really naming the baby “Dragon,” and the real name is still a secret. Although
Quinn knows what the baby’s name will be (we told Q so he’s not sad or mad when
his brother is born and his name isn’t Dragon), but he’s managed to keep it a
secret so far.
The paper I found was only patterned on one side, so I
lightly misted the backs with spray adhesive and glued twelve pairs of pages
together. Then I carefully ran each pair through the laminator. (Seriously, a
laminator is the best thing ever. I now have a list of things I want to
laminate.)
All the DIY sticker book tutorials on Pinterest promised that
laminating the pages would make the stickers re-stickable, but we all know what
happens to a sticker once it's stuck and then unstuck. So my hopes for the actual re-stickable-ness of the stickers in this book are not high, but I will let you know how it goes. (BTW, I’m coining
the term “re-stickable-ness,” so please credit me if you decide to use it.)
Anyway, after laminating all kinds of things in my house, I punched
holes in the newly laminated patterned papers and held them together with metal
rings (that are normally used for making jewelry and also found at Michael’s).
I thought the sticker book should include a pocket of some sort for
holding sheets of stickers. At first I tried one of those old school nylon pencil pouches that we used to keep in the front of our Trapper Keepers
back in the day. Apparently, they still make those. Not Trapper Keepers,
those are totally out, but they still make pencil pouches. I found them in the
back-to-school area at Target for ninety-nine cents. I thought the pouch would
be the perfect solution since it already had the three holes.
Yeah, that idea failed. First, because I punched the holes along the short edges of the papers, the holes in the pencil pouch were spaced
too far apart to fit the book. Second, when I tried only putting the metal rings
through two of the pouch's holes, the weight of the pouch pulled on the sticker book and made
the rings come apart. Bummer.
Then I had the idea to use an envelope instead. I found a
small 6x9” manila envelope with a clasp and used the spray adhesive again to
glue it to the back page of the sticker book. Then I stuffed it with new
construction truck and Cars stickers
for Quinn. This worked great. The envelope didn’t pull down on the book and it fit perfectly
on the 8.5x11” page.
