An Upcycled Little Golden Book Album

One idea for an altered album has become a never-ending hunt for Little Golden Books. After making this altered album from a vintage children's book, I've been looking everywhere I go for used copies that I can turn into fun, one-of-a-kind pieces.

Everyone I know says they grew up with Little Golden Books, and everyone has a favorite. This is the first one that I found, and it brings back so many memories for kids of all ages.

And while we all remember the cover art to our favorite books, it's the colorful images inside that are permanently etched in our minds.

To make the altered fire engine book album, I started by very carefully taking the pages out and pulling back the spine so I could take the inserts out.

All of the old pages are going to be trimmed down to make embellishments for my new pages.

The staples go through the pretty golden edge, so I cut a tiny slit with the craft knife so I could slide them right out with jewelry pliers.

With a craft knife, I sliced the binding down the middle to make separate front and page covers.

Now that I no longer had inside pages, I cut white card stock just smaller than the covers and put a different color of coordinating, textured card stock on both sides. This makes the pages extra-strong.

I used two book rings for a binding and punched two holes slightly larger than the rings so the pages would turn easily.

Then came the best part - embellishing and decorating! Some pages I left whole, just trimming them down a little to fit on the new card stock.

Others I punched shapes from, traced shapes and cut out and used every bit of every image I could.

Once the rings were in, I tied lengths of coordinating ribbon onto them. I absolutely adore the finished product and can't wait for someone special to buy it and pass it on. To learn more, check out the listing for it in my Etsy shop.