Last Friday I started a new project, a present for my cousin who is moving to her first own apartment next week. She wished for a bucket with cleaning stuff. I wasn’t sure about how much she knew about cleaning or about using soft soap and since I was in the mood for crafting I decided to make her a small cleaning guide. Printed plain papers are no fun to look at or learn from, although the stain removal guide was so long and useful I just printed it out so she can tape it on the inside of the cleaning closet door. I was pondering about whether to make cards with tips and instructions and or collect them in an album or book. I had a few ring albums lying around but none seemed to fit for this purpose, so I got the idea of binding a book myself!
Not completely clueless I googled guides for binding books, I honestly had no idea there are so many different methods and ways to bind a book. On pinterest I found a guide I liked so I just started cutting the pages and bound them together two and two.
I found an old box and cut out the covers, used a piece of paper from the lovely black currant collection, glued it on the cover pieces and started working on filling the pages with instructions and tips for how to clean and use soap. I also added a few tips for washing clothes. To spice it up a bit I added some decorations and stamped figures which I also colored.
All dried up I bound everything together and looked at it , ridiculously happy with the result, mostly the cover. It just looks fab!
Best of all is that I only used stuff in ny stash! I even got to use stuff I’ve had in my stash for quite some time now, such as the beige paper used for the pages, all the pretty washi tape I love to collect (I’d collect anything to be honest) and a few of the mini brads I bought in the early days. Hurray!

Here are the pages in the book: