Old Yearbook Makeover

A friend of mine did this as a teacher gift and it turned out so cute that I decided to run with the idea. My grandparents would have been celebrating 60 years this year. Unfortunately my grandpa passed away. I still wanted to do a little something special for my grandma, so I made a memories book. I took an old yearbook. Actually my mom's old yearbook. I know, who would want to part with their old high school yearbook (do you hear the sarcasm), but lucky enough my dad was also in that graduating class, so they had an extra. We clipped the message my dad wrote in her yearbook that year. "I hope you have a great future." Turns out...she has.


Back to the book...I took some pages out to start with, since I was planning on adding pages, but I didn't take out quite enough, which caused a few problems with my binding later. Then I glued (I used Elmer's spray glue) three pages of the yearbook together, then another three, and another, you get the idea. After that I glued cardstock on the front and back of the three glued pages. This is where the binding problem occured. I needed to take out more pages to begin with. Because I added so many extra pages, the binding on the book broke. It still worked, but next time I will account for all the pages I will be adding and take out a few more of the book pages to accomodate. For the book cover, I used fabric that I simply mod podged to the book and then folded the edges around the cover, just like a binding on a quilt. I thought about taking pictures of the whole process, but then I started and forgot. Once I covered the book I added cardstock to the front and back cover to hide my raw edges. Worked like a charm. For this book I had all my family write letters and share memories for my grandma. I added a few pictures...and wal~la- a perfect gift that she will enjoy for years.

For the most part, I was excited with how well it turned out and was even more excited when I saw her reaction. And funny thing. For the last pages I made a family tree. I was sooo careful to make sure I had everyone on it. I was finishing it up in the wee hours of the morning though, so probably not as careful as I should have been. After I gave it to her, Tony was looking through the book and brought it to my attention that I had left him off. Really. Of the 82 people on the family tree, it was my very own husband I forgot. Oops. He's on there now.