Tshirt smashbook….

Have you ever heard of smashbooking? It’s all the craze right now. Remember those scrapbooks you used to put together back in the day…the kind where you shoved receipts..tickets…bottle caps?? It’s an anything goes “scrapbook” to record life moments and memories. I put one together today…and I love it!!

I picked up a few of these kraft chipboard books at Michael’s for $1.50. They are a perfect size for smashbooking…

I cut up some old tshirts and went to work designing a “cover” for my smashbook…

Supplies I used:

4 pieces of tshirt for both the front and back cover {total of 8. The top layer on the front and back covers are double interfaced.}

fabric scraps

sewing machine

thread

scissors

various pieces of paper {i randomly cut scrap pieces of paper. no straight lines…just have fun with it! use whatever you have available…envelopes…old calendar pages…junk mail…notepad paper…etc}

large binder ring {i upgraded mine…as I plan on stuffing this thing}

I pinned all four layers of the back cover and crazy quilt stitched it. Just random sewing…no pattern. You just need to keep moving your fabric around until you have one nice quilted piece.

I used one of the chipboards as a template. I just placed it over my crazy quilted piece and traced around the perimeter with a fabric marker. Next I cut along the line and then I sewed 2 times around the edge to secure any threads I had cut in the previous step. Once again, I wasn’t worried about straight lines. The more imperfect…the better. Then I appliquéd a heart on the backside to represent my family’s word of the year which is…heart!

I repeated the same steps for the front cover…only changing the appliqué to 2013… If you are not familiar with appliqué…I have a two part tutorial you can find here and here.

After I finished the covers…I put it all together..inserting my randomly cut pieces of paper in different sections. The book measures approximately 6×6. It’s perfect to keep next to my computer…on my nightstand…or travel with me on vacations. I really adore the way it turned out! The whole project took me about an hour. Since I had most materials on hand…it only cost me $1.50. If you do this project…I would strongly encourage you to find things around your house to use…it makes it that much more special and fun. I intend to add more pages as I need them.

I’m excited to fill this book to the brim with memories!!