Life's a beach

I was browsing the internet the other day and saw a chipboard journal in the shape of a beach hut. “I could made one of those,” I thought. So I did.

It was pretty easy, albeit quite time-consuming.

I started with a template made from scrap paper. This book measures 12cm wide by 17cm tall. I cut diagonally from the centre top of the paper to a point 6cm down the side. This was made much easier by folding the template in half lengthways first and cutting while it was still folded.

I made two covers, each from two pieces of cereal box stuck together for thickness. I covered both of them using this striped paper from the Dashing collection. It’s a Christmassy collection but I thought the stripes had a beach hut feel to them, and the colour was just right for sun-bleached wood.

I covered and decorated the covers, in the same way as shown in this tutorial.

To decorate, I cut a strip of Naturals Ivory cardstock and scalloped the edge using the Corner Rounder, piercing for decoration. I cut this into two pieces and attached them separately. This did leave me with a join, which I wasn’t so happy with, so I decided to add the “sign” above the door. This is “hung” with Linen Thread and the ends covered with strips of Basic Gray (sorry, I hate spelling it the American way but I don’t want to confuse it with a certain brand of patterned paper!) cardstock.

The scalloped eaves are popped up, as is the sign.


To make the door, I covered more cereal box card with some Bordering Blue cardstock. I did this to give the door a bit more substance than you’d get from a single sheet of cardstock. All the door furniture is made from Hodgepodge Hardware® - Pewter. The door handle is a photo anchor, secured with a brad (and a Glue Dots behind to stop it spinning round). The hinges are those things whose name I don’t know. I prised them open so they’d fit over the thick door and, by a happy accident, the D rings fell off.

The doorstep is yet more cereal box cardstock covered with Basic Gray cardstock. This is popped up to make it stand proud of the door slightly.

Making holes in the covers was really easy with the Crop-A-Dile™ - which also has guides so that the holes line up perfectly. I also used the Crop-A-Dile™ to set the Jumbo Eyelets.

The inside pages are simply made from cardstock, using the same template as for the covers.

Finally, I held it all together with book rings (I get mine from Staples) and decorated the rings with various co-ordinating ribbons.

We're hoping to pull in a trip to the beach in the next few weeks, so I'd better take some photos to fill this album. Hope this inspires you to make your own beach albums, too! 

Stamps: Daily Flexible Phrases (p65)
Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Bordering Blue, Basic Gray
Paper: Dashing (p73)
Ink: Brocade Blue
Accessories: Corner rounder (p80) Hodgepodge Hardware® - Pewter (p84), Jumbo Eyelets – Pewter (p85), Linen thread (p87), Crafters’ Toolkit (p85), Crop-A-Dile™ (p85), 5/8” Grosgrain Ribbon - Very Vanilla, Brocade Blue, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon 0 Very Vanilla, Gingham Ribbon – Caramel (p86), Book rings (Staples)

All products by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated. Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.