Upcycle your 60s photo album into a tag/ATC binder

How are you, crafty people?! Cathy Frailey here and I wanted to share with you how I upcycled my unused 60s photo album into a tag/ATC binder – it’s a little it like a junk journal but… only a little bit… you will see…

We’ve all got old photo albums from the 60s, 70s, or even earlier. Some have the sticky plastic you lift up, others have the cascading plastic sleeves. And the colors – gold & olive! I found that my family albums from my childhood were falling apart inside from age: yellowing glue, brittle plastic. So I turned one into a tag/ATC storage binder. With my CCB stash, I recovered and refurbished an old gold relic into a new gypsy treasure!

Materials used to epicycle the binder:
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist – Iridescent Gold, Merlot Gold
Canvas Corp Printed Cardboard – Branches, French Letters
Canvas Corp Colored Burlap – Teal, Wheat
7gypsies Gypsy Mixed Media Pad – American Vintage (printed canvas)
7gypsies American Vintage: 12×12 American Stamps Paper (red stripes side)
7gypsies Wanderlust: Be Free 12×12 Paper
7gypsies Ordre du Jour 12×12 Paper – Pen & Tell Her and Days, Weeks & Months 
7gypsies Gypsy Moments: 8×8 Poses and Reflections Paper
7gypsies Collage Tissue Creme Metro
Architextures™ Parchment Rub-On – Build, Grow, Pose
Tim Holtz paper dolls, Sentiments from packaging
Old picture album, Coffee filters
Matte gel, E6000 glue, Distress ink
Scissors, Sewing machine, Hole punch

My album was the cascading type so I removed all the plastic in,,serts.

On the inside, the covers had funky paper that I covered with tissue paper.
I kept the gold border for a punch of color and distressed around the tissue edges.
I like that the pattern is still faintly visible underneath.

For the outside, I cut my cardboard to fit the front, back, and spine.
I made sure there was a gap between the pieces so that it would open and close with no difficulty.
And I liked having the punch of color showing.
I used E6000 and held things down with clips.

I distressed around the edges and cut out the large gypsy and sentiments from the packaging for the front.
I then painted the gypsy with the mists and spattered some on the cardboard.

For the inserts, I cut my coverings to fit on each side and punched the holes.
Then I folded the edges of a filter to fit and sewed it on for the pocket.
This actually gives you 2 pockets: one underneath the filter and inside the filter.
After that, I distressed the edges, adhered each side with gel, and embellished the pockets.
I did that for all my inserts and started putting it together!

You can add extra stitching across the corners, use different stitches, or leave as is.

The rub-ons really add a whimsical touch!!!
Add as much or as little embellishing as you want – it’s a good way to use scraps!
And it’s easy to add inserts by making your own from cereal box-weight cardboard!

It’s an amazing alternative to a junk journal, don’t you think?

Have a crafty day!

Cathy Frailey
blog and Instagram

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