So many people leaving... memory books

It's been big changes all round where I work recently, with fair number of people being made redundant.

This month, for a change, we had a number of people leaving because they had other jobs!

My contribution to the farewells was to make a memory book for each of them, to remember their time with us.

 The process for the first one was the same for the covers (greyboard covered with a paper created using serif) but I decided to use my cinch to bind it.  Which was a good idea if I had planned it properly, but I made it incredibly hard for myself because I didn't!

I got a reasonable effect by the skin of my teeth - but it took much effort and I decided not to do that with the last two...

Instead, I used my trusty cropodile and punched two holes and then used book rings!  The effect was pretty much the same and saved me from grinding my teeth right down!


Each of the books had the recipients name on it - you can't really see it in the last one, as the diecut letters were on the panel, white on white.  It looked really effective in real life!  Unfortunately, the photo doesn't totally show it.  Inside was a number of card inserts, onto which I stuck the small cards I had given everyone to write their messages onto, and the photographs we had of people the recipient worked with, and anything relative to their job.

Et voilá !  A lovely keepsake.

What you would need to make one yourself:

• Two pieces of greyboard cut to size.
• Two pieces of covering paper, slightly larger, say 1.5 cm or just over half an inch all round.
• Two pieces of lining paper, slightly smaller than the covered greyboard. 
• Number of cards cut to size to fit inside the covers (as many as you like)
• Two Book rings

1. I covered the greyboard in the cover paper, sticking it down on the inside of the cover with red liner tape.
2. Then, I stuck the liner paper onto each inside cover.
3. Using the cropodile, I marked each cover 1 inch in from the long edge each side and cut two holes in  line with the mark (around 1.5 cm in from the short edge).
4. I then cut corresponding holes in all the insert cards.
5. I put the covers  (innerside faceing) around the insert cards and put the bookrings through the hole.
6. And then was the fun bit - I decorated the cover.
7.  I created a box for each of the books using stiff card - I thought it looked better for presentation purposes - but you could put it in a pretty bag, or cover it with tissue.