10 Tips for Decorating a Word Book (Make Your Own Word Book)

A few months ago, I wrote an article on how to make your own word book . Now I've come back to show you some tips and tricks I found helpful once it's time to decorate your personalized piece.

1. Before you cut or glue anything, count how many letters you have in your word and pick out the same number of coordinating papers. Lay them out in front of you and re-arrange them in a way that is most pleasing to you. I found that multi-colored strips and plaids bring solids together and I like to put lighter colors up next to the dark colors to really make it pop.
   
   
   
   
2. Before you commit a patterned paper for a specific letter, remember that you will be cutting out the letter and be sure to make sure that you will not remove any important detail or design on the front side of your paper. Imagine using a patterned paper that says something and you have to cut off one of the letters of the phrase for the inside of your word book.
   
   
   
   
3. If you run across this problem, put some temporary adhesive on the front of that letter and carefully move around your patterned paper to allow plenty of room to make sure you have solved the problem.
   
   
4. Before you cut your adhered patterned paper with your exacto knife, be sure to lightly trace around the letter with a pencil onto the paper. This will help you stay on track in case the paper was to shift. You can also prevent this with some more temporary adhesive.
   
   
   
   
5. If your word book is larger than 12" wide and you are covering each page, piece together more coordinating papers and separate with ribbon.
   
   
   
   
6. If your word book is larger than 12" or if you just want to save serious time and money, paint your word book with a solid-colored acrylic paint and decorate after it dries. I always like to paint my books black to make my patterned paper really POP!
   
   
7. Since you probably won't have page protectors for your book, be careful what you put inside for embellishing. Make sure that your embellishment will not scratch a photograph when the book is closed.
   
   
   
   
8. When decorating your cover, take care to use super adhesive when attaching your embellishments. Most likely when you slide your book onto a shelf with other albums, your embellishment might pop off, or rip the book.
   
   
9. Take care when decorating your pages to make sure that your photos or embellishments don't stick too far out so that it shows through the letters when your book is closed. This will take away from the title of the book and the beautifully coordinated patterned paper.
   
   
   
   
10. Last tip for your next book: If you would like a shorter word next time, adhere a phrase or other words on the cover of your book to allow for a smaller album to cut out by hand. Example: use "I love" letter stickers on a book that says, "YOU."