Tutorial: Upcycled CD Mini Album

Do you get those random CD's or DVD's in the mail -- you know, from the stamps website or from that company trying to sell you a course on how to use a camera you don't even own?  Do you have young kids who have apparently taken a stack of DVD's and rubbed them over a pile of sharp gravel mixed with sandpaper?  Maybe that old Milli Vanilli CD that you don't want anyone to know you own?  Don't toss them -- upcycle them!

When I was growing up my dad owned a recycling center, so it's pretty much ingrained in me to try to find ways to reuse something rather than throwing it away.  I also wanted an easy way for my daughter to let me know what hairstyle she wanted next.  Thus, the CD Mini Album was born!

Ingredients:

• 4 unwanted CD's and DVD's
• 2 12x12 sheets of patterned paper
• 1 binding ring
• chipboard elements (I used 4 flowers)
• sticker embellishments
• rub-on or sticker letters
• photos cropped into circles

Tools:

• circle cutter
• Crop-a-dile or other heavy duty hole punch
• adhesive
• foam dots

Directions:

1. Cut 8 45/8" circles from patterned paper (you should be able to get 4 circles from each sheet)
2. Punch a hole about 1/4" in from the edge of a CD
3. Place punched CD on top of an unpunched CD and line up the edges.  Use a marker to mark the placement of the hole on the unpunched CD.  Repeat for all CD's and patterned paper circles, then punch a hole in each of them.
4. Glue paper to CD's being sure to line up the holes.
5. For the cover CD:

• Use letters to spell out title around edges of the circle
• embellish with chipboard flowers.*  
• Place a small photo in the center of the largest flower and raise this element with foam dots.

      

     6.  Embellish inside pages with photos and stickers.  I did my journaling by hand, but you could use mini alpha stickers.

     7.  Stack cover and pages with punched holes aligned and secure with a binding ring.

*Tip: When you have chipboard elements that overlap (as the orange and red flowers do on my cover page), use foam dots to bridge the gap between the background page and the part of the flower that hangs off the element below it.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial.  If you try it out, please post a link to your creation in the comments.  I'd love to see it!