Brag book and baby journal

materials:

• 3 Or more sheets of card stock        
• X-ACTO knife        
• Cutting mat        
• Double-sided tape        
• Butter knife or scoring tool        
• Spoon        
• Hole Punch        
• Scissors        
• Screw post or ribbon for binding        
• Photos        
• Lamination sheets, 8-1/2 x 11 (optional)

instructions:

1. Customize the brag book cover (page 1) by typing your message into the space provided. Hint: To create a blank field on the customizable cover, click on the text section to select it and press delete.        
2. Print out the cover on the card stock. Set aside to dry completely.        
3. Customize the brag book photo page (page 2) by typing your message into the top space provided. Hint: To create a blank field on the customizable photo page, click on the text section to select it and press delete.        
4. Print out the photo page on the card stock. Set aside to dry completely.        
5. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for all of your photos.        
6. Print out the brag book back cover (page 3) on the card stock. Set aside to dry completely.        
7. For easier folding, score all the brag book pages. To do this, lay a ruler along the red dotted line, and run a butter knife or scoring tool along the ruler. Use medium pressure to create an indentation on the paper.        
8. Fold along scored lines. Then, using the back of a spoon, press the fold firmly to crease.        
9. Trim pieces of lamination to cover the circle on each page of your brag book. (This step is optional, but will help extend the life of your brag book.)        
10. Peel the backing from each sheet one at a time and place on top of the circle. To completely seal the laminating sheet to the paper, burnish in place. To do this, rub firmly with the back of a teaspoon or burnishing tool.        
11. Cut the photo window from each of the photo pages.        
12. From the back, tape your photos in place.        
13. Apply double-sided tape to the back of each brag book circle. Fold each page in half along the crease and press firmly in place.        
14. One at a time, place the cutting mat underneath a brag book page with the circle facing up. Using the X-ACTO knife, trim the white areas away from the circle.        
15. Once all of the circles have been cut, punch out the gray dot at the top of each page.        
16. Stack all the pages in order: front cover, photo pages, then back cover.        
17. To assemble the book, insert the screw posts through all of the pages and screw them together. (If desired, a ribbon can be tied to bind the pages together.)