As a huge fan of both scrapbooks and dogs, I’ve certainly created my share of layouts devoted to my pets. My favorite pet projects are the dedicated albums I made for my two dogs, incorporating their old dog collars as a fastener for the album.

I started with a small, blank board book. My favorite board book by far (and the one I used for this book) is the Westrim Paper Bliss square board book because it is incredibly sturdy, has cute windows on some of the pages, and has a very wide spine with lots of space between the pages, allowing plenty of room for embellishments. Some other good alternatives are these, these, or these.

I then I painted the book all over with a base color (one with light brown and the other with blue) of acrylic paint. I then accented the edges of the cover and each page with a darker color (dark brown and black) by putting a little bit of paint onto a paper towel and lightly brushing it along the edges. The effect was impressive, and the brown book ended up looking quite a bit like leather. When the paint was all dry, I added my decorative papers, embellishments, and lots of fun pictures of the dogs.

The finishing (and most sentimental) touch to the book was the fastener. I took old collars the dogs had worn and adjusted them so that they were the exact length needed to go around the book. I then positioned the clasp on the front of the book and hot-glued the collar to the book along the spine and back. What a cute and fun way to keep the scrapbook closed!

I was so pleased with these albums that I also made one for my father last year after his dog passed away. He really loved having the special book chronicling his dog’s life, and having it all wrapped up with the dog’s collar made it a perfectly lovely memorial for his beloved pet.