[originally published in LMStyle]
This project was inspired by a money savings tip on the message boards at lifetimemoments. A member responded about the preparation of a price book, to keep in your purse and keep track of what the prices are at different places for your favorite products, so “you’ll know at a glance whether you’re getting a deal.”
In these times of economic stress, what a superb gift idea this is!!
The Maya Road sheer album is perfect for the project. It fits perfectly in a purse and because it is plastic and not cardboard, it will stand up to the repeated jostling and handling.
With 8 tabs in the album base, use printer to make tabs. Since the first tab was the cover, you have seven categories:
1. Dry Foods
2. Produce
3. Meat
4. Dairy
5. Cleaning/Etc.
6. Paper Goods
7. Personal Care
Adhere the internal table pages (see attachment) directly TO the plastic tab page – for additional durability. The tables measured 7.5 x 3.5”. Label table columns:
1. Date
2. Store
3. Item
4. Brand
5. Price/Size
6. Cost per unit
To determine cost per unit for a particular product, simply divide the size by the price for the cost per unit. For example, a box of cookies costs $1.99 for 18 ounces. $1.99 divided by 18 is .11 (11 cents per ounce).
To keep the cover “safe” inside a purse, alter cover with a paint technique.
Before you begin, keep a small bowl of water and some wet wipes nearby. When stamping with paint and an acrylic stamp, you want to take care never to let your paint dry on your stamp (hence the water to keep it wet). Choose a stamp with a good solid image – I am using Maya Road Trees Singleton stamp. Prepare the acrylic stamp on the block and set aside. These next steps work quickly, so be ready…
Remove the rings from the album and set aside. Work with your first tab page for your cover. Dab and swipe your Dabber (Shell Pink) paint across the surface of your cover tab page. Because these are dabbers, to get a thicker coat of paint, you need to dab it on and THEN swipe it lightly.
Repeat until it is thick enough of a coat that there are areas that are opaque and others that remain somewhat sheer.
Now, let it dry just a bit so it gets some tackiness (I picked mine up and fanned it back and forth for about 30 seconds). Take your stamp and stamp firmly into your surface to remove paint where your stamped image was – taking care to use a straight up and down motion. Move directly onto the next two images, and then immediately remove your stamp and put it into your little bowl of water, paint side DOWN to keep the paint from drying. (Wash your stamp as soon as you can get to it. I use a soft brush to make sure I get all the paint out. Use your wet wipe to clean your block of any stray paint).
Set your painted tab page aside to dry completely. (Don’t worry – if you messed up – take your wet wipe and wipe off all your paint and start over. You need to wait for your stamp to dry first.) When the paint and images are dry, swipe some gold lightly over it to give some depth. After it is dry, embellish your cover
For the inside pages, this project used the SEI Chick a Dee collection. Cut 4 strips of 7.34”x2.34” from the Anna’s Banana’s and 3 strips from the Tiny Bubbles sheets. Cut out each table from template with a narrow margin. Punch tabs and adhere to tab tops. Adhere tables to the strips of Anna’s Banana’s and Tiny Bubbles, adhere to the sheer back, and then embellish with Chick-a-Dee Die Cuts (be discerning because you don’t want to cover up too much of your writing space.
Take 7 office envelopes (normal No. 6 ¾ size) and cut with the CLOSED edge to your left – 2.25” from left edge (the part that is being cut off and discarded is on the flap edge). You should have a small pocket. Adhere strips of Chick-a-Dee Ga Ga and Chick-a-Dee prints (alternated) and punch out a ½ circle on the opening side. These are coupon folders
Adhere the folders to the BACKSIDE of each sheer page (table on front, envelope on back)
On your final page, before you adhere your table matted with printed paper on it, adhere a ribbon to the middle. Glue it, and then tape over it for double strength. Then, adhere your regular table over it.
Re-assemble your book, and you are done.
