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Make a quick and easy themed gift album
Supplies Needed:
Photos
Cardstock
Patterned Paper
Punches
Craftknife
Paper Cutter
Glue
Dimensionals
Stamps
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This is a perfect gift for times you want something personal, from your heart, but that doesn't take an exorbitant amount of time or money to make.
Small themed albums come together quickly because the pages are planned out as one unit instead of page by page. The same collection of papers, embellishments, and design are used throughout. This way, you are planning once, purchasing or gathering your supplies once, and narrowing your photo choices. Once you get a style worked out, you will be churning these albums out easily for all kinds of occasions. Each album can be made unique by simple changes in your embellishments or color choices.
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Start with the photos. Is there a particular theme or event your album is for? The one I am making here is for my youngest granddaughter's second six months. I made one for her first six months which was a hit, so this is a continuation. In the past I have made one for my mom's 75th birthday, my daughter's 30th, one for my son, a father daughter one for another granddaughter. You could make one for a special anniversary, a cub scout album, your quilt collection, vacation Bible school...really the possiblilities are endless.
Once you have decided on the theme and chosen your photos, it is time to choose your design and colors. I started with the album for this one. When I saw this cheerful little 8 x 8, I had in the back of my mind some patterned papers and cardstock I already had in my stash. But you could buy the album and then buy some matching papers, or find some papers you like and then coordinate an album with them.
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| Everything Begins with the Photos |
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| Choose a Variety of Cardstock and Patterned Paper |
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I suggest you use a ratio of approximately 75% cardstock to 25% patterned paper. That way you won't overpower your pictures with too much pattern. After all, it is all about bringing attention to the photos. Of course this is just my opinion, choose any combination you like.
If you are buying 12 x 12 or 8 1/2 x 11 paper, you will need twenty sheets. The pieces you trim off to make the 8 x 8 page size will be used as coordinating accents, and to make simple embellishments for your album. If you buy precut 8 x 8 sheets, you will need more than twenty sheets for these embellishments.
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A standard 8 x 8 album comes with ten sleeves, or a total of twenty single pages. I like to design in layouts rather than single pages. This album will have a front single page layout, nine double page layouts in the middle, and a single page ending layout.
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| Everything Starts with the Photos |
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| Choose a variety of Papers |
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| If you are using 12 x 12 sheets, cut each sheet of paper down to 8 x 8. Keep the pieces you trimmed off in two different piles. One pile will have the 8 x 4 pieces, the other pile will be 12 x 4 pieces.
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You will use these trimmed pieces to make shaped backgrounds for your pages. Choose two 8 x 8 pages for your first 2 page layout. Now choose 3 pieces of trim paper to layer on your layout. These 3 pieces will be shaped with your craft knife as illustrated in the following pictures. You will need your craft knife and cutting mat for this step. Using your craft knife, cut a wave shape in one of the trim papers. You will need to hold the paper steady with your other hand. Be careful of your fingers! It really isn't hard once you get the hang of it. Being right-handed, I hold the paper firmly against the cutting mat with my left hand, and draw the craft knife from top to bottom in a gentle curve with my right hand.
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I like to cut one side on some of the trim pieces, and both sides on other trim pieces for more design choices on my pages.
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Then use your glue stick to adhere these wave shapes to your layouts.
Here are a few of the pages I put together (sans pictures). Having the same shapes, papers, and embellishments on each layout makes the whole thing come together like a breeze.
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Next, add your pictures. You can adhere some of them using dimensional adhesives to add interest to your pages.
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Now get out your punches and start punching shapes from the leftover scraps of themed paper. You can layer, ink, top with buttons or other stickers, or write dates and journaling on your punched embellishments. They will all coordinate with your project pages beautifully.
I love using corners to draw attention to certain pictures on my page. If you dont have a corner punch, you can use two different sized square punches to make corners. First punch the larger square. Then use a smaller square to punch out the middle of the large square. Finally, cut the square diagonally, and you end up with two corners. You can see one I've made on the page above.
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I like to give my page more depth by adhere the embellishments at different heights on my page using dimensional adhesives.
I often use alphabet stamps to add titles to my pages easily. I use minimal journaling in these albums. And voila! You are done!
Of course all these design options are open to your interpretation. Make the designs your own, and soon you will be churning out quick and easy gift albums which are sure to delight the recepient.
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