Binder Scrapbook Album

When you decide to begin a scrapbook album it can become a very expensive business.

You will need an album to put all your creations in, page protectors, scrapbook paper, embellishments, tags, journal pens and the lists goes on and on.

As I said this can become a trifle on the costly side, so why not try and create an album yourself using an ordinary White Ring Binder.

Using a binder will allow you to use 8.5x11 inch paper (printer size paper), so there is no need to buy special 12x12 or 8x8 scrapbook paper.  If you are a digital scrap booker this is even better because you can create your whole layout on the computer using your software of choice and then print out your page onto a sheet of photo paper.

You can decorate the front side and back of your plain white binder with photos, embellishments, tags, stickers, glitter labels and anything else you can find to make it a really personal treasure instead of a mass produced scrapbook album. This doesn't need to cost the earth as you can make the tags and embellishments yourself out of everyday items for example old cards can be made into tags or you could use leftover ribbon from gifts or bits of wrapping paper cut up into shapes etc.

The albums are cheap because they only cost you the price of a ring binder (which you can often get at a discounted price if you buy more than one at a time) but can become incredible beautiful if you spend the time and effort decorating them up with your personal style.

Creating albums for different themes now becomes affordable and a whole lot more personal. For example you could create a Disney scrapbook album with all your photos from a special disney vacation, you could decorate the front of the album with tickets from the rides, photographs, stickers of Mickey Mouse and the gang or anything that made the trip such a memorable occasion for you and your family.

Other occasions you could create scrapbook albums for are weddings, births, school events, proms, graduations, halloween, christmas, birthdays really you could create an album for just about anything.

Ending up with a whole bookshelf full of binders but instead of a boring sea of white, you get a treasured set of albums created by you each with a glorious story to tell its reader.

1. To do something creative with the vast amount of Digital Photographs you have slowing down your computers hard drive.  While picking out the photographs you are going to use, why not delete some of the terrible photos which you have no intention of doing anything with and free up a bit of valuable space (note to self listen to your own advice and get deleting.)

2. A chance to try out one of those Digital Scrapbooking Freebie Kits you keep downloading from your favorite digital scrapbook place but never seem to get around to using (how many free Kits can one person use in a life time?)

3. A way to immortalize your photographs for future generations to share
in an organized and creative way (not that I want to "pop my clogs" just yet though, but it would be a nice legacy to leave behind.)

4. To create a special gift for a friend, family member, or teacher just to say
thank you for something they have done for you.  Create the page around a special occasion for example a scrapbook page around a Christening, Wedding or Graduation, or perhaps you could do a page for your child's teacher as a thank you for all their hard work.  The ideas for scrapbooking page layouts are endless (perhaps this is a topic for another blog post...)

5. The Best Reason I Have Saved for Last and it's a Simple ONE:
   
Create It, Digiscrap It, It's All Good Fun ~ Catchyalader G 

Digital Scrapbook Page - Teenage Years 

Today I thought I would talk a little about my process when starting a scrapbook page.  I like to start out by creating  scrapbook page layouts, by this I mean a sort of template into which I can slot my photographs.

I have many ideas for scrapbook layouts, for example you could use the templates to create baby scrapbook pages with each square representing a month in the first year of your babies life.  The template could have twelve sections and within each one you could add a photograph for the 1st month of your babies life, the 2nd month and so on until you have created a scrapbook page in a sort of calender format.

How about creating wedding scrapbook layouts around your big day, each part of the template could show a different part of your special day or a graduation day template.  Once you have your template created you can use it many times over when you want to group your photographs together into a collage.  

Photographs do not have to be around one subject you could choose a theme and group photos around that theme, today I wanted to do a Just for Fun page so I included photographs that I had altered using my photo editing software, because that is what I like to do for fun. I have included this link fot the Just for Fun Digital Scrapbook Page that I have created using this Digital Scrapbook Template if you want to take a look.

Templates are a great way to show off your photographs you don't even need to buy any scrapbooking supplies all you need is your scrapbooking software and some photographs.

When creating templates you can make them any size you like and use any shapes for your photos that you want, in this example I used a 8 x 10 size to make printing it out simple and rectangles for the shapes but you could do 12 x 12 layouts or 8 x8 and add photos into any shape that you choose. 


Cheers
Groobers

Create It, DigiScrap It, It's All Good Fun - Cathyalader ~ G

Today I wanted to do a Digital Scrapbooking page for Halloween, so I started to look around for free digital Scrapbooking Halloween pages and I came across this one by Chrissy Snow, its a great kit so if you want to download it, hurry over to her blog as it's only available free until Wednesday 24th Sep.

Thanks for looking
Groobers

This digital scrapbook page was inspired by a Britany Spears song "Piece of Me".


Teachers, Parents everyone seems to want a piece of a teenagers life or so it seems to them.



Click on the link to see the completed Digital Scrapbook Page.


Cheers
Groobers


Create It, DigiScrap It, It's all Good Fun ~ Catchyalader ~ G