How to make a diy scrapbook / photo album

by Hilary Pullen

Saving precious photos and memorabilia such as train tickets,  restaurant receipts or newspaper cuttings has been something we have been doing for hundreds of years. I have a scrapbook from the 1800's where a great, great Aunt of mine glued in cuttings of her appearances playing the piano (she was pretty good!), it's fascinating and I'm so glad we have it as a family heirloom.

Our CraftWorld Editor Natalie recently wrote about Scrapbooking and Journaling in her New Year New Craft series.

We are all so digital in 21st century that often photos never get printed and shared physically, creating an album for an event or for a baby's first year is a great way to reflect on good times and is definitely what we would refer to as a 'mindful' exercise - something which makes us grateful for experiences we have had.

If you're stuck at home due to the awful virus then there has never been more time to look through old photos and drawers full of mementoes from past trips and bring them together in an album. There are so many different kinds ranging in size and style, from extremely ornate and whimsical designs through to clean and simple photo albums.

DIY Albums make fantastic gifts either as a blank album / scrapbook ready to fill with pictures or I think better still a ready made scrapbook with

Materials needed to create a handmade album

The materials you can use to create an album vary depending on how you want your finished album to look but a few really basic supplies you will need  - you can find everything you need at CraftStash - Craft Essentials

  • CardStock - you'll be doing some folding so you don't want this to be too thick 180 to 230gsm will be fine for most albums, you may want to use some thicker card for the cover. You'll see that one in of our tutorials below they use ceral boxes for the cover!
  • Glue - liquid glue or double sided tape, if you need advice on what kind of glue to use check out the CraftWorld Guide to the Best Glue for Cardstock
  • Ruler - accurate measurement to the mm of your card is vital for a crisp finish to your album
  • Scissors / Guillotine - to get a great finish you need to be cutting really straight lines
  • Decorative items - from calligraphy pens to patterned paper, unless you want a very clean looking album then you should definitely think about how you want the individual pages of the album to look and take extra time designing the cover. If you already know what the album will be for you have a theme to work with when deciding on your design. The best part of a handmade album is that you add personality to it with embellishments and decorative touches.

DIY Album Tutorials

There are lots of great tutorials available to help you make a start on creating your on handmade album. We have collected some excellent examples that will get your creative juices flowing. Follow to the letter or take inspiration from the structure and design your own look and feel.

Our very own Sam Calcott of Made to Surprise and Mixed Up Craft has this great tutorial for creating a DIY Album, it came about after she accidentally printed of 18 sheets of patterned paper and need to think of something fun to make with them. Sam uses a laminator to create a hard cover for her album.

Helen Griffin of Simply Made Crafts has created a range of dies to make creating albums even more simple. The results are really professional. In this tutorial she shows you how to create a midi album using pretty floral papers.

You can find Helen's range of dies for creating handmade albums of all different sizes over at www.craftstash.co.uk in her Simply Made Crafts range of products.

We love this cute mini album created by @MrsStationery one of our fabulous members at CraftWorld! Find her on CraftWorld here - @MrsStationery and add her as a friend to ensure you see more of her beautiful work.

This is such a simple tutorial to follow from Plenty Tempty(a great channel to follow if you like fun 3d crafts) In the video they use clear acetate sheets laid onto card for the album pages to make little pockets for the photos.

This mini album from Anna Komenda is so cute! Instead of having pages that you flip through it has concertinad pages that fold flat with a little string closure.

We have also created a Pinterest board stacked full of DIY Album Ideas for you to take inspiration from!