I really love giving gifts, especially to those people who are dear to me, and when there is no rush, but on the contrary, there is time and opportunity to think everything through properly!
March 1st was my friend Dinara’s birthday. We have known her literally since the cradle. From my diapers :), because She is a little older than me - she turned 30.
Background
We spent our childhood, adolescence and youth together. We were friends, our mothers were friends, and besides, for two decades we were practically neighbors - we lived in the same house, only in different entrances.
In 2006, Dinara got married and moved to her husband, leaving our hometown. However, our friendship did not stop; on the contrary, it strengthened even more. Dinara’s brother still lives in Penza, and he kindly agreed to give her a gift from me when he was going to visit her to celebrate her birthday.
The basis for a scrap album
Printed photos
Glue stick
Regular scissors
Curly scissors
Clippings from unwanted postcards, magazines, etc.
Stickers (regular paper and 3D)
Charms, mobile keychain, adhesive flowers
A needle and white thread for attaching charms
Internet, inspiration and good mood;)
Basis for scrapbook
Such a wonderful thing can be purchased in departments and stores with hobby goods (often they are combined with stationery).
The base consists of several dense pieces. In my case there are 8 of them, i.e. approximately for 16 photos. Or, if you leave the first and last pages without photographs and decorate them in some other way, then for 14.
The format may be different. Like mine or in another blank - approximately 16 x 18 cm:
Or, for example, landscape format. My friend Lena made an album from this base and gave it to me for my birthday:
The designs on the blanks are different (in general, including as part of the same base). So you can choose according to your taste.
You can make landscape sheets yourself, armed with thick colored cardboard or separate sheets for scrapbooking. In this case, you can also determine the shape and size yourself.
But, to be honest, this is not for me. If I can still cut something even out of paper, then with dense material it’s a disaster, I just get all nervous!
Photos
First, I advise you to thoroughly comb through your albums and choose what may be suitable for your purpose. Let there be more of these photos than necessary. Firstly, something will be eliminated later, and secondly, you may want to take two photos at once on one page (or 3-4, if the format allows it).
Which photos to choose? Of course, they are suitable for the theme, of good quality (otherwise allowed if the photo is of particular value), those that evoke pleasant memories and give rise to associations, which is no less valuable.
After this, it is important not to miss such an important detail as size. I almost printed out all the photos in standard sizes - 10 x 15 cm. Then I took the first photo I came across as an example and began applying it to the blanks. All the beauty of the pages was hidden underneath, and there was simply not enough space for any inscription... It was decided to reduce the size.
Not knowing whether the nearest photo studio printed the 9 x 13 cm format, I decided to resort to the following. In Photoshop (this can even be done in Paint) I processed all the photos - I simply expanded the fields on all four sides and left them white.
I saved all the photos on a flash drive in two folders. In one - just a photo as it is, in the second - with such white fields. In the end, it was the second option that came in handy, because... although they print 9 x 13 cm, but on paper measuring 10 x 15 cm. That is. the photographer himself would have to tinker and reduce the photo before printing it. And everything happened so quickly.
To make it more varied and interesting, I trimmed some of the photos with curly scissors:
For others, I used regular scissors to make rounded corners:
Others I simply cut off and left as is.
Before printing, you can arrange the photos in Photoshop in the frames you like. But, in my opinion, this should be done only if the blanks themselves are decorated to a minimum. Otherwise it will turn out too colorful and tasteless.
Based on the theme, I used the following photographs:
Important memorable places (our house, yard, Broadway, school, apartment windows photographed by me on Zoom, etc.)
Our photos together with Dinara from that time
Photo of Dinara's mother, who, unfortunately, has already died and in the last years of her life I had the opportunity to see her more often than Dinara
Photos of their family's favorite cat, Ksyushka
Inscriptions
When I wrote above that photographs should evoke associations, I meant that this would be a good help for making inscriptions and accompanying comments on the photographs.
For example, I used the following options. I posted several poems of my personal composition next to the corresponding photos:
I wrote quotes from those songs that I associate with certain events, people, places depicted in the photo. For example, here are two lines from my long-loved song by the group “Love Stories” - “School”:
And here are three quotes from Dina Migdal’s very touching song “Mom’s Hands”:
Under some photos I simply wrote a few words of my own or left them without comment. It is important to remember that everything that is too much is not very much. Everything needs moderation :)
Decorations
These words about moderation apply not only to comments under the photo, but also to jewelry. Don't overdo it.
First of all, I used flat and voluminous paper stickers. It's a pity that the 3D effect in the photo is not as clearly noticeable as when you hold the album in your hands.
The heart that accompanies the photo of Dinarina’s mother is soft and voluminous; I left it from a set of decorative candles.
If you wish, you can use ribbons, which are sold in the same place where the basis for the scrap album is, as well as in sewing departments.
Or use lace. It will turn out very tender!
In general, when I sat down to this activity, I filled the entire table with everything that might suddenly be useful to me. Because only a mental representation is one thing, but the process itself is completely different, adjustments are already made here and along the way you understand what is suitable and what will be unnecessary.
I couldn't do without my favorite charms (small metal pendants). They can be used for various handicrafts, including a photo album!
In general, I shouldn’t be allowed into hobby goods departments, otherwise I’ll waste all the funds I have there :))
Another separate topic is my long-term love for airplanes. But the fact remains - I couldn’t imagine the album without this aircraft))
This is how a golden airplane flies in the sky when turning into our yard:
Each charm has a small ring for fastening. I pierced the photo about 0.5 cm from the edge with a needle and thread (its white color matches the shade of the sky in this case) and sewed the pendant to the photo with several stitches. And then I glued the photo to the blank. The plane remains mobile when viewing the album.
On the cover, I initially wanted to make a beautiful handwritten inscription “A Piece of Penza” and draw our monument of glory “Rostock” on the Sura embankment. But then she abandoned this idea. It seemed to me more appropriate and beautiful to stick on a congratulation, once cut out from a postcard, and a sticker with hearts as a sign of love and friendship :)
I also designed the back cover with a cardboard cutout. This girl personifies me, giving my friend flowers and, in fact, an album :)
And on one of the two fastening rings you can see a flower - this is a pendant for a mobile phone, which came in handy for me in another capacity :)
Dinara really liked the album, which made me incredibly happy!
Still, the main thing to remember is that jewelry is wonderful, but it is important that the content of such a gift is touching, photographs and inscriptions evoke memories dear to the heart or simply lift your spirits!
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Nowadays it is fashionable to create various handmade things. Try to make it too. It will not just contain photographs, it will become an exclusive item and decoration of your home. If you give such a gift to a child or newlyweds, it will always remind you not only of the most pleasant events in the life of the owner, but also of you, its creator.
Basic operating principles
To do this, you can use ready-made creativity kits, which are sold in specialized and online stores. The kit usually contains everything you need for decoration: beautiful paper, stickers, voluminous decorations. Most often, the sets are made in a certain style and are dedicated to a certain theme: a gift for a newborn, newlyweds, romance, travel.
It’s easy to select all the necessary elements yourself. But it’s better to design photos, pages and covers in the same style.
Necessary materials
To create a beautiful scrapbooking album with your own hands, you will need the following:
- Thick cardboard for making the base (cover and pages).
- A piece of fabric for decorating the workpiece.
- Sintepon, if you want to make the front and back of the cover soft and voluminous.
- Scissors.
- Pencil.
- Ruler.
- Glue.
- Figured hole punch (for decorating the edge or creating small templates for applique).
- Magazine clippings or other pictures.
- satin ribbons.
- Flat or 3D stickers.
- Various decor (bows, flowers, beads).
Of course, the list depends on your desire, capabilities and design theme. Usually they use all of the above, but it is worth remembering that photographs should still be the main thing. Then you will end up with a DIY scrapbooking album, and not just a collage using this technique. You shouldn’t put all the elements on one page; it’s better to limit their variety. Make sure that the design looks harmonious, choose one central element, and let the rest just complement it.
How to make a cover
To make a scrapbooking album with your own hands, you first need to complete the base - the frame of the cover and pages. Decide what size the product will be and prepare a sheet of cardboard of the appropriate size for the front and back sides and the required number of pages.
The sequence of creating a beautiful cover is as follows:
- Take one cardboard blank and cut a piece of padding polyester to its size. Glue it to the base.
- Cut out a piece from a suitable fabric, such as canvas or any other, taking into account allowances for gluing (1.5-2 cm on each side).
- Apply glue to the free surface of the padding polyester and lay the fabric flat. Fold the allowances and glue them to the cardboard.
- To prevent the folds from being visible, glue a sheet of beautiful paper or cardboard on top. The back cover is ready.
- The front part can be made in the same way or you can also make a window for a photograph. To do this, make a slot of the desired shape and size in the base of cardboard and padding polyester. The rest is done using the same technology as for the reverse side (there is no need to pre-cut a window in the fabric). After gluing the fabric and padding polyester, the material is cut and folded.
- Insert a slightly larger photo into the window, gluing it along the allowances to the base. On the reverse side, as in the first case, a beautiful sheet of paper or cardboard is made.
- Punch holes for the eyelets and install them into the front and back of the cover.
- Insert the rings into the eyelets.
The cover is ready. This option is good if you want to make a children's album with your own hands. A scrapbooking master class on creating an album design, pages and various design options will help you choose the right solution.
You can do the cover in another way. In order not to use the ring mechanism, you will also have to make the end part of the cover, either at the same time as the front and back, or glue it to the binding (stack of pages). Choose a method convenient for you.
Pages and binding
So, you are making a scrapbooking album with your own hands. The master class from the previous section showed how to make a cover, but this is not enough. You also need to pin the pages. If your cover is supposed to be on rings, you can install the sheets in the same way. Another option is to make a binder. The technology is like this:
- In addition to the page blanks, cut out strips of paper the length of the album and 1.5-2 cm wide. In the middle of each piece, use a knitting needle or other similar object to draw a strip 2-4 mm wide. Cut the corners of the rectangle at an angle of 45 degrees.
- Using paper strips, glue the album sheets together. The groove left in the middle will be between the sheets.
- Glue a piece of bandage with 1.5-2 cm allowances on the sides and two pieces of braid along the width of the binding to the end part of the stack with glued sheets.
- Glue the tape to the top and bottom edges. This will give the binding strength and a neat appearance.
- Cut out a piece from decorative cardboard, just like the bandage. Glue it over the bandage, and the protruding edges onto the cover.
The structure is ready. Get started with the creative process.
DIY album for a newborn: scrapbooking
This technology allows you to create a gift or souvenir for any holiday quite quickly and without special costs. Everyone will enjoy being creative, so designing cards, folders and other things will help you have a good time and become a new hobby.
If you are looking for information on how to make a scrapbooking album with your own hands, then you already have a certain idea or need. If you decided to create one for your future baby, you made the right choice. By the way, you can make such a thing for the birth of a baby for your friends or relatives. The main thing is to correctly determine the purpose of the pages, distribute information and leave space for photographs.
In the newborn album, do not forget to include a page where parents write down the height and weight of the newborn. You can leave blank fields for other important information, for example, first day at home, first step and tooth. It’s even worth devoting separate pages to these things.
You can design the album in a certain color scheme if you know the gender of the baby in advance. If not, then use neutral shades (white, green, yellow) and children's pictures. Suitable items include bears, bunnies, pyramids, a crib, a stroller, and balloons. Lace and soft, gentle-to-touch materials such as fleece will look good. Satin ribbons look very decorative and festive.
DIY wedding album (scrapbooking): master class
A married couple can make this memorable heirloom themselves, but at the same time, an impressively designed piece can be presented as a gift to the newlyweds.
When making, try to follow these tips:
- Decide on the format and size. You shouldn't make it too big, but a small one won't do either. Focus on a regular A4 landscape sheet or a little larger.
- Given the standard size of photographs, you can choose a square format for album pages to leave room for signatures and decoration.
- Be sure to plan how many pages it is appropriate to make, and try to use a uniform design on them (the same arrangement of inscriptions, headings). Focus on how classic books are designed.
- Choose a subdued pastel color scheme. Usually they use white, cream, golden, pale pink. They symbolize romance, and photographs against their background will look like the main objects.
- In the sequence of pages, it is better to follow the chronology of the event (first place a photo of the official ceremony from the registry office, then photos in nature and in a restaurant, after which photos from the second day).
If you decide to make a wedding album, scrapbooking is the most suitable design technology. Buy special paper, as well as a hole punch with cliches in the shape of hearts and (preferably) for making a figured lace edge. This will help create a romantic keepsake that will become a family treasure. It will be a pleasure for the newlyweds to see it and show it to their relatives and friends.
Gift for a child
Do you want to create a baby album with your own hands as a souvenir for your baby? A scrapbooking souvenir will always tell your child about happy moments in life. Beautifully designed, it will cherish your love for your little one. The matured “big man” will appreciate his mother’s efforts.
It makes sense to make such an album on rings in such a way that you can gradually add pages to it. You can also make separate “volumes”, for example “My baby up to one year old”, “Life in kindergarten”, “1st grade”, etc.
In this album you are free to paste everything that seems appropriate and important to you: information about the first step, tooth, words. It’s interesting to make a handprint, a foot print, or preserve a curl.
Original photographs combined with delicate fabric decoration, children's pictures and other decor will look great.
Family album
This product can be made in any style that matches your ideas of beauty and harmony. You make it as a keepsake for yourself. Choose a design on rings if you want to add pages. In this case, individual sheets can be designed differently. It is worth providing separate children's pages dedicated to family holidays and travel.
As you can see, it’s not so difficult to master a new artistic technique - scrapbooking. A DIY album will be made not just as an accessory for storing memorable photographs, but will become a real work of art.
In the modern world, people most often take electronic photographs: selfies on phones, photographs on point-and-shoot cameras and professional cameras. They share them by sending them to each other or posting them on social networks.
But just a decade ago, photographs had to be printed from film in a studio and pasted into a photo album. But paper photo albums have not faded into the background, and their popularity is growing year after year.
And the point is not only in their popularity, but also in the fact that designing a photo album is a creative process, and its production unites all members of the family. Such an album will not only be a wonderful decoration for your living room, but also an excellent gift.
How to make a photo album?
Making a photo album is not so difficult if you stock up on the necessary tools and materials, and, of course, an original idea. Here are examples of story topics:
- birth of a child;
- wedding or anniversary;
- vacation;
- graduation, etc.
There are many such reasons. So, having decided on the event that you want to display in your photo album, it’s time to think about the tools.
How to make a photo album with your own hands?
You will need:
- nail scissors;
- hole puncher;
- stapler;
- stationery knife;
- glue;
- felt-tip pens and pencils;
- double-sided tape;
- paints.
Here are the main tools that are most often used when making a photo album. But this is not all that you may need - it all depends on your imagination.
In addition, you will need the following materials:
- paper;
- cardboard;
- self-adhesive;
- cover: it can be decorated with fabric, leather, fur, rhinestones, etc.
Step-by-step instructions for making a photo album
- We start production from the base. For this we need any pages in the cover. It could even be an ordinary student notebook or notepad;
- Let's decide on the number of photos. On average, there are 2-3 photos per page for a photo album. Based on this, we calculate the number of pages we need;
- We make a backing for each page from paper;
- glue the backing onto sheets of cardboard;
- punch holes for fastening in the resulting squares;
- We decorate the cover of the photo album with prepared material (for beginners it is better to use a ready-made binding, having previously laid foam rubber or other soft fabric under it to give the cover softness and volume);
- we make holes in the binding, and then using lace or wire we attach the pages to the cover; the base is almost ready.
Photo album design ideas
Selecting photographs and making the basis of a photo album is not all. As a result, all the components of the photo album should merge together.
To do this you need:
- according to the meaning, select the center of the composition on the sheet;
- choose a palette of colors that should be combined with each other;
- choose decorative elements and try not to “overdo” them (this could be paper, cloth, plastic, metal, etc. You can use lace to decorate a wedding photo album, and decorate a children’s photo album with cutouts from children’s fairy tales, small toys);
- choose a place for photos and captions.
Photo album options as a gift
There are plenty of topics for creating a photo album in every family: “Farewell, school!”, “Our firstborn”, “The whole family is together”, “Crimea-2012”...
Let's look at the design options for a photo album using a specific example - “My grandfather is a sailor”:
- we cut out the backing from colored paper or aqua-colored fabric, and also make the edges wavy;
- make a title at the top, for example, “Remember, captain!”;
- We decorate the name with fish cut out of colored paper or other material;
- place an old photograph in the center of the composition;
- glue an anchor in the lower left corner;
- Opposite with glue is a sticker with a signature, indicating the fleet and years of service, for example: “Pacific Fleet, 1960-1963.”
The page is ready!
If this is your first experience of such work, we recommend making a photo album with no more than 20 pages.
Family photo album
Probably everyone remembers family gatherings, parents’ friends coming to visit, and many hours of looking through family photo albums, accompanied by constant exclamations a la “How cute!”, “Where are you?”, “How big Andryushka is.”
This trend has not lost its popularity even now. How to make a photo album that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to show to guests?
Let's look at a specific example that is gaining more and more popularity - mini-albums united by one storyline: a walk, some kind of event, etc.
- take a sketchbook as a base;
- cuts off half or even three quarters of it;
- we make a book that will open like an accordion;
- On one page we place only one photograph, on the second page we place a signature, decoration, quote or something else.
Note!
On the Internet and bookstores you will find a lot of tips and guides on how to design paper photo albums, and even training sessions are held.
But it’s best to use your imagination and make a unique photo album with your own hands!
DIY photo album photo
Note!
Note!
A family photo album is a tangible memory of the past; creating such a thing requires creative ideas and a creative approach.
This interesting process can unite the whole family: children and adults, turning photo design into a good tradition. And no matter how much time it takes to work, the result will be worth it and will delight family members, loved ones and guests from time to time.
Photos of interesting and beautiful photo albums lovingly created by craftsmen with their own hands
By creating a family photo album and decorating it according to your taste, you become the owner of an exclusive item, one of a kind. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the interesting works that are presented in our photo gallery.
Remember, the photo album will carefully preserve the history of your family’s life, the most memorable and valuable moments.
Today, there are special design techniques that can be easily mastered if desired, and decoration elements are widely available. The most important requirement is the desire to create a family heirloom and put a piece of your soul into it.
A self-made photo album is a unique family attribute
A photo album is a symbol of family unity, a detail that connects older and younger generations. Flipping through old heavy albums that predate digital technology, you feel a sense of warmth and charm.
They will never be replaced by computer files. Therefore, photographs need to be printed, and albums should be designed with your own hands - in the future, your children, and, possibly, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will look at them with interest.
A family photo album can be dedicated to an important event in life, for a child, or uniting several generations (in the form of a family tree).
A photo album with the history of our acquaintance and old wedding photographs is the best gift for parents on their wedding anniversary. You can make this attribute the initial step in the design of a series of albums about the family.
Cover design for a photo keeper
Select the cover design style based on the theme and style of the photographs:
- romantic - for the cover, a prepared canvas with embroidery with threads, beads, decoration with lace, ribbons, braid, written poems, flowers from scraps of fabric are suitable;
- retro - artificially aged paper, newspaper clippings, yellowed photographs, brooches, braid, lace, flowers made from natural materials, straws;
- modern - fabric with interesting prints, braid, beads, rhinestones, artificial flowers;
- for children - you can paste a child’s drawing, flat crafts, buttons, or images of cartoon characters onto the cover.
The cover can be covered with paper, fabric, leather, or a combination of different materials. It is better to choose dense fabric: denim, felt. Place a piece of padding polyester between the base of the cover and the decorative fabric - this will make the album soft. Decorate the seams with suitable decorative elements.
When designing the cover, you need to be guided by the rules of composition; make sure that there are not too many decorations.
Materials and decorative elements
To decorate a family album, you can use special scrapbooking kits or look for materials yourself. Suitable parts can be purchased at a sewing accessories store, but you can certainly find interesting products right at home.
To do this, it is worth reviewing things that you do not wear, children's toys, jewelry, postcards, beautiful covers, unnecessary handbags, buttons, etc. Do not neglect parts made of wood, metal and plastic.
Albums decorated with various types of stitches made from multi-colored threads look very beautiful. They can be made by hand or using a sewing machine.
How to decorate a photo album
A win-win option that is suitable for most family albums is flower decorations. Flowers are made by hand from fabric, mesh and beads.
An interesting effect is provided by ribbons and narrow ribbons, which are placed at the edge of the album. A tourniquet is suitable for these purposes, especially if the background design is made of natural fabrics.
You can get an unconventional result on the cover or pages if you attach rounded clockwork parts. Family members in large format photographs can be decorated with a crown, hat and other interesting details cut out from magazines.
Favorite cartoon characters are most suitable for children's pages or albums. You can draw them yourself or stick cut ones.
Supplement the proposed design ideas with details that are close to your heart, this will make it even more memorable and valuable.
Scrapbooking and other modern decoration achievements
Scrapbooking is a handicraft technique that is actively gaining momentum today. This art form aims to preserve photographs in an interesting form through the use of special tactile and visual techniques.
Scrapbooking allows you to create albums with your own hands not only in the traditional form of a code; among the works of masters there are: a box-photo album, a house-photo album, a basket-photo album.
The decoupage technique involves decorating various surfaces with printed pictures and then varnishing them. After the varnish dries, the image looks like it was painted.
Interesting, creative ideas are the key to a beautiful and unique photo album
In conclusion, we bring to your attention a short video master class on creating a beautiful photo album with your own hands, in particular, we will look at creating a cover. Enjoy watching friends!
Children grow very quickly, so you want to capture every moment of their lives. We live in a world of modern technology, in connection with this, every modern baby has a huge number of a wide variety of photographs, from birth to the present day.
To prevent your photos from getting lost in multiple devices, it's a smart idea to print them out and collect them in one photo album. And to make it as personalized as possible, try assembling the album yourself.
Scrapbooking technique- a popular trend among modern masters. This technique allows you to beautifully display in your works all your knowledge, skills and abilities in the field of creativity. Scrapbooking involves the use of various materials, such as scrap paper, scissors, stamps, acrylic paint and many others. Together, these materials provide a finished composition, which may differ depending on the chosen theme, style, method of design and decoration.
A DIY children's photo album is an excellent practice for a beginner scrapbooker. Putting together the pages of your first album is not that difficult, and pasting in family photos and designing a photo album will allow you to develop your composition skills and taste as a craftsman. Creating a children's photo book does not require much effort and time, and the result can exceed all expectations and not only please, but also surprise all household members and guests.
The scrapbooking technique continues to conquer the hearts of craftswomen around the world. To make a photo album for children's photographs with your own hands step by step, you you will need:
The list contains interchangeable items, for example, the grommet installer can be replaced with a regular hole punch, and the glue can be replaced with double-sided tape. Choose materials that are familiar and convenient for you to make the task easier.
How to make a children's photo album with your own hands
By following a simple step-by-step master class, you can make a beautiful album for children's photographs:
What materials to fill the photo album with?
The album can be filled not only with photographs, but also useful information about the child, which he will be interested to know about himself: when his first tooth fell out, when he took his first step, words or sounds, favorite activities in the first year or even month of life. It is the “first” events that are the most touching and wonderful.
The album can be designed throughout your life, so leave a few blank pages at the end of the photo book. When a child grows up, he will be able to continue the album or even pass it on by inheritance, pasting in photographs of his children. Then your homemade photo album will turn into a real family heirloom!
Making a children's photo album is a pleasure! Each page, designed with your own hands, is filled with a special energy that cannot be felt when flipping through the pages of a purchased photo album. Don’t be afraid to tinker and create something with your own hands, and then your works will become a decoration at home and the pride of your family and friends!
