Do any of you make your own scrapbooks?

[New England Eeyore]

I mean the books themselves. Or modify purchased books?

I'm having trouble finding a size that fits my needs right now. I'm a high volume scrapper - I like to make lots of pages. (I once did a 9 page layout on the MGM Stars and Cars Parade.) I started scrapping in 8.5 x 11 and I never used actual scrapbooks - I used regular sheet protectors then decorated a regular 3 ring binder for the album. This enabled me to fit a LOT of pages into one "album". Now I'm going back and scrapping my childhood pictures and I've started with 12 x 12 for those, but it frustrates me how few pages the books themselves will hold. I add more page protectors than they start with, but they still have a limit. My wedding album that I did a few years ago is actually two 12x12 albums. So I think I may stick to 8.5 x 11 for my long term scrapping.

Last fall I decided to make gift albums for my two best friends. I bought 6 x 8 albums but I didn't scrap into the album, but rather made individual pages the way I'd always done and by the time I was finished, I had 60 pages (sides) each. So I discarded all the pages of the album, just keeping the covers. I recovered the covers with nice paper, punched holes in my pages and bound it all together with ribbon. Now, 60 pages definitely made for a very thick book, but the pages still turned and it more or less worked.

So now I'm thinking obviously I didn't need to buy the album, I could just make covers myself using cardboard. So I'm wondering if any of you have done something similar? I'm looking for ideas of how you bound them, since the ribbon worked well, but could have been better. I know there are lots of options for binding small albums (like paper bag albums) but for the life of me I just can't seem to make a "small" album.

I'm also wondering about size. The 6 x 8 worked well, but I'm wondering if a bigger album like 8 x 8 would also do well with a ribbon binding. I just bought a pack of adorable 8 x 8 Disney paper and there's no way I'm going to be able to contain myself to a premade book with 20 pages for that project.

I want to make individual albums for each of my 3 stepdaughters and I liked the 6 x 8 format, but I'm hoping to have a better plan for the binding before I start out.

Now that I've told you my whole scrapping life story , does anyone have any ideas?

 

[BUCKEYE MICKEY]

I use the 8.5 x 11 protectors also. I buy binders (I find clearanced ones all the time) I then cover with fabric. I found this spary adhesive that works great.

Binders come in all sizes so it's great to buy thinner binders for say a vaction, and thicker ones for day to day things. binder plus material (1/2 yard) is maybe $5, alot cheaper then store albums.
Kate

 

[reinita1002]

Yeah I think that is a good idea. How do you cover a binder with the fabric? Do you kind of wrap it up like a present? Do these albums last long? Also are these good for "Book of Me" or just general things?

Sorry for all the questions...I'm still kind of a newbie to the scrapbook world.

 

[BUCKEYE MICKEY]

Yes you would wrap it like a present. For the inside I cut a square then iron the sides down then glue it in like that. The adhesive glue is wonderful. You can repostion the fabric, get the bubbles out it needed.

So far so good on lasting long. I've used fabric spray cleaner to get a spill out, but really do not have issues, people don't have food/drink by photos.

I'm not sure what you mean about Book of Me. I like using fabric because of the variety of fabric available. I got blue material with Mickey and Minnie on it for the Disney book I'm working on now.
Kate

 

[reinita1002]

Its just a scrapbook about yourself...the things you like etc etc. Thanks for answering my questions btw!

 

[msvlwb]

This is a paper bag Disney Album I made. They are cute and cheap.

You can use coffe filters folded in half as a sturdy adn odd shaped base too.

Here is a link to the front
http://www.valerievalera.com/display/ShowPicture?moduleId=456801&pictureId=292564&galleryId=25262


and a link to the rest of the album http://www.valerievalera.com/display/ShowGallery?moduleId=456801&galleryId=25262

If that doesn't work just go to www.valerievalera.com and look for photos on the left in the navigation bar.

Thanks
Val