Homemade Scrapbook Heaven

Scrapbook Heaven

Nostalgically I have rediscovered scrapbooks.   As a kid my mum would buy me a scrapbook at the beginning of each summer holiday and I would dutifully fill it with all sorts of nonsense collected from our days out.    Pictures, postcards, museum tickets and pressed flowers would all be carefully stuck on rough blue pages and written in my best handwriting where they came from.   Recently my mum revealed she still had a couple of my masterpieces and it made me think, in this digital age will there be any such thing in my memory box, 30 years from now.  

With Grandpa's birthday approaching Missy and I thought we would dig out some cardstock from the craft cupboard and give him something with a personal touch to keep in his memory box.   Wanting to move the whole thing on a bit from my youth I did a little research on the world wide web to discover that scrapbooking is huge in America and no longer consists of A4 size books with dull coloured paper held together with lethally sharp staples. Now it's all double sided beautifully patterned paper and specialised software that enables you to combine pictures and graphics with ease.   I used Smilebox software which was inexpensive and so easy to use and I also found a great on-line shop Charmed Cards & Crafts based in the UK and selling all the best America has to offer.   

• Difficulty level   medium   basic computer skills
• Cost                    £30 for Software + £10 for card & printing
• Great for             Gifts for everyone from Grandparents to newborns
• Make time          3 hours

What you need:

• 5 x A4 coloured card stock
• collection of photos 
• Smilebox software of similar
• Hole punch
• Spraymount
• scrap ribbon
• spare buttons
• scrap pattern paper
• Birthday rubber stamp

How to:

1. Firstly you need to load the software and spend a little time exploring the templates available.
2. Once you've chosen your template get together a file of the photos you want to import and combine.  When choosing your photos try and have some continuity by choosing images all from the same event and remember to include every member of the family so not to upset anyone!
3. Using the software as your guide, once you've got your photos in place you can add any embellishments or graphics to give a total scrapbook feel.
4. Once you're happy with each page you can either print on photographic paper at home if you have a good printer or take the file saved on a flash-drive to your local photo shop and ask them to do it.  I would recommend a matt paper size 8 x 6".   Beware, if you're using a Photo shop to check the prices of printing as for some reason above 8 x 6" becomes very expensive.
5. When you've got your image printed, cut the A4 card stock with approximately a 1" border all the way around except the left edge where you should leave a  2" border for the holes to be punched.
6. Attach the printed pages with Photo-spray mount to the cardstock front and back and when completely dry punch holes in the centre of the left side border.
7. Using your scrap ribbon thread through the punched holes and tie in a bow.  
8. Once all you pages are attached you can further embellish with buttons and beads or some stamping. Missy and I punched out a circle of the beautiful patterned paper, stamped it Happy Birthday and attached it with foam pads.  We also stuck on a couple of buttons to give the front cover a 3D feel.

So that's it - easy as pie and totally cool.  I feel Missy and I may be doing a lot more of these.

CM X