Scrapbooking does not have to be done in traditional albums; you can make a scrapbook album out of just about anything. Altered art is the term used for scrapbook projects which are more works of art than scrapbooks themselves, and album making comes a little into that category. Here are some great altered art albums for the kids to make.
Altered Tins
Altered tins are fun and easy to create, and they make beautiful gifts. There are special scrapbooking tins that you can buy from scrapbooking stores, or you can use any flat tin that you may have around the house. Often shortbread or chocolates come in tins the right size for album making, and sometimes you can pick up cheap tin pencil cases from emporium type stores.
Once you have found your tin, you need to decorate the outside using scrapbooking papers and embellishments. You can make the decorations as elaborate as you like, as the album is a piece of art both inside and out.
To make the album part, cut a piece of card to size so that it fits into the tin. This becomes your first page. Use that page as a template, and then cut as many more pieces as you want in your album. Lay the pieces out along a length of ribbon, leaving about 1cm gap between each one. Make sure you also leave a tail at the front and back of the line. Attach the ribbon to the back of each piece using double sided sellotape.
Decorate your album pages both front and back, and then tape the end tail to the base of the tin. Fold and stack your pages inside and close the lid. When you want to look at your photographs, simply open the lid and pull up the ribbon for your pages to come tumbling out.
CD Albums
Old CDs are a great base for album pages and they have real novelty factor. Simply cut and collage photographs, papers and embellishments onto old CDs, and then drill a small hole at the top of each one. Use a giant snap ring (available from stationery stores) or a length of ribbon to hold the pages together.
Altered Books
There are a million ways to make an altered book, but one of my favourite ideas is alter a children’s book to include photographs of your child. Choose any of your child’s favourite stories, and find photographs of them to match the text. You can either mount the photograph over the existing picture, or work it into the design – it’s up to you.
My niece is the star of her very own Dr. Suess book, and a friend of mine changed a Where’s Spot? book to be Where’s Henry?
Envelope Albums
End opening A4 envelopes make great pages for an album, and give you a special place to put memorabilia like postcards, tickets, and souvenirs.
Take half as many A4 envelopes, as you want pages in your album. Fold each of them in half, and then lay them on top of each other (not inside each other!) to form a book. You should see several folds as you look at the outside spine.
Use eyelets to secure the envelopes together along the front of the spine, and then thread ribbon and fibre through each hole to complete the binding. Decorate all your pages, and slip relevant memorabilia into envelope openings on each page.
Playing Card Brag Book
Playing cards are the perfect size for a miniature brag book, and if your house is anything like mine, you can always find playing cards lying around the house. No pack is ever complete!
Simply take the playing cards and use them as a base for your page, decorating them in any way you like. Once you have completed all your pages, take them to your local copy shop where they can bind them with a plastic or wire ring spine.
Concertina Album
The easiest way to make a cute gift album, without any extra materials, is to fold strips of card into a concertina or accordion. Just like making paper fans, you simply fold the card backwards and forwards, so that the pages fold into themselves.
Start by cutting a 12” x 12” card in half. This will give you two pieces of card that are 6” high and 12” long. Fold the card at 4” and 8” to give you three separate pages, and then do the same with the second piece. Tape the front cover of one concertina to the back cover of the other.
If you want more pages in your album, simply make more concertinas and keep sticking front covers to back. Once you have made your album to your desired length, use double sided sellotape to stick a piece of ribbon on the left and right hand sides of your front cover, about half way down. Make sure there is about 10cm of ribbon hanging freely over each edge.
Stick ribbon at the same spots on the back cover, and then tie the front and back ribbons together to hold the album shut.
Albums in a Box
Concertina albums can be used on their own, or you can incorporate them into a wooden box. Instead of tying ribbon to the front and back, simply tape the last page to the bottom of the box, and tape the front cover to the underneath of the lid. As you remove the lid, you pull out the concertina to see you photographs.
In the next few months we will be adding photographs of all of these albums, so if you have some examples at home, or give these ideas a try, please feel free to send us your pictures so we can add them to the site.
