Photoalbum and Guest Book From Scratch

[mistyabale]

Hi there

Im going to attempt to make a Wedding photo album and guest book from scratch including actually make the books for my friend as a wedding gift.

Only problem is i have been trying to find out what kind of card or board i need to use to make the actualy album's outsides. i know as a general for weddings they look nice covered in mulberry paper.
But just cant think or even find on google searching what the album is made from.

Can anyone help me here please.

Thank you

Danielle

[onlyme]

You can use mount board, but it's not cheap. Saying that, it comes in large pieces, so depending on the sizes you use, you'd probably get a few book covers. I use it with no problems - costs from approx £2.50 upwards depending on quality. I prefer a good quality, hope this helps.

[mistyabale]

You can use mount board, but it's not cheap. Saying that, it comes in large pieces, so depending on the sizes you use, you'd probably get a few book covers. I use it with no problems - costs from approx £2.50 upwards depending on quality. I prefer a good quality, hope this helps.

thank you for that.
Can you cover and what have you as normal.
and i presume i buy a normal binder for the middle to stick in.
as i said never done it before .lol

thanks xxx

[mistyabale]

what kind of thickness would you recommend?
xx

[sparkysdad]

What you use for covers rather depends on how you intend to bind it really.. Mount board is fine, reasonably durable, but as you are covering it, you don't necessarily need that kind of quality.. any heavyweight display card will do..

For something really sturdy, hardboard is cheap and cheerful and plentiful, though for comb binding, you might struggle to get it punched even on a professional machine..

I would be sorely tempted to buy a basic inexpensive post bound album - then you have the flexibility to re cover the album and decorate it, but none of the problems associated with getting it bound...

[mistyabale]

thank you sparky.

i would really like to have ago at doing it. but dont have the foggiest of where to start.
Obviously if it all turned horibbly wrong i can just go get on lol

what would i put in the middle to actually hold the photos or pages.

[sparkysdad]

thank you sparky.

i would really like to have ago at doing it. but dont have the foggiest of where to start.
Obviously if it all turned horibbly wrong i can just go get on lol

what would i put in the middle to actually hold the photos or pages.

If you look up post bound scrapbook album on google you will get hundreds of links to look at.. but will try and explain the system simply!!

Basically the album covers (front and back) have a narrow flap which folds back behind the cover.. when the album is closed, the flaps are hidden from view. the flaps have 2 holes in them - just like the ones you need for a ring binder, and the binding posts go through them.

The posts have a flat top - with a screw head finish, so you can undo them easily, and the flat head stops the post going through the holes!.. there will be a flat part for each end of the post - i.e. one for the front and one for the back..

Pre made albums usually come with around 10 "pages" already included, the most common design is a clear plastic pocket which is open at the top or occasionally at the side.. you can also get special photo album pages.

The post bound system is widely available, and you can easily add more pages by opening the album to expose the screw heads, undoing them, and then lifting out the pages you dont want, or adding new ones, and re assembling it.. If you by packs of extra pages, you usually get 2 post extenders so the album can be up to several inches thick. You can also buy the post extenders separately.

If you are doing a gift album, you might want to buy some scrapbooking materials and make a presentation layout rather than just sheets of paper with the photos mounted, you can buy standard format papers (12" x 12" or 8" x 8") which will fit in the pockets exactly, or you could cut your own choice of background papers to size and punch them with a holepunch.. if you decide to do this however, you must make sure the paper is acid and lignin free (these will discolour the photos over time) or look for papers that are archival quality...

There are so many albums out there premade, I would be tempted to use one of them, and either embellish the cover of a plain album to make it personal, or buy one in a nice design. Save your creative efforts for making some great perosnalised layouts inside..

[mistyabale]

Thank you very much,
Very very help ful.
much appreciated