DIY children's photo album design ideas. How to buy a ready-made wedding photo album in the Wildberries and Aliexpress online store: links to the catalog

People are increasingly using electronic photographs, sharing them on social networks, and sending them to friends. But at the same time, the good old paper photos, carefully collected in an album, are by no means forgotten. Homemade album models are especially popular now. The only question is how to make a photo album with your own hands beautiful and original. For beginners, this article will tell you step by step and in an accessible way.

Required materials and tools

For beginners, before making a photo album with your own hands, you need to study step-by-step instructions, be patient, and have the necessary tools and materials. The easiest way is to buy a ready-made kit for creating a photo album in a store, but it is much more interesting and cheaper to create using improvised means. In addition, all family members can participate in this entertaining process.

Looking at the finished album, one gets the impression that it is simply unrealistic to recreate this on your own. But nothing is impossible!

So, to create such a masterpiece you will need:

It is important to use decorative details when decorating. This could be lace, fur or leather details, chains, beads, clasps, etc.

How to make an album cover

First you need to decide on the size of the future photo album and choose a design style. There are a lot of interesting original ideas for design. The cover can be soft fabric, leather, paper, decorated various elements.

To make the back cover of an album measuring 25x25 cm, you must perform the following steps:

  1. Measure and cut out a square with a side length of 25 cm from thick cardboard.
  2. Cut a soft lining from synthetic padding polyester or foam rubber to the same size.
  3. Connect these parts using glue.
  4. Cut a square of the selected fabric, measuring 26x26 cm. This extra centimeter is necessary for the convenience of folding and gluing the material to the lining.
  5. On top you need to attach a sheet of white cardboard, which will hide the foam rubber and the edges of the fabric.
  6. The back cover of the photo album is ready.

The algorithm for making the front cover is slightly different due to the use of decorative elements. For example, you can make a window for a photograph that will tell you in advance about the contents of the future photo album instead of the name.

To do this, the following steps are required:

  1. Again, measure and cut out a square of the given dimensions from cardboard, but you need to cut another square or rectangle in the center.
  2. The soft lining and fabric for the cover are also cut out with a hole.
  3. Connect all parts together using glue.
  4. Insert and secure a photo into the window from the inside.
  5. The top is covered with a sheet of white cardboard.

Then, using a hole punch, neat holes are made in both blanks at a distance of 1.5-2.5 cm from the edge. Rings or tape are inserted into them to connect the parts of the cover.

Pages and binding

You can not connect the photo album with ribbon or rings, but arrange it in the form of a voluminous book with binding. Accordingly, then there will be no need for holes in parts of the cover. For album pages it is better to take thick white paper.

The sheets are connected to each other as follows:

  1. It is necessary to cut strips of white cardboard 3 cm wide. They will be used to connect the main pages.
  2. Then bend each strip in half lengthwise. To get a wider distance between the sheets, bend the connecting strip in the shape of the letter P.
  3. Carefully glue the folded strips to the pages. The uniformity of the entire photo album depends on this process.

The number of pages can be arbitrary and is determined only by the desire of the master and the availability of the necessary materials. After this, you can begin making the binding.

To do this you will need:

  1. Take a bandage or thick gauze, cut a rectangle 25 cm long and 3 cm wide larger than the resulting album blank.
  2. Glue the fabric to the seams of the pages.
  3. Then you need to secure a piece of braid or tape along the upper and lower edges of the future binding. This will give the album a more neat and aesthetic appearance.
  4. Made from thick cardboard suitable color we make a spine that will hide the entire binding.
  5. Parts of the cover are glued to the folds of the spine.

Do not attach the spine to the pages of the product, otherwise they may not open properly.

That's the whole secret of how to make a photo album with your own hands. Step by step, it won’t be difficult for beginners to create such a masterpiece. Now all that remains is to fill the album with photographs.

Scrapbooking technique in creating a photo album

Scrapbooking is an art form with the help of which original photo albums are created and designed. Transforming an ordinary boring photo album into a unique story of our life.

The origin of this technique goes back to the distant 16th century. At that time, notepads were at the peak of popularity. important dates, valuable tips, recipes, etc. By the end of the 17th century, books began to appear with additional blank pages for making notes and pasting in illustrations. This was the birth of the scrapbooking technique.

In the 19th century, with the beginning of the mass distribution of photographs, a real revolution took place - special pockets were made for photographs, and the pages were painted with different colors and designs. Albums for girls with pictures, photos and various inscriptions were especially popular.

Today, there are many ways to design photo albums, and scrapbooking is popular all over the planet.

Ready-made sketches for pages

A sketch is a small page template for a future album. In scrapbooking, a sketch is a prepared sketch to speed up and convenient the work process. Ready-made sketches are a godsend for beginners wondering how to make original photo album with your own hands. By step-by-step selecting shades and photographs, you can easily create inimitable pages of your future album.

These ready-made sketches are simply an inexhaustible source of ideas and inspiration! Gradually, as the work progresses, templates will be used less and less, and soon they will completely fade into the background, clearing the way for the uncontrollable imagination of the master. Everything depends only on the desire to act and create. Such ready-made sketches are also useful for visualizing a future photo album.

After all, this is still a draft, in which there is always the opportunity to change and correct something without causing damage in the process of making amendments valuable materials for creativity. Sketches are used not only by beginners, but also by experienced professionals. After all, sometimes one glance at the finished sketch is enough for your own idea of ​​designing the pages of a photo album to begin to emerge in your thoughts.

Thus, it is easy and simple to create unique masterpieces with your own hands.

Themes of homemade albums


Before you make a photo album with your own hands step by step for beginners, you need to decide on its theme and select matching decorations album.

Make an original photo album with your own hands if available necessary tools and materials, as well as ideas for its design are not at all difficult.

All that remains is to choose a plot and some significant event from life, for example:

  • the birth of a baby;
  • the first year of a child’s life;
  • graduation at kindergarten or school;
  • wedding;
  • birthday;
  • trips.

In general, the theme of a homemade photo album can be any bright event in life, the memories of which you want to keep in your memory for a long time.

Another reason to do this kind of handicraft could be creating a gift for relatives, colleagues or friends. It’s enough to simply make an original photo album and present it for any occasion. loved one. Such a surprise will not leave anyone indifferent!

Wedding album. Step by step instructions

The process of creating a wedding photo album is extremely interesting and exciting, because you put a piece of your own soul into it. Beautiful happy newlyweds, their sincere smiles- the main characters of the emerging fairy tale, the beginning of a completely new life together.

It’s an extraordinary feeling to pick up a tattered, dusty photo album after many years, flip through it and understand that love, true love, impervious to the years.

For beginners, before making a wedding photo album with your own hands, you should study the step-by-step instructions for its design:


In the process of creating an album, it is important not to overdo it with additional elements and decor, because the main thing is still the photographs.

DIY album for a newborn

The birth of a baby is a new exciting stage in life together, filled with emotions and experiences. I so want to remember every moment, every smile of a child, his first inept steps. But over time, even the most vivid memories are erased from memory and dissolve in the everyday bustle. Therefore, it is worth thinking in advance about preserving these emotions.

A handmade photo album for a newborn is perfect for this purpose. It will be interesting and exciting not only to look at pictures of the baby in the future, but also to participate directly in the process of making it. Loving parents can show all their creativity and imagination, putting a piece of their love into their work.

Decoration materials

When designing a newborn's album, you want to use the softest materials and the most beautiful, elegant elements. So that tenderness and boundless love for the baby can be conveyed even through them. Velvet or velor in pastel colors is perfect for the cover.

Additionally, it can be decorated with the following details:

  • small plush toys;
  • felt figures;
  • lace;
  • satin ribbon bows;
  • beads and sparkles;
  • lace cap, booties, romper strap, pacifier;
  • tags from a newborn's hand;
  • buttons and rivets.

In the decorating process, it is important not to overdo it with the number of additional elements and combine them harmoniously with each other.

Designing photo album pages step by step

For beginners, before making a photo album with your own hands, it is recommended to pay attention to the step-by-step instructions:


The homemade album is ready. All that remains is to put pictures of the baby in it, and it is important to fill out the pages of the album regularly and with love.

Ideas for decorating a children's photo album

There are many ways to design a children's photo album and make it unique and inimitable.

Here are some of them:

  1. It is better to save more little things, which in a few years will seem even more significant and interesting. For example, a tag from a child’s first clothes, a label from the first jar of puree or juice, the first diaper, a cut strand of hair.
  2. Entry of the child's name is encouraged. What does it mean and why was it chosen?
  3. You can attach photos of your favorite toy and your baby’s first drawing.
  4. It is permissible to write down the words of your child’s favorite lullaby.
  5. It is recommended to describe the process of introducing new products into the child’s diet, consider his daily routine: rest, wakefulness, meals.

In general, you should listen to your heart and don’t be afraid to experiment! And then you can easily create a wonderful gift for a child.

Family photo album step by step for beginners

You can make an album with your own hands not only for some special event, but also for the story about family life generally.

To create it, you can use the following sections:


To create family album It will take time and effort, but the result will definitely be worth it.

Photo album in vintage style

Interesting idea to create an album with your own hands, there will be a photo album in a vintage style, i.e. "antique"

This genre of creativity has a number of features:


It should be noted that black and white photographs with frayed edges will look more organic in such an album.

How to decorate pages and cover in an original way

Before starting work, it is imperative to think through the idea of ​​​​the future creation and sketch out sketches. On the draft, depict everything that is planned to be included in the album, down to the smallest detail. This will allow you to clearly examine the result of the work, taking into account all the nuances. The number of pages is calculated based on the number of photographs.

Each album sheet must contain:

  • the picture itself;
  • name of the photo;
  • description of each frame;
  • decoration;
  • additional decorative elements.

It is important to think in advance about what ink, color, font size and inclination of letters will be used to describe the photographs. You can also use letters cut out from a newspaper or magazine and assembled into whole words.

First of all, flat parts are attached to the album, and at the very end - three-dimensional decorations.

For an original cover design, you can use a collage made from small photographs. It can be created in the form of a simple geometric figure or come up with a more complex artistic design. For beginners, before making a photo album with your own hands, you should step by step understand how and how the finished copies are decorated.

Otherwise, the process of creating your first album may cause some difficulties. It will be more convenient to design the pages before they are stapled together. finished product. It is important to remember that on one sheet of paper attention should be focused on one bright element in order to avoid information overload on the page.

Video on how to make a photo album with your own hands step by step for beginners

How to make a photo album using scrapbooking technique, watch the video:

A simple DIY album:

In the 21st century, people take digital photographs every day. They are saved on mobile phones and shown to friends on social network. But a homemade photo album with memorable photographs, inscriptions and decorations makes an unusual impression. A DIY photo album, design ideas and its final editing is a matter for the whole family, a creative way to express an attitude towards life. The whole family will show their talents by creating a photo album with their own hands; design ideas will definitely come to your mind.

Friends at home will happily leaf through such a work of art. Album self made will be a priceless gift.

Album themes

Making a classic photo album with your own hands is not difficult if you have the necessary materials, tools and original ideas. The design depends on the chosen plot.

Topics that are traditionally devoted to self-made photo albums:

  • birth of a baby;
  • wedding;
  • journey;
  • school prom;
  • bright event.

You can make an album for an anniversary for a colleague or as a gift for your beloved man. Children's albums and photo books for parents are popular. Once the topic is outlined, you should stock up on tools. In the table you can see what is needed to create a photo album with your own hands.

Materials and tools for work

Tools:

  • miniature scissors;
  • simple hole punch;
  • knife-cutter;
  • pencils;
  • paints;
  • markers;
  • glue stick;
  • curly scissors;
  • figured hole punch;
  • double sided tape.

Materials:

  • paper;
  • cardboard;
  • cover material;
  • fur, leather, lace, beads, chains, etc.

Decorative details play an important role in the original design. These are any interesting things found at home or in a scrapbooking store.

How to make a base for a photo album

The basis of the future masterpiece is the pages in the cover.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a photo album with your own hands:

  • count the photos. 1-2 photographs are placed on 1 page;
  • cut out a paper backing for each page;
  • stick the backing onto cardboard squares with a side of 30 cm;
  • punch holes for fastening;
  • cover the cover of a purchased album with material;
  • punch holes in the binding;
  • attach the pages to the cover with string or rings.

Home artists make round-shaped albums, in the shape of a heart or a house. For a beginner, it is better to start with square sheets. It is more convenient to make the base part of each page separately, and then attach the pages to the album cover. D Decorative additions are glued last.

Experienced craftsmen make photo album covers with their own hands. It is better for a novice designer to use a ready-made binding. It can be covered with foam rubber and covered with a beautiful fabric on top. The soft layer inside creates a plump effect and looks especially good in newborn photo albums.

The top cover of the cover is made of fabric that suits the style, fur or leather.

Composition: learning to design photo albums

Selecting beautiful photos and stocking up on decorations is not all you need to create a photo album with your own hands. All elements must form a visual unity.

Each sheet is filled out according to scrapbooking rules:

  • select the semantic center of the page;
  • choose a harmony of shades for photographs, inscriptions and decorative details;
  • choose decoration that matches the meaning of the photo;
  • balance the proportions of large and small parts;
  • make bright accents;
  • do not overload the page with decorations;
  • outline the triangle “photo – title – signature”;
  • place an odd number of details on each page.

Create contrast from one large element and several small ones in the opposite corner. For example, at the bottom right there is a large snowflake, at the top left there are three small stars.

Family album design options

A family album should reflect not only history, but also the spirit of the dynasty. It is important to select the most important memorable photographs.

For example:

  • "Little Dad with Young Grandfather";
  • "At the wedding table";
  • “We’re having a baby”;
  • "First time in first grade."

Beginners should try their hand at creating a small album with their own hands - 15-20 pages. You can decorate the inside of the family album with scanned documents and maternity hospital tags of newborns.

Ideas for creating a page about your sailor grandfather in stages:

  • trim the “Pearl Turquoise” paper backing along the edges with scissors with a wavy edge;
  • make the title “Across the seas, across the waves” at the top;
  • highlight the name with strips of decorative tape depicting fish;
  • Place a vintage photograph in the center;
  • Attach a small anchor to the lower left;
  • opposite, put a sticker with the inscription “Black Sea Merchant Fleet, July 1979.”

A young mother can make a photo album of her newborn with her own hands. Children make albums as gifts for their parents. Another popular type is a wedding photo album. Designing a family album with your own hands becomes a fun joint project.

Photo album as a gift for a teacher

Traditionally to graduation party preparing gifts for class teacher and the first teacher. The best way Self-created photo albums will capture your childhood memories. They include the most striking pictures from school life: lessons and excursions, concerts and work in the school area. There are many styles for designing a photo album: children's theme (for the first teacher), computer theme (for the computer science teacher).

The “school” style is popular in albums for teachers - notebooks with a slanted ruler, a chalkboard, autumn leaves. The photographs are accompanied by funny illustrations: scanned “notes” from schoolchildren’s diaries, fragments school essays. Often graduates make photo albums as gifts with wishes.

Ideas for the page:

  • light paper background;
  • in the center - photo;
  • to the left of the photo is a strip of decorative tape with maple leaves;
  • above the photo is a monthly calendar (printed or made by hand);
  • to the right of the frame is a checkered sticker with the inscription: “History lesson, 02/04/2016”
  • below is the inscription in blue marker “One day in our life.”

All students can sign the graduation photo album for the teacher. Homemade teacher albums are a great addition to pockets of CDs for memorable videos.

Original photo album ideas: capturing life

Digital technology provides us with a wealth of photographs from all walks of life. It’s nice to show your friends a photo album you created with your own hands, the ideas of which were suggested by life itself.

Here are some interesting stories:

  • "Best moments of the year";
  • "I love this city";
  • "My hobbies";
  • "Me and my cat";
  • "Men in my life";
  • "Home and Garden";
  • "Cool selfies."

Good quotes for a photo album. You can print them on a printer or write them with a gel pen on colored stickers.

Review your digital photos, choose themes with a similar theme. Think about what and how to decorate your photo album. Any items from home will do: scraps of lace, buttons, colored paper clips, dried flowers.

It’s interesting to make several photo albums with your own hands in the style of diaries. Such a photo album-diary is decorated with simple stickers, often with statuses from the Internet.

The covers of self-made photo albums are decorated with “all sorts of things”: openwork knitting, straw, collages of small photographs. Vintage albums are decorated with items from “grandmother’s chest.”

Small album: wonderful memories

Sometimes a whole series of photographs are accumulated, connected by one subject. For example, a romantic walk with your loved one, a friend’s wedding, the smiles of a baby. These images can easily be combined into a mini album.

There are several options for how to decorate an album with photographs in an unusual way:

  • use half size paper;
  • use a purchased small-format album as a basis;
  • make a book that folds out like an accordion.

When decorating a mini photo album, only 1 photo is placed on the page. Inscriptions, decorations, quotes are placed on a parallel page.

Designing a photo album page step by step:

  • background – “Dandy” scrap paper;
  • on the page on the right is a photograph cropped at the edges with comb scissors;
  • in the upper corner of the photo there is a heart chip;
  • on the left page there is a blue inscription “The two of us under an umbrella”;
  • under the inscription there is a fabric autumn leaf;
  • along the edge of the left page - a vertical strip of decorative tape;
  • on the tape there is the inscription “Autumn is...”.

To create a mini photo album with your own hands, you will need double-sided paper. Tilting the photos will add dynamism. You can glue scraps of bright fabric or lace under the pictures.

In the “mini” style you can perform a large family cycle: “I was born!”, “First steps”, “Walks with grandma”, etc.

Decorating a page in a homemade photo album

A sketch of the photo album page must be drawn in advance. On a regular page there are 5 main components: title, photographs (1-2), inscriptions for them, background, decorations and additions. The page is marked with a simple pencil.

First, do all the work with paints and felt-tip pens so as not to smudge it later. Fill out the page starting from the top. When the artistic elements have dried, stick the photo in the intended area.

Inscriptions on album photographs are made with ink, gel pen, and felt-tip pen. Then flat decorations are attached. It is more convenient to attach volumetric elements when the album is fully assembled. They are glued, sewn or nailed. It is convenient to use a glue gun when decorating photo albums.

For the design of photo albums, the most different materials: paper, fabric, wood, metal, plastic, felt. The subject of the pictures will tell you how best to decorate your photo albums. A wedding photo album is decorated with lace and pearls, a traveler's album is decorated with pebbles and shells. You can make decorations with your own hands: knit, cut out of paper.

You don't have to buy appliques from scrapbooking stores. Dried flowers and leaves look even better than plastic ones.

The Internet and special reference books contain thousands of extraordinary tips on how to make photo albums of any subject with your own hands. Experts conduct master classes on scrapbooking. But it’s much more fun to invent and create on your own!

Master class: scrapbooking (3 videos)


Various album design options (45 photos)

Surely everyone has such an album of memories

Stores offer a variety of cards and albums for all occasions, but it is often very difficult to make a choice when you want to congratulate and surprise a loved one. Choose original postcard available in handicraft stores. Scrapbooking masters create amazing things from cardboard, paper, various stickers and details.

But prices for “handmade” products are often very high. What if you do your own scrapbooking? This type of creativity is one of the most popular. It requires virtually no initial skills (except for the ability to use scissors, glue and tape) and a significant investment. You can also make stencils, paper decorations and stamps for scrapbooking with your own hands.

Getting started

As mentioned above, scrapbooking requires a minimum of tools, but as you become more passionate about this type of creativity, you may need additional materials.


All the necessary materials and tools that will be useful for a beginning needlewoman

Let's list them all:

  • Paper is the main element in scrapbooking. In this type of needlework, special durable cardboard is used as a base, and decorative paper with illustrations or ornaments. For those who are taking on this business for the first time, it will be convenient to use ready-made sets of several types of sheets that match each other in style and color.
  • The second thing you can’t do without is scissors. Scissors can be any kind, the main thing is that they are sharp - the paper must be cut evenly, the edges must remain smooth.
  • Double-sided tape is a very convenient thing for scrapbooking. When you need to glue voluminous or simply large parts, it is indispensable. The strength of the connection is superior to glue and does not leave dirty marks; it is a pleasure to work with.
  • In some cases, you cannot do without glue. For example, when you need to add small details.
  • Hole punches are a functional thing, and in some cases, a decoration tool. Sometimes you just need to connect several pages, this requires holes. And sometimes decorate the sheet with carved patterns.
  • Cutter or utility knife. Cutting a cardboard sheet in half or trimming a photograph with scissors is unlikely to work out neatly; here you will need a stationery knife, or even better, a cutter.
  • And finally, a variety of volumetric decorative elements. Without them, a handmade postcard or album will be no different from ordinary store-bought items. Scrapbooking supply stores are simply eye-opening. Buy a few individual decorative parts to get started. And if you decide to take up this craft seriously, it is much more profitable to purchase goods in bulk.

Volumetric decorative elements visually resemble a 3D picture

When you have decided on all the tools and elements, it’s time to choose a place of work. Good lighting of the workplace and sufficient free space are important for scrapbooking.

Necessary materials for work

It is better to remove everything unnecessary from the table so that nothing gets in the way of your hands and small details are not lost.

Which style to choose for decoration

Among the many design options in scrapbooking, there are several main styles:

  • Heritage and vintage. Postcards and albums “from the past” are created in these styles. Muted colors, scuffs, old photographs, newspaper clippings. It would be appropriate to use lace, stamps and beads. A gift in an antique style looks expensive and elegant.

Worn elements give the album an antique look
  • If you like polka dot or striped designs, then the shabby chic style will not leave you indifferent. The combination of a simple background and layering of lace, beads, and pictures is romantic and daring.

Delicate tones and ruffles speak of shabby chic style
  • The classic of modern scrapbooking is the American style. Album pages and postcards are designed in the form of a collage. As a rule, there are several photographs, decorated according to the theme with ribbons, paper figures, and inscriptions. Each sheet of the album is unique, in its own style and fully reflects the mood of the day when the photographs were taken. An interesting addition would be air or train tickets, tickets to an amusement park or zoo.

Very bright and rich style in scrapbooking
  • European style is more minimalistic compared to American. Mini-albums are created in scrapbooking in this style. Not many decorative elements are used, but pencils and pens are used, complementing the composition with artistic sketches. The edges of the pages can be decorated using shaped hole punches and scissors.

This album is suitable for drawing lovers
  • The increasingly popular steampunk style is considered a “masculine style.” Indeed, without flowers, lace and beads, with a truly brutal design, a “steampunk” postcard will appeal to the stronger sex. This artistic movement is interesting for its set of decorative elements: gears, old miniature mechanisms, drawings and maps. The design is done in gray-brown tones.

In this design you can show all your artistic abilities

Several master classes of different styles:

American design style, with grunge style, vintage, shabby chic and steampunk.

Scrapbooking techniques

When creating products, various techniques are used in scrapbooking: rare ones, which are mastered by experienced craftsmen, and simple ones, accessible to everyone.

Scrapbooking techniques

For example, several well-known techniques that are used most often:

  • Artificial aging of paper. Achieve effect old paper You can use improvised means: remove it with tape top layer sheet, use a scraper to create a jagged edge, use tea and coffee to color the paper brown for a vintage look.
  • Embossing allows you to make paper parts convex and voluminous. The technique can be “wet” or “dry”, in which a special hair dryer is used.
  • Stamping. Stamps fit well into almost any scrapbooking style and add originality to scrap pages, emphasizing the “hand-made” design. You can make stamps yourself; for this you will need: a foam block, thick cardboard and metal parts, the shape of which will be the stamp. The fittings are placed on the foam block, the surface is heated with an embossing hairdryer, and cardboard is placed on top. The parts are pressed into a soft surface, leaving imprints (stamps) on the cardboard. The finished elements need to be cut out and can be used for matching cards and album pages.

Interesting decor using embossing, stamps and a cutting machine

Albums using scrapbooking techniques

Using the scrapbooking technique, you can create not only postcards, but also a variety of albums for all occasions, displaying your most significant and memorable events.

They can be large, almost grandiose, or small, neat, that fit in your hand.

Review of a travel album using scrapbooking technique

Mini album

A good start for beginners in scrapbooking is to create your own mini-album. It’s bold to take on large-scale work right away, but it’s better to start small.

Master class: mini - bound album part 1

Master class: mini - bound album part 2

First steps to make an album:

  • Take some strong scrap paper and divide it into 12 equal square or rectangular pieces. Cut the sheet evenly in rows, but be sure to leave one square (rectangle) with an unseparated side. It is these two uncut lines that will need to be glued together.
  • Fold the sheets like an accordion and collect all the future pages of the album together, and then glue them on the inside. Use ribbon as the spine of the book. The album layout is ready.

When you have a completed but empty book in your hands, it’s time to begin the creative stage of creating an album. Guided by the experience of the craftsmen, make a sketch of the product in a thin, empty notebook or on blank sheets of paper, which you then staple together. Sketch the location of the photographs, the principle of their division, inscriptions and design. Decide what decorative elements and in what quantity you will need. Let there be a little less detail, without going overboard - this overloads the work and spoils the overall picture of the album in assembled form.

Mini-album with accordion binding

Album with binding

The ring album looks great, but it looks solid, of course, with a binding.

Cut narrow strips of strong paper to glue the album sheets together. On each of them, mark a section 2-4 mm wide in the middle. A gap of this width will allow you to use volumetric elements when decorating.


The most important part of the album is the binding.

Cut the extreme parts of the strips diagonally. Leaving a marked gap strip in the center, fold the sides over and glue them to the pages. Thus, you get two sheets connected to each other. Next, you will glue the sheets to them using the remaining strips. Do this work carefully, otherwise the album will end up uneven.

The internal content of the album is ready, it’s time to move directly to the binding. You will need gauze that is as long as the height of the album and as wide as its thickness plus a couple of centimeters. Attach ribbon along the horizontal edges of the binding.

The spine is made of a thick sheet of paper with a margin of 1-2 cm in width. Place it evenly on the base of the resulting book, and glue the cover to the album to its protruding stripes. Now the base of the album with binding is ready, then it’s just a matter of imagination.

Album from scratch part 1 - binding

Album from scratch part 2 - cover

Binding with hidden rings

A popular theme in scrapbooking is weddings. Any girl, after answering “Yes” to a marriage proposal, begins to think through all the details of the future event. A wedding requires a lot of attention, even in small things. If the bride has time, she can create a photo album for pictures of this important event entirely at her own discretion.


Volumetric elements only add freshness to the album

Wedding album review

The cover is the first thing a person sees when picking up an album. The cover can reflect the idea of ​​the wedding - theme, color scheme or remind of the venue. You can use all sorts of ready-made solutions for wedding scrapbooking. Stencils, stamps, badges depicting the bride and groom, miniatures of wedding arches and retro cars - it is impossible to list everything that specialized stores of this craft have.

Master class on creating a wedding album

The design of the album pages is also an individual choice. An interesting solution would be to split the album into several parts. In one - professional photographs of the photographer, in the other - selfies with friends, in the third - reportage photographs of wedding guests. Then a section of pictures of gifts or photos of spouses as children.


We fill the album with only fun and bright moments

Creating a wedding album will be a fun activity that will help you pass the “endless” wait for the celebration.

Photography is a unique thing. This is not just a picture, this is a whole segment of life. When you look at a photograph, your memory brings up a whole heap of memories from the depths.

You can spend more than one pleasant evening looking at a photo album. You can never expect such warmth and impressions from electronic versions of photo collections. In addition, if the gadget breaks down, pictures can be lost forever. Isn’t this a good reason to continue the traditions of our ancestors and make a photo album with our own hands?

Why your own if you can buy it? ready-made options? There are a lot of arguments:

1.​ Because it will be unique.

2.​ It can be done in different styles and subject matter.

3.​ A piece of your soul will fall into it.

4.​ And simply because it is an interesting activity.

Interested? Let's look at creating a photo album with your own hands step by step.

Scrapbooking Basics

Like any business, scrapbooking requires advance planning. The problem is that it is not enough for a photo album to have an aesthetic appearance; it needs to carry a certain semantic load. To fulfill all the conditions, you need to find the best way implementation of the idea. And here it is better to stick to already proven techniques and stylistic ideas for designing photo albums.

DIY photo album

It should be noted that scrapbooking is not a cheap hobby, so before you go purchasing supplies, you need to think about the following for your future masterpiece:

  • plot;
  • composition;
  • design style;
  • implementation technique.

Plot

It is the plot that will give you the idea of ​​how to make a photo album with your own hands. The design of the product will directly depend on the theme. A photo album can be a family album or a gift album.

The design of a photo album directly depends on the topic

Composition

For a do-it-yourself photo album, page design ideas must be correctly positioned. The photos themselves and the design elements should appear in visual unity. Here it is important to determine the semantic center of the composition and, in relation to it, select accents or decorations for the page. The subject of the image will help you choose a title and perhaps even make brief description picture.

All pages of the photo album must be made in the same style

Stylistic orientation

“By creating a photo album with your own hands, you are free to choose any style of its design”

Admirers of lush decor should focus on the American vision of a photo book. Connoisseurs of antiquity and those who like to immerse themselves in bygone days will certainly choose shabby chic or vintage. Adherents of minimalism can take a closer look at the European style and one of the most popular ideas for designing photo albums – “clean and simple”.

Design of a photo album in the “clean and simple” style.

When creating a photo album with your own hands, you are free to choose any design style. Other design options can be used, the main thing is that they can present the theme of the album from the best side.

Performance technique

There are many options on how to make a photo album with your own hands. The following help to implement your ideas:

  • stamping;
  • decoupage;
  • journaling;
  • cropping;
  • distress.

There are about a hundred more entertaining techniques that allow you to create magnificent copies of photo albums.

Decoupage technique in photo album decor

The presented methods are distinguished by relative ease of implementation. Thus, stamping involves the use of applicators and all kinds of impressions. In decoupage, plot drawings and ornaments are used. In cropping, they work with the photo itself. It is cut so that only key points. Journaling is characterized by adding original descriptions to photographs. Distress is based on the aging of the paper.

Many different types of impressions are used in stamping

DIY photo album: step by step

Stage I

Essentially this is preparation for work. At this stage, we focus on selecting tools and purchasing materials. What will you need?

Materials:

  • thick (500 gsm; m) cardboard;
  • scrap paper;
  • notebook;
  • padding polyester;
  • adhesive fabric;
  • tapes.

Tools:

  • awl;
  • ruler;
  • needle;
  • breadboard knife;
  • pencil.

Stage II

We sit down to plan the implementation of our own photo album design ideas. The result will not disappoint if you clearly formulate what you want to see in the end. This is where a notebook comes into play. It is desirable that it be similar in size to the future original. It will become a kind of template for work. On its pages you can experiment with the arrangement of photographs and decorative elements. The most successful options are recorded.

Sketch of the location of pictures and decorative elements

Let's start creating a photo album with our own hands by assembling the spines for the pages. To do this, you can use less thick photo cardboard. Strips are cut from it corresponding to the height of the sheets. The width of the stripes may vary. On average, the figure rarely exceeds 3 cm.

Stripes corresponding to sheet heights

Using a ruler, find the center of the narrow part. We set aside 2 mm on both sides of it if the landscape pages have convex decorations and 1 mm in other cases. We proceed in the same way from the opposite side. We connect the outlines with a ruler and draw a strip not with a pencil, but not with a writing pen. This photo album design idea will help you bend the sheet strictly along the given lines. We cut off the corners of the workpiece. Now you can put sheets in them and fix them with glue. The outer sheets should not have “partners”. The free part of the spine will be needed for another.

Fix the leaves with glue

Stage IV

Page finishing. Their decor begins with covering them with scrap paper. Select the right colors and create a general background against which the rest of the composition elements will later be located. The decor for a photo album assembled with your own hands can be:

  • applications;
  • vinyl stickers;
  • newspaper clippings;
  • beautiful cords;
  • ribbons;
  • lace;
  • beads.

Decorative materials for photo album design

In general, everything that your fantasy draws. If there are an abundance of volumetric parts, they should be evenly placed on the pages, then the sheets will not be deformed, and the product as a whole will not lose its shape. This is another reason to work on a photo album with your own hands step by step.

Place the decor evenly on the pages

Stage V

We make the binding and attach the cover. We collect the sheets of paper pasted into the spines into a book and glue the first ones with a piece of bandage, gauze or adhesive fabric, so that there is one and a half centimeters of free material left at the edges of the binding.

Cover the spine with gauze

From cotton braid with processed edges, we cut out two strips, the same length as the width of the binding. We bend the remaining gauze and glue it exactly along the edge. This idea for decorating a photo album will help hide flaws in the assembly of the end part of the binding and will serve as an additional fixation for the sheets, preventing them from coming off.

Glue two strips along the edge

While the cheesecloth is drying, work directly on the spine for the binding. If the paper for work is not too thick, then the part can be assembled. You will have to cut out two components: one strictly according to the dimensions of the binding, the second with a width allowance of 3 cm. We lay the smaller strip on top of the larger one so that there are even allowances on both sides. Mark the boundaries and glue the parts.

Spine for binding

It would seem that's it? But at this stage there are some secrets. Design ideas from scrapbooking professionals will help you make a high-quality photo album with your own hands. What do they advise? A thick spine will prevent the album from opening. Is it possible to avoid problems? Yes, if you draw longitudinal lines along the inside of the spine with a sharp object (the same non-writing pen) with a step distance of 1 cm. This technique will allow the part to bend smoothly.

But the nuances of the topic “how to make a photo album with your own hands” do not end there.

The spine is fixed under the cover

The spine must not be glued to the binding. It is fixed on the cover. The structure is allowed to dry, after which the sheets collected on gauze are placed in it. We fix the free ends of the fabric and the part of the leaf spine that was prudently left when assembling the photo album with our own hands to the inside of the cover. It’s better to make it a transparent “Moment”. It holds more firmly and marks are removed more easily. The stains are simply erased with an eraser.

Inside cover

The creation of the photo album is complete. All that remains is to decorate the cover and fill it with content.

Thematic ideas for designing a photo album

Pleasant memories require beautiful cutting. Selfie, which has become fashionable, allows you to make photo albums with your own hands for almost every occasion, but still more often they are created for more global reasons.

Family Chronicle

It can look like a full-fledged photo book. Its contents will include not only interesting and memorable photographs, but also newspaper clippings, postcards dear to the heart, and things closely related to family history. On title page It’s a good idea to write a motto that reflects the credo of the family.

DIY family photo album

How to make a photo album about your family with your own hands? For example, in genealogical chronology. Rummage in family archive. There will probably be many photographs of your ancestors that you remember and will be able to tell something to your descendants. These photos will appear on the first pages of the chronicle. The story should continue right up to the present day. In the future, your creativity can lay the basis for a whole galaxy of similar photo albums.

Make a series of family photo albums

If a family leads an active lifestyle and does not forget to record everything that happens in it on camera, then it will be difficult to fit everything into one album. In this case, you should divide all the photos into thematic groups and try to assemble a photo album with your own hands for each occasion.

If you love to travel, take a selection of photos from your most memorable trips. Additional decor for such albums can be postcards depicting excursion places of countries or trophies obtained, such as a dried leaf. exotic plant. The epic of a sea holiday is perfectly decorated with sand, pebbles, shells from the beaches, seagull feathers, and sprigs of seaweed.

DIY photo album about travel

Don't be lazy to describe what is shown on the pages. It will be interesting for your descendants to read about your adventures.

Start working on a photo album with your own hands, and design ideas will appear in your head. All relatives can be involved in the matter. Give them a page and ask them to decorate it as they wish. You can ask to compose a poem or write down a life story, or make a drawing with your own hand. In a family photo album, any illustration will be significant.

Make a photo album for the whole family

“Don’t think that the time it takes to create a child’s photo album with your own hands will be limited to one day - it will be a long process”

The birth of a child is probably the most important event in the life of every family, overshadowing even a wedding, so the desire to immortalize every minute of the child’s life is quite natural. How to make a child’s photo album with your own hands so that what is reflected in it evokes affection even years later? Pay attention to details and wisely plan the sequence of filling with photographs. From the heap of photographs, try to select symbolic images that tell about new milestone in a child's life.

DIY children's photo album

You can start the story from afar. Let a photo appear on the first page last days pregnancy. An excellent addition to them would be ultrasound printouts. The logical continuation will be shots from the discharge photo shoot in the celebration hall of the maternity hospital. Next will be pictures with relatives. Later they will paste into the photo album with their own hands: the first smile, the first tooth, the first independent breakfast, the first steps. For every mother, these events are simply etched in her memory, and a desire is born to share her happiness with the whole world.

Ultrasound printouts would be a great addition.

There are a lot of ideas for designing baby photo albums. They can be made into a repository for children's heirlooms by gluing inside a strand of the first hair, ribbons from a cap, or a piece of a bow that was used to tie a blanket. Over time, it will be possible to add children's drawings, crafts and greeting cards brought from the garden and school. Then they will be replaced by artifacts of achievements in the form of certificates and awards.

An example of the design of pages for a children's photo album

Don’t think that the time it takes to create a child’s photo album with your own hands will be limited to one day - it will be a long process. Its contents will be replenished as the object grows.

And one more thing. Children often delight us with pearls. Don't be lazy to record them in the same album. This will be a great reason for fun years later and will decorate the pages well if it appears on them in color.

Wedding photo album

The wedding day is special for both newlyweds. Naturally, you want to save every moment of it in your memory. A huge number of photos from the celebration will require systematic storage in a decent design. So how can you make a photo album with your own hands as unusual as the event itself?

DIY wedding photo album

It's not trivial to decorate it. The bride's accessories, lace, ribbons, and elements of wedding paraphernalia will help with this. The photo can be decorated with dried flower buds from a young wedding bouquet. Over the years, such little things will become incredibly valuable and touching. Here are some more photo album design ideas.

1.​ Recreate the historical accuracy of the wedding celebration by grouping photos according to the chronology of its course.

Recreate the chronology of events on the pages of the album

2. Don’t be afraid to put so-called reportage and staged photographs in the album. They can be quite funny.

3.​ Try to give the design of the photo album a specific stylistic direction. It can be retro or something more modern.

Give the album a general stylistic direction

4. Create personal pages for portraits of heroes of the occasion and VIP guests.

5. When making a photo album with your own hands, supplement it with images of landscapes that served as the background for the wedding event.

Complete the album with landscape images

6.​ Multi-colored pages in the album will look original.

7.​ Bet on the originality of the photographs themselves. Let them be highlighted in sepia or decorated like a painting. Dilute color photos with black and white.

Dilute color photos with black and white.

8.​ B wedding album You can use several photos of the newlyweds taken on the eve of the wedding, as well as those telling about the ups and downs of the preparations for it.

9.​ Separate the official part and the party. This way you will have two albums with photos at once.

10.​ A photo collage of small-format photographs is also interesting.

Photo collage of small format photographs

Design ideas used when creating a photo album with your own hands can cause a certain imbalance in the perception of compositions due to the overload of frames with characters. When placing close-up group photographs in a photo album you created yourself, try to place them on the spread so that the views of the guests captured in them are directed in one direction. Then you won't get the impression that they are looking at each other. Also, a spread literally “littered” with small photos is not perceived in the best way. Use a compositional approach to their arrangement, dilute the pictures with texts and decorative elements. Let your design talents make a splash!

Dilute your photos with text and decor

Conclusion

The proposed options for creating and filling photo albums are just the tip of the iceberg called scrapbooking. Knowing how to make a photo album with your own hands, you will ensure that it excites memories of days gone by and helps bring loved ones closer together.

Photo gallery – DIY photo album







Even in the digital age, paper media remains an indispensable means of storing information. It’s the same with photo albums: every person is pleased to pick up a neatly decorated album and be imbued with memories of days gone by. You can print digital photos at home or at any photo studio and place them in a keepsake folder. At the same time, it is not necessary to buy a photo album, because it is more pleasant to make it yourself. This type of handicraft even has its own name - scrapbooking. Album design is limited only by your imagination, the main thing is to develop the idea. You will find the technology for creating your own photo album and practical tips in this article.

How to make a photo album with your own hands: use your imagination

First, you need to come up with a design for the cover of your photo album, because the set of materials directly depends on this. You can give preference to clay blanks, frames, ruffles, any fabric, decorative elements in any form. Some even make albums from old jeans, skirts, and diapers. If your photo album promises to be themed, for example, on the occasion of the birth of a child, try making a cover from a piece of the baby's first diaper. Such a photo album will become a memorable and beloved thing in itself.

How to make a photo album with your own hands: materials

Once you have decided what you want to use to create the cover, start collecting scrapbooking tools, namely:

  • Stapler.
  • Hole puncher.
  • Small sharp scissors.
  • Glue and a brush for it. If you are using different materials to create your cover, you may need different types of glue.
  • Graph paper.
  • Very thick cardboard for the cover or disassembled parts of an old photo album.
  • Blank pages for scrapbooking.
  • A piece of padding polyester.

You don’t have to resort to blanks, but make all the pages yourself. Then you will need more cardboard.

How to make a photo album with your own hands: the creation process

If you decide to make a new cover from an old one, then everything will be extremely simple:

  • Cover the cover with fabric as desired and secure it with glue, a stapler, or a needle and thread from the inside of the album.
  • On the surface of the fabric, lay out all the decorative elements that you came up with in advance.
  • Use a hole punch to make small holes in the cover to connect it to the album pages.
  • Also make holes in the page blanks that you purchased earlier.
  • Connect the cover and pages using thread and needle or stationery closure rings.

If you decide to connect the pages with thread, then choose a thick, beautiful fleecy thread that will match the design style. Of course, you can make the pages yourself, then you will need a lot of cardboard and a ruler, as well as gauze with which you will strengthen the spine.

How to make pages for a photo album with your own hands

To begin, take one sheet of cardboard, which will become a blank: you will measure the size of all pages using it. Cut out the required number of cardboard pages using a utility knife. Now your task is to connect these pages beautifully. Most often, experienced scrapbookers do this:

  • You need to cut small strips of thick paper 2-2.5 centimeters wide.
  • Glue the pages together with these strips so that there is space between the pages for decorations and the photographs themselves.
  • Lubricate the spine with glue and glue several layers of gauze.

Then you can glue a small cardboard onto the spine to strengthen it. Glue the pages to the main part and let the album dry.

Decorate the pages with any elements, but make sure they are not too voluminous.

How to make a photo album cover from cardboard

If you have not resorted to using an old photo album as a frame, then the cover should be made according to this algorithm:

  • Cover very thick cardboard with a piece of padding polyester so that the album is voluminous and pleasant to the touch;
  • Cover the top with the fabric you chose earlier.

This cover needs to be connected with a hole punch to make it easier for you to work with cardboard.

Now you know that making photo albums with your own hands is not at all difficult, the main thing is to stock up on materials and show your imagination. Watch several training videos to gain knowledge, as well as photographs of completed works on the Internet.