DIY photo album: design ideas, photos

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:47

Digital technology and the ability to take pictures at any second, it would seem, should have forced paper photographs out of our lives as a relic of the past. But not a single monitor is able to convey the feelings and emotions that you experience when leafing through a family album. Handmade photo albums are in vogue now. Creating a family album is an exciting experience. It allows you to show creativity and imagination.

There are many different options for how to make a photo album with your own hands. Some are accessible to beginners, while others require skill and professionalism. Having once tried to make a small commemorative album, it is so difficult to stop and not implement new ideas…

Theme

Before you start making a photo album with your own hands, you need to decide on a theme or plot. For those who are taking their first steps in this business, choosing a theme will be the starting point in the design anddesign. It can be the birth of a child, a trip, a graduation from school or kindergarten, a wedding, an anniversary, or another bright, memorable event.

How nice it will be for your beloved teacher or educator to receive at the graduation party a photo album made by the hands of students, which contains shots of school life throughout the entire period of study! Such albums can be presented to each subject teacher and decorated in accordance with the lesson he teaches.

In accordance with the theme, pictures, decorations, additional elements are selected. On each page, it is important to respect the proportions between the photograph and the decorations.

Styling

Do-it-yourself photo albums can be designed in different styles, choosing the one that suits you the most. Each style has its own subtleties and nuances.

Thus, minimalism implies a minimum number of decorative elements: plain sheets, a photo, a laconic signature or a vignette. The European style also uses a minimum of decorations, here the main element is photographs carved in the form of a specific subject.

Lovers of antiquity can decorate photo albums with their own hands in vintage or retro style. These styles feature aged pages, black-and-white photographs, newspaper clippings, and antique jewelry found at the bottom of a grandmother's chest. The shabby chic style is distinguished by an abundance of lace ribbons, bows, flowers in pastel, discreet colors.

American style is characterized by an abundance of brightdecor elements. You can come up with your own style and decorate it: hippies, jeans, rock and others.

Technique

Designing a DIY photo album is an exciting and creative process. It is recommended that all pages, as well as the cover, be made in the same technique, which is selected in advance. For example, when decorating using the decoupage technique, the pages are decorated with clippings from newspapers and magazines, original pictures and ornaments.

Stamping technique - applying stamps and seals to landscape sheets as decorative elements.

You can arrange your creation using the cropping technique, in which the main elements are cut out of the whole photo and pasted onto the page along with the decor, you get a kind of collage.

In the journaling technique, each photo in the album is supplemented with a brief description or commentary.

These are just a few DIY photo album ideas. Styles and techniques can be combined as you wish.

Layout

Before you make a photo album with your own hands, it is recommended to create its layout. To do this, you need to take a notebook and make sketches of each page of the future album and its cover in it. Ideally, the size of the layout and the future album are the same. At this stage, inscriptions, decorations, details and directly photographs are thought out and selected. If you have a detailed layout at hand, the main work is greatly simplified.

Shape

Do-it-yourself photo albums can be made in any shape:square, round, triangular, in the form of houses or cars. Depending on the chosen theme, the shape and size of the future album is selected. But curly shapes are extremely difficult for beginners, so for those who are making a photo album for the first time, you need to choose simple shapes: a square or a rectangle.

Pages

For the pages, thin cardboard, which is sold in the stationery department, works best. But you can take paper. Sheets of decorative paper can be glued on top so that the background is not white.

Pages are connected to each other in different ways. You can bind them like a book binder or punch holes and secure the blocks to connect them with rings or thread a ribbon.

Cover

The cover is the "face" of the photo album. It should correspond to the internal content and reflect the essence. You can put an image or a commemorative inscription on the cover, reflecting the ideas of a photo album made by yourself.

As a cover, you can use ready-made options that are sold in needlework stores. Or buy document folders with metal rings. For those who make a large photo album for the first time, this option is optimal. Folders are also convenient because you can always add additional pages to the archival chronicle. The front part can be decorated at your discretion.

Photos

In an album, photos can be glued directly to pages or inserted intospecially made cuts for the corners of the picture. Under the photo, you can glue a backing of contrasting paper or fabric cut with curly scissors.

Small fold-out album

For making a small do-it-yourself photo album, a variant in the form of a folding book is offered step by step. A child will cope with this design. You can make such a photo album for mom for the holiday by pasting photos of all family members into it.

Work sequence:

• Pick up photos.
• Cut out a strip of paper from a sheet of drawing paper a little wider than the size of the photo.
• Make page layout, considering that each sheet should have enough space for photos and decorative elements. European style or cropping is suitable for this method, when not the whole photo is pasted, but only the cut out part.
• Fold a strip of Whatman paper like an accordion, making folds according to the number of pages.
• Stick photos, draw frames, write memorable words. It must be remembered that the first page is not decorated, because it will stick to the cover.

• Cut out a rectangle from thick cardboard, which is 0.5-1 cm wider and 1.5 cm longer than the landscape page spread. Mark the center of the book and, stepping back half a centimeter on both sides of it, draw straight lines with a pointed object, for example, the end of scissors. This will be the fold line. Paste the cover with beautiful paper or cloth.
• Spread the cover on the table face down andpaste an accordion with photographs. When the glue is dry, finish decorating.

Scrapbooking

Very popular for DIY photo album scrapbooking. A simple manufacturing option is shown below. For work you will need colored cardboard or with drawings, scissors, an awl, and for the cover - thick cardboard, fabric and padding polyester.

From cardboard cut into strips 3 cm wide and length corresponding to the size of the page. Fold each strip in half lengthwise. Glue cardboard sheets cut to the size of future pages in pairs, inserting one edge of the folded strip on one side. Thus, the spread of the album is obtained. To glue the cover to the first and last strip, glue the cardboard on one side only.

Fold the prepared pages into an even pile so that the folds look in one direction. Punch holes with an awl and sew with a strong thread. This is how the book binding is made.

The cover is made of thicker cardboard than the pages. A used packing box or special binding board will do. Cut out 2 blanks to the size of the pages and the spine. The width of the spine corresponds to the thickness of the album. Arrange the blanks and the spine in a straight line, leaving 0.3 cm between them. Lubricate the spine and the adjacent edges of the covers with glue and glue the fabric. If self-adhesive material is available, you can use it. Let dry under pressure.

After drying, you can decorate. Cut the synthetic winterizer according to the shape and size of the cover, fix with a few drops of glue. Cut out a rectangle from decorative fabric.which is larger than the cardboard blank by 2.5 cm in each direction. Glue double-sided tape on the inside of the cover and secure the fabric by straightening the edges. You can use transparent glue.

Assembly and decoration

All parts should dry well. Now we have to put them together. Glue the first and last pages of the binding to the inside of the cover. After that, the album must be closed and put under pressure.

This is a preparatory work that requires care and accuracy. The appearance and quality of the future product depends on them. If you cut or glue the pages unevenly, you will get a sloppy look.

The last step is decoration. It is made to your liking. Don't forget about the cover art. It can be embellished with embroidery, appliqué, decorative stitching and more.

Newborn Album

Making a photo album with your own hands is best done on any topic. So, you can systematize the first photos of the baby in the album of the newborn. You can paste in it a photo of the mother at different stages of pregnancy, ultrasound pictures, put in a test, paste an envelope in which the baby's curl from the first haircut will lie. A self-made children's photo album can be decorated with tiny booties, a small cap.

Wedding album

Wedding is a solemn and unforgettable event in the life of every family. Many interesting and unusual memorable shots remain aftercelebrations. They can also be combined into an amazing album. Its pages will reflect the entire love story of the couple from the beginning of their acquaintance to the wedding or honeymoon. The album can be supplemented with movie tickets from the first date, dried flowers from the wedding bouquet and other elements.

Wedding paraphernalia can serve as decoration: rings, champagne glasses, hearts.

Family album

You can recreate a family genealogical tree in a photo album. On the first pages, place the oldest photographs of family members that are in the family archive. Can be supplemented with captions with the names of the people captured in the picture and brief information. If there are newspaper clippings, they will also be appropriate in such an album. This is an opportunity to learn about family history. It can be made into a heirloom.

Traveler's Diary

In memory of an exciting journey, you can make a photo album with your own hands. Photos, tickets from those places that were visited during the trip, cones with sand from the beach, small shells and other little things brought from the trip will become its decoration. You can paste a map of the country and indicate the route of the trip with flags or other marks. You can make handwritten notes about the places you have been or the sights you have visited.

How to make a photo album with your own hands step by step, described above. You can take this information as a basis and make your own unique creation. Such a photo album will become a relic in any family. It can be presented asa gift in which a piece of the donor's soul and his painstaking work is invested.

Don't take on a grandiose multi-page project for the first time. It is better to make a small photo album with your own hands in memory of some event in life. In such works, the individuality of the performer is manifested, because these are piece exhibits, which have no analogues.