How to make a photo album

Posted on 2nd September 2017 by Sylvia Ames
Filed under Papercraft Disciplines And Techniques, Scrapbooking And Journalling, Design Team

Hi Sylvia here, today I have a tutorial showing you how to make an album to hold your autumn photos and artwork.  The album and inserts are easy to make using A4 card with just a few cut pieces, scorelines and gluing.

Autumn is one of my favourite seasons with the rich array of colours you get when the leaves start to change.  September, October and November give us plenty of opportunity to make beautiful cards and crafts using the full range of autumn colours.  Reds, yellows, oranges and greens through to rich dusky pinks, plums and purples.

How to make a photo album

You will need:

• papermilldirect A4 white, apple green, daffodil yellow, mandarin, Christmas red,mocha brown, buff, maroon andpurple grape card
• scoreboard and cutter
• distress inks and blenders
• dies and stamps

To make the cover cut two pieces of white card, one 10.5cm wide by 27.5cm long and one 10.5cm wide by 8.5cm long.  Score the larges piece at 13cm, 14.5cm. score the smaller piece at 1.5cm and 3cm, fold on the score lines.

The large piece forms the body of the album and the smaller piece the closure flap.  The flap can be left square, the corners rounded with a punch or cut with a shaped die using a die cutting machine.  To do this place a shaped die on the area to be cut and pass through a die cutter to partially cut, as in the picture below.

Glue the first 1.5cm flap to the main body of the album at the back.  Once the glue has dried decorate the cover with inks, stamps and dies before making and adding the inserts.

I used spiced marmalade, mustard seed, fired brick, barn door, mowed lawn and shabby shutters diestress inks to colour the album cover and Sizzix alterations leaf blueprint stamp and die set to decorate.  the flap was held by the 3D leaf but I did add a fastener made with two small circles fastened to the flap with a brad.

To make the consertina inserts cut 7 pieces of card 10.5cm by 26cm and score each one at 12.5cm and 25cm.  Mountain fold the inserts and valley fold the 1cm tabss.  Cut another piece 10.5cm by 25cm and score at 1.5cm, this is the end insert  to stick to the back of the folder and does not need the 1cm tab.  Attach each tab to the bottom edge of each insert to form a concertina.

To finish the album attach the consertina insert by gluing the two straight end panels to the back and front panels of the cover.

You can now fill your album with photos and autum colours.  I filled mine with autumn coloured cards cut into different shapes ready for stamping, embossing and attaching my autumn photos.

You can find a selection of autumn coloured cards in the papermilldirect shop, why not stock up on a box of mix colours ready for your autumn crafting.

Sylv xx

Tagged: design team, Tutorial, autumn colours, distress inks