paper: Selecting an album for Journal your Christmas | pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

With all of my online classes, I encourage you to use what you have and love — I never say there is one album you need or a collection of papers that are required. It’s all about embracing your own personal style and making things that are unique to you (even if it helps you to make pages similar to those you see in the class materials). This is definitely the case for Journal your Christmas and the participants have used pretty much every size and shape of album you can find or make. There are some things that work and some things that definitely don’t, so first some suggestions for specific albums if you want to look for something new, and then some notes on what to choose or make from what you have on hand.

Starting with some different choices for albums, clockwise from the top left in the image above…
Canvas albums from Prima, available in 6×12, 4×6 and 8×8.5: I like these both for the variety of sizes and because the canvas pages offer something a bit unique. The 4×6 album has a lot of potential for a hybrid project, like making each day’s entry a photo with some journaling over the top perhaps? But also, there is a real shortage of 6×12 albums right now (sad that American Crafts have discontinued this size!) and it has been quite popular with the Christmas Journal crowd over the last two years. So that’s an option. Ali Edwards made her 2009 December Daily with the 8×8.5 canvas album, which gives you an idea of the cool things you can do with this base.

Cottage Christmas 8×8 album by Imaginisce: This is a good choice if you like a cover with a happy pattern. You don’t need to do anything to the cover at all and can just get started with your pages. You will want to add some additional page protectors, most likely. I am pretty sure most brands will fit this album – usually page protectors tend to be pretty universal these days.

Vintage Book Covers by 7gypsies: This would be perfect for keeping things in a small format and they are so much less expensive than a more traditional album – the red cover set is just $1.50. But this isn’t an album when you purchase it – it is literally the front and back cover. You’ll need to make your pages, punch holes and add rings or ribbon to bind it together. I used these for my Why I Scrapbook project earlier this year and I love the way they look even after they have been worn a bit by reading. If you add rings, get large rings — more on that in a bit.

8×8 Modern Album by American Crafts:. I’ve used the Modern Album for three of my Christmas journals over the years, including an 8×8 in blush pink last year. I love American Crafts albums and it’s what I use for all my 12×12 pages. Last year I had a two page spread for each day (one side was a full page photo – not two whole pages of scrapping, I promise!) so I filled the album with forty page protectors and even with bulky pages and being packed in a suitcase multiple times over the past year, it is still completely intact. This is a great choice and you can choose from several colours. If you want to cover the chipboard section with paper, I highly suggest spray adhesive. I covered mine with wallpaper last year and the spray adhesive worked like a charm. (It’s great for anything with chipboard and also perfect for adhering transparencies.)

And a drumroll… this is the album I will be using this year. It’s the Parisian Anthology Portfolio Album by Pink Paislee and it’s 8.5×11 with a canvas cover and a 3-ring binder. I love the cover but I will admit it’s the page protectors that sold me – a mix of sizes and styles. Some 8.5×11 plain, some 5×7 plain, but then some with a few pockets and some with lots of pockets. It comes with 20 page protectors and I bought a second pack of just the varied page protectors in case I need more. This album is thinner than the AC Modern Album, but it’s still a good size and I’m quite excited about having a different format for my book this year rather than a square page every day. I ordered it from Two Peas and it’s here now so I’m starting to work on it… but I’ll share some in-progress pages another day. If you haven’t chosen an album yet and want to try something new, this has your name all over it.

Another option worth noting is the Noel 8×8 mixed media album by Making Memories. They’ve made several of these types of albums in different collections. I don’t have this one, but I used one from another collection on this travel journal and I have another couple sitting on my shelf waiting for the right project. I love the mix of pages – you get 10 8×8 pages in a variety of formats – papers, die-cut sheets and transparencies. You would need to add additional pages if you wanted more than twenty entries, but you could cut them from any paper you liked and just punch holes in the right spot.

If you prefer to choose something from your stash or make your own album, that’s perfect! There are a few things you’ll want to decide and keep in mind as you choose or make your album.

If you intend on making daily entries, you will want something that will allow enough pages. That means 25 if you stop at Christmas day, 37 if you stop at the end of the twelfth day of Christmas or even more if you want to start on a different day (several JYC participants start their albums on the day after Thanksgiving because that is their first real day of the Christmas season, for example). That’s a great deal of pages. And remember there’s a difference between just a stack of paper and a stack of scrapbook pages. If you create pages with dimension – even just Thickers or the odd pop dot – the stack of pages will be pretty deep! Keep this in mind and don’t choose something that will limit you. If you opt for book rings, get the biggest book rings you can find. If you’re thinking you’ll bind your book with a spiral wire, you may want to wait until the end of the project rather than binding it at the beginning. If you’re looking at existing albums on your shelf, see how happy they would be if you put a stack of twenty-five to forty scrapbook pages inside. Every year there’s a discussion of oh no, my album is overstuffed! on our forum, so it’s best to keep it in mind when you’re choosing. Opt for something that will give you too much room – you can always find something to fill it later if that truly turns out to be the case.

If you intend to just make a few entries per year and keep the album going over several Christmas seasons, then you may want to choose a more traditional format like a 12×12 album. Just keep in mind if you want to add to it each year, you’ll want room for more than one year’s entries, so the notes above still apply.

As far as page size goes, it is a personal preference of course. I have used 6×6, 8×8, 9×9 and a 12×12 with a mix of sizes in that album. 8×8 and 9×9 are my favourites – 9×9 albums aren’t as easy to find as the 8×8. I find those sizes to be so lovely because they still give you room and freedom with your photos and journaling, but they are also a size that is easy for someone to hold and read. These books are great to put out with your Christmas decorations and your family and friends will love taking a look, so unless you purposely want this to be a for-your-eyes-only project, it’s worth keeping in mind that this album will be held and read. 6×6 is the most efficient size for supplies, as you can get four pages from one sheet of 12×12 cardstock, but I found it too small for this type of project if you are going to include photos. When I used a 6×6 book it was almost entirely words and just a picture here and there. The whole point of this album is to tell the story so don’t forget you will need space to write! 12×12 I enjoyed it but it was a little too much for me to take on for a daily entry. I found my pages were sparser than I would have liked because I only had a certain amount of time per page. That extra space took time to fill! But if you have plenty of time or are a speedy scrapbooker, then you may really love the 12×12 option. If so, go for it!

Once you’ve chosen your album, the biggest time saver you can do right now is to prepare your cardstock. Choose the colours, cut it to size, even ink the edges now if you know that’s something you will want on each page. Then choose which is easiest for your set up: mocking up the album by putting the cardstock in the page protectors or punching holes for rings or stacking up the papers in order so your album will grow as you complete pages throughout December. Either works just fine – it may depend on whether you can leave your crafting supplies out during the season or if you need to condense to a small and portable solution.

Tomorrow I’ll share part two of the supply talk, including different options for papers and embellishments plus some tricks for making it simple and efficient to create daily entries in an album. See you then!

Journal your Christmas is an online class that starts on the 1st of December. I’d love for you to join us!

xlovesx

PS: The giveaway below closes on Friday, so be sure to enter!

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03 November 2010

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