If you've spent any time working with rubber stamps and
scrapbooking, you'll quickly find the need to have a
good album to put all of your creations in. Albums come
in a large variety of sizes, shapes, and designs. You
can find small albums that are perfect for your
scrapbooking, cardholders, and any paper craft project
you decide to create. Here are just a few of the most
popular types of scrapbooking albums.
Three-Ring: Three-ring albums are made just the same as
the folders you would buy as a child's school supply.
They feature round or D-shaped rings, and inserting new
pages is very easy. These types of albums are also very
popular, because a three-hole punch is easy to find that
any office supply store. Three-ring scrapbooking albums
are made especially for large-format 12 x 12
scrapbooking pages. You can also find 8.5 x 11 albums.
One small drawback to a three-ring album is the large
gap between the facing pages. This can be a problem if
you want to make coordinated pages, since there will be
a large space between the two pages.
Spiral-Bound: Not just school notebooks are spiral-bound
anymore. With the price of spiral-bound binders, as well
as comb binders, being very affordable, many
scrapbookers are enjoying making custom albums with
these tools. You can also buy special kits designed to
make spiral-bound scrapbooking albums. These can be
purchased at your local craft that hobby store. The
major advantage of the spiral-bound album is the fact
that you can fold it on top of itself for easy viewing.
Mini Albums: As the name would imply, these small
scrapbooking albums are perfect to give as gifts and
hold very small pages, tags, cards, and homemade
embellishments. You can make an adorable mini album with
simple cloth covered chipboard punched with holes down
the spine, tied together with ribbon.
Half Pint: These albums are perfect for scrapbook pages
that are 8.5" x 5". They usually come in three-ring the
format. You may also find spiral-bound half pint kits.
Strap-Hinge: The scrapbooking albums come with pages
that are held in place by a plastic strap. You will need
to place paper over top of the pages in the album or use
the paper has the background for your scrapbooking page.
These albums have a very professional look since a come
in a solid binder format.
Post-Bound: A post-bound album has two or three metal
fasteners down the spine that hold the pages in place.
Most post-bound albums have the ability to add post
extenders to provide for additional album pages. These
albums also are wonderful, like the three-ring album,
since you can quickly insert pages and change the order
of existing pages.
Alternative Albums: There are a host of scrapbooking
companies who have come up with extremely creative ways
to hold your scrapbooking pages in their custom album
systems. Most of these albums are similar to traditional
albums but use innovative ways to make inserting and
removing pages easier. One such system is the Snap Load
system which uses a unique plastic snap in the center of
album which allows painlessly simple insertion and
organization of scrapbook pages.
Chances are, spending a few moments at your local craft
and hobby store, you will quickly find there are
hundreds of different styles of albums, designs of
albums, album kits, and luxury albums that can hold any
variety, style, and design of scrapbooking pages.
Selecting just the right scrapbooking album for your
project will preserve your memories for a lifetime, and
ensure that your hard work is cherished from generation
to generation!
