If you have ever wanted to make your own scrapbooking album, here is a lovely D-Ringed one that you can make in a jiffy using chipboard and material. You will be able to fit a lot more in this album than the conventional ones that you buy in the craft shops.
Then I found an article on how to make your own album with a D-Ring in the middle, which makes putting your pages and layouts in order a breeze. Ring bound albums are definitely the way to go. As the ones you buy in a store are not very creative, and not the right size, here is how you can make your own quite easily.
This is what you are going to need to construct your own album: 3mm MDF chipboard, a primer that you can sandpaper like Plasti-Kote, hand saw and face mask, sandpaper, Stanley knife, pencil, long ruler, rivet gun and rivets, 40mm D-Ring Binder mechanism, which you can take out of an unused file, strong fabric to cover your album, sewing machine and cotton to match your cover, punch to punch holes, corner rounder, spray adhesive, odds and ends like ribbon, craft knife, page protectors, rub-ons and other embellishments.
First of all you need to cut out your fabric as follows: The pieces need to measure 14 x 18 and 14 x 13 inches respectively. Press and sew a half inch seam allowance around all four sides of both pieces of fabric. You can do this by machine, or hand sewing if you have the time.
Next you will need to cut your chipboard to the correct size. If you are clever you will get the shop to do this for you. If doing it yourself, make sure to wear a face mask to avoid inhaling the fibres. Mark the pieces with pencil lines and use the Stanley knife to do the job for a clean cut before you use the saw.
Cut two of the pieces of wood to measure 400 x 330 mm and a spine of 330 x 70mm. Sand down the rough edges and position the binder mechanism in the proper place in the album. Mark where the holes should be and drill them out, or simply punch them out with your crop-a-dile if you have one.
Seal your wooden pieces with your primer and once dry lay the pieces out in a row and leave a 3mm gap between the pieces so that the file can fold once covered. If your fabric is very thick, you may need to use a slightly bigger gap.
Position the smaller piece of fabric in the centre so that it covers both the gaps, and then attach it with spray adhesive. Smooth out any air bubbles.
Turn the file over and position the bigger piece of fabric with an even amount of fabric hanging over the top and bottom of the file. After glueing on with your spray adhesive, fold the edges over the wood and glue down.
The fabric will now be holding the wooden file together on both sides.
Now that fabric is attached, you should be able to fold the wood over into an album shape. If you can't fold it over, then you haven't left enough space between the wooden pieces and may need to apply some gentle pressure to shift the wood into place before the glue dries.
To finish off the edges of the fabric, put some ribbon along the length of it and onto the inside of the file.
Feel where the holes are that you drilled at the start, and use your craft knife to make an incision at each hole, just big enough for the rivet to pass through. Pass the fat end through the hole from the outside so that the circular disk sits flush with the outside of the album. Place the binder mechanism over the rivet.
You will need to follow the instructions that come with your rivet gun and attach the binding mechanism to the album. The flat part of the binding mechanism must face outwards, and the curved part faces the spine of the album.
You can now round the corners of your new album with sandpaper or a round-it all and embellish the album to your hearts content.
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