The desire to decorate and systematize your photographs that are dear to you, as well as important notes, can be easily realized thanks to the development of such an interesting technique as scrapbooking. From this article you will learn how to create and decorate the album cover with your own hands.
Scrapbook
The literal translation of such a kind of creativity as scrapbooking is scrap “cut out”, book - “book”. If you paraphrase and define this art, it will mean the creation and beautiful design of album covers, notebooks for notes, notebooks and many cardboard products. Also, needlewomen, in addition to binding, create pages of different sizes and colors. Decorated with beads, flowers, beautiful buttons in the form of animals, plants or other subjects. Glue ribbons, bows, rhinestones. Design places for recordings and photos with beautiful paper napkins. And all creativity is based on the imagination of the craftswomen, products are born unique.
Necessary materials
A lot of auxiliary tools and basic materials will be needed to create the album cover, as this work is painstaking and requires accuracy and perseverance.
- Often in scrapbooking for the design of binding use fabric. Therefore, get some natural cotton cuts of material, preferably with a fine pattern, but you can also plain.
- You will also need cardboard of different densities and colored sheets of paper.
- Glue stick and glue moment.
- Adhesive tape on both sides.
- Scissors: straight and embossed, as well as a paper cutter.
- A simple pencil, a convenient ruler.
- Sewing machine and related materials.
- Satin ribbon for ties.
Template preparation
You determine the size of the future album yourself according to your preferences, photo parameters and recording volumes. In our example, blanks will be calculated for a book with page settings of 20 x 24 cm. Accordingly, the sides of the album cover need to be increased by 1 cm, and they will be 21 x 25 cm. From dense cardboard, cut out two rectangles of the specified size and three strips for the spine. The width of the end of the book depends on the content, the number of internal pages and the volume of decorations (for example, 2 cm). The other two strips serving as a border will have a width of 3 cm. The length of all the rectangles will correspond to the size of the cover. In two parts adjacent to the spine, it is necessary to punch or pierce three holes. The distance between them should be the same.
Work with fabric
We will be making fabric cover for the album with our own hands. Therefore, we spread our templates on the fabric laid out with the wrong side up. In the middle part there will be a spine, on its two sides - a border, then we lay out the top cover on the left, the bottom - on the right. Leave 3 mm of free stitching space between all parts. Next, we circle the blank and cut out a rectangle of the required size from the fabric, taking into account allowances equal to 4 cm. If you want to decorate the cover, then before gluing the elements, sew on your chosen decor to the fabric.
Assembly and gluing
Before assembling, move aside two large templates and cover the edge with the edges with a separate piece of fabric. To strengthen the material, coat the cardboard with pencil glue and press the fabric against the parts. It should protrude 4.5 cm in width on both sides of the edging. Mark the locations of the holes and punch holes in the material. Then insert the grommets and make 4 lines with a sewing machine, starting with two between the parts and further along the edges. Under the protruding edges of the fabric, put the top and bottom covers of the future album cover. Scrapbooking as a type of decoration requires beauty and accuracy. Therefore, when gluing fabric to cardboard, it is necessary to tighten the material well. This will help to avoid the presence of air spaces, protrusion and wrinkling of the outer side of the cover. If necessary, tighten wrapped fabric allowances with paper clips or paper clips. We paste rectangles of beautiful paper measuring 20 x 24 cm on the end cover, covering all the bends, allowances and imperfections. Create a beautiful edging by sewing on the typewriter around the perimeter the entire cover detail. After you insert all the pages, thread the tape through the outer holes and pull it up from the middle hole. Tie a beautiful bow.
Soft cover
We looked at how to make a cover for an album from thick cardboard. But binding can also be soft. To do this, rectangular parts equal in size to the cover patterns can be cut from the synthetic winterizer. Lubricate the cardboard with glue stick and connect with synthetic winterizer elements. It must be placed between the main fabric and the cover blank. Next, follow the steps described above.
In a lighter version, it is proposed to make the cover of a single piece of cardboard, and in place of the spine several times to draw using a ruler with the tip of the line scissors. This will help to easily bend the front and back of the binding perpendicular to the spine. Next, glue batting to the template on the tape and wrap the outside of the workpiece with a cloth. The gasket should be inside the cover. We sew the binding around the entire perimeter and decorate, following the wishes.
Album artwork
You can decorate the binding in various ways. For example, design can start with two different fabric sections sewn together. One upper part may contain a pattern (geometric shapes, strip, cell, flowers and other patterns), the lower part will be monophonic. The seam is covered with a wide satin ribbon.
Depending on the content of the album, the top page may be decorated with appropriate attributes. Wedding books are decorated with lace ribbons, rhinestones, buttonholes. Cover design with details from a wedding dress, veils, garters and various small holiday decorations is allowed.
Albums for children contain an image of a child, a stroller made of cardboard, stickers in the form of balls. And also the fabric with the corresponding pattern is selected. For example, with toys or baby nipples and bottles.
Pleasant memories of a vacation at sea can also be made out by choosing the appropriate fabric colors and small attributes: shells, sea pebbles, a boat on the waves.
If desired, an album can be created for any memorable and enjoyable event. The main thing is to arrange the cover carefully, following the theme and tastefully. Such an album will be an original and unforgettable gift for loved ones.