Because I'm all Crafty Like That

I went to JoAnn last night. You know, The Craft Store. I saw that they had open-stock scrapbook paper on sale. 5 for $1. This is the only way I will buy said paper. No way will I pay 59 cents (does anyone remember when the "cent" sign was right there on the keyboard?) for one piece of paper. That trip made me think... Jennifer has a post up in which she asks folks for gift ideas. This last trip to JoAnn convinced me to post about my favorite gift to give: a mini scrap-album.

I often give this gift when someone is having a baby, but these could be used for just about any occaision. I buy a 6x6 album when they are on sale or I have a coupon. Michael's has a simple one that is only about four or five dollars (regularly priced) and Hobby Lobby has some very cute ones regularly priced at $10. (The last time HL had a sale on albums, they were 50% off and I snagged a bunch because they were such a good deal.)

The scrap album can be made with as few as 6 pieces of 12x12 paper. I already have adhesive that I use for my own scrapbooking and cardmaking. But adhesive, and a few embellishments (like ribbon or buttons) are fairly inexpensive, especially considering that they will last you through several albums. Even adding these in, I'd estimate I spend less than $8 on each album I make.

I think any album, even one without embellisments, will look nice.

Here's the general idea: 5 sheets of paper are cut into 6x6 squares. (You can choose 5 sheets that are exactly the same, or choose different ones.) Use a sixth sheet of a coordinating paper to make a frame, matte, or border on each page. (Plan your cutting carefully.) Use the white sheets that come in the album pages to layer your mattes, or, if you have stamps, stamp some designs on them and cut it into a border or matte of its own.

If you want to personalize a page or two, use stickers or stamps for lettering. This is optional, obviously.

I know a bunch of you are groaning at the thought of crafting, so I thought I'd show you some of the pages I've made. I selected some pages that are not highly embellished to prove that EVEN YOU could do this, if you wanted.

This one couldn't be any simpler. Two pieces of coordinating scrap paper. I cut a piece for the border to fit the page and ripped down the edge. Looks better when the two papers have more contrast, but you get the idea. If you don't like the torn look, use a pair of decorative edged scissors instead. The border can be oriented horizontally or vertically.






Also very simple. Affix two 3x3 squares to the corners of a page. You can also overlap the corners of these squares a little at the center of the page, which leaves more border around the outside of the page.

Another variation of this is to cut the 3x3 square into two triangles. Glue these onto the two, or all four, corners.





I used a simple circle paper cutter to make the circles. Cut a matte out of white paper and glue the circles in place. Use horizontally or vertically.









I used a set of small stamps for this one. Instead of stamps, I sometimes glue on those small plastic confetti pieces that are made for baby showers. Those look cute too. The rest is simple squares.









Simple squares again. See how little ribbon is used? One spool of ribbon could make a whole bunch of pages like this. Even without the ribbon, this page would still look nice.









This last page is also simple squares with an easy button embellishment. Also looks good with a button in each corner... or no buttons at all.









I share this gift idea for those of you who want to craft but think you can't, or for those who need something special that doesn't break the bank. I have made a ton of these, and I think everyone I've given them to has liked them so far.

Hope you do too!

(For more gift ideas, head over to Jennifer's place.)