Scrapbook Photo Album Types

Album Sizes

The Standard Size Album is 12 x 12 inches. These are the easiest to work with as all the paper products out there are either 12 x 12 inches or 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

Scrapbook photo albums also come in 8 1/2 x 11 inch size, with bindings on either the 8 1/2 inch side or the 11 inch side. These albums are great if you have a number of single photos you want to scrap, themed books like recipe albums or baby book albums. While the is not a lot of "real estate" to work on, it's is a great way to get started and the books are lighter in weight and work well if they are going to be handled a lot.

Scrapbook Photo Albums are also available in 8 x 8 inches, 6 x 6 inches, 4 x 6 inches and even smaller pocket sized albums. These smaller albums are often handmade and there are many book kits available with all the necessary pieces to make them yourself and cover with the scrapbook paper or card stock of your choice.

But don't forget the Scrapbook Photo Albums also come in 12 x 15 inches. These give you a lot more "real estate" to work on, but you always have to think of something "creative" to do with that extra 3" that the 12 x 12 paper background paper does not cover, or just use the white background paper that comes standard in the albums.

I would suggest using these for themed projects where you have a lot of photos to work with. When doing these layouts with 12 x 12 background paper, you can reserve either the top or bottom 3 inches of the page for a title or border.

You can split up the top and bottom borders, paper piece your background papers, or what I did a lot was have some of my film camera photos developed in panoramic format of 4 x 12 inches and using that to cover the "white 3" border." But it is getting harder and harder to find a developer that has the capacity to do panoramic photos. This is where certain photo software applications come in handy.

Follow these links below to other pages where I have used 12 x 12 papers on 12 x 15 inch layouts.

Album Bindings

The bindings on the left side holding the pages can be 3-ring type, post bound, strap hinge and a newer "snapload". The snap load mechanism makes is easier to add or remove pages and was originally used to convert the more traditional post bound albums and can now be purchased ready made.

Album Page Protectors

For the 3-ring, post bound and snap load albums, the actual layout pages are placed into a sheet protector that is bound on the side of the album. When you purchase an album it normally comes with 10 sheets of page protectors, providing 20 total pages for layouts - using the back and front. Pages in these albums are easy to move as they can slide right out of the page protector and moved to another location in your book or even to another album. That is if you have not used the back of the page. Here is where it's a good idea to make a separate page for the back side of the page protector.

For the strap hinge Scrapbook Photo albums, the pages themselves are hooked to a strap type binding by what looks like a staple on the edge of the page on a reinforced bar. The nice thing about these is that the book lies flat when opened and there is no space between the left and right hand pages. Don't worry about the staples coming out - they are very substantial. I have these types of albums that date back to 1960's that are the 12 x 15 size and are at least 3 inches thick, are looked at often and have held up beautifully in spite of the fact that they are quite heavy.

Normally strap hinge albums do not come with the page protectors (although they can be purchased) so I just tape my background papers or finished layouts directly to the original white pages. These scrapbook photo albums are not as flexible as the ones where the page protector is in the binding as changing the order of pages is really difficult once you have taped them down and you really have to worry about what is on the other side if you don't get them in the correct final sequence while scrapping.

I have heard both pro and con about using page protectors. Of course, they protect the pages and other elements on the finished layouts, but you loose something when viewing your artwork through the clear plastic. You lose the texture of many of the wonderful papers available and some of the quality of the photos themselves.

Additional page protectors are available for all types and sizes and are easily inserted into the bindings.

Album Colors & Designs

Scrapbook Photo Albums come in all colors and designs by several manufacturers and costs can run from a few dollars on sale to $75 for the leather bound versions. And while this may be considered a scrapbooking tool, it is actually the final product that will be shown, shared and talked about for a long time to come.

Temporary Albums

Free Scrapbooking Tip: If you have not finished a page, but need to clear away your scrappin' project, store the paper and photos in the page protectors until you get back to your project. It's also a good place to put your photos until you have time to work on your layouts. If you like to work on Chronological Albums, this is a great way to hold the place in the scrapbook photo album if you don't have what you need to complete a certain set of photos or if you just don't have that creative muse available at the time.

I saw this Video the other day about using an Album as a Temporary Album or Holding Album by the manufacturers of the Scrap Rack Storage System. I thought you might find it helpful for setting up a Temporary Scrapbook Photo Album to plan and save your collections of photos and memorabilia until you have time to work on your layouts.

Check out some options for
Military & Public Service Scrapbook Albums

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