Scrapbooking albums have many uses, as it isn't just something exclusive to a photo album with pictures of our memories. In this post, we're seeing some examples of what we can do with a scrapbook album without any artistic purposes.
Types of albums
Before discussing the uses for a scrapbook album, let's talk about the different types of albums you can find. Even though you can create your album from scratch to make it exactly the way you want in terms of measurements and functionality, you can always get one and save time. Anyway, you can make the most of the albums on the market. And aesthetics is not a problem either, because there are many models to choose from.
You can start by choosing the size you want. We have designed with our brand Craftelier Basics different models of albums of the most common sizes in scrapbooking 12" x 12" (30 x 30 cm) and 6" x 8" (15 x 20 cm). Depending on the purpose of the album, it will be better to use one size or the other. The best thing is that we have many designs and materials to choose the ones you like the most. If you want something a little more stylish or elegant, perhaps you could go for eco-leather albums. These albums are available in both sizes, and you can pick from a wide variety of plain colours and marble effect designs. If you want other patterns, you can go for the cardboard albums. All models are 6" x 8" although the width of the spine differs a little from one to another: some albums have a 6 cm spine while others have a 5 cm spine. Depending on the number of things you want to put inside, you can select one or the other.
Uses for scrapbook albums
Now it's time to give you some ideas of what you can use your scrapbook albums for, whether you have already bought them or have made them yourself. Some of these ideas are for organizing scrapbooking materials, while others are purely decorative - here are our suggestions!
Memory albums
Nothing new, as most scrapbooking albums are meant to collect memories, either of special moments such as a wedding, a summer, or Christmas or to make diaries of our lives, enjoying the recent popularity of Project Life.
If you want to make a classic album, you only need some decorated papers and accessories that match, and you can get down to work. If you want to make a Project Life album, you will need some Photo Pocket Pages. Be careful when choosing the ones compatible with your album, as there are many models of sleeves to suit different album sizes and ring formats.
Recipe books
If you like cooking and use to collect recipes and have them stored in folders that make it hard to access, don't hesitate to compile them all in a scrapbook album. You can keep them in plastic sleeves so they don't get dirty when cooking, or you can make a few holes in your recipes and store them on the album. The advantage of using a ring album for this purpose is that recipes are always organized, and you will be able to find them in a matter of seconds.
There are many ways to order a recipe book, but the most common is to classify the recipes in alphabetical order and by type of food, such as breakfast, pasta, salads, desserts... If you use a ring system, it is very easy to maintain this classification, as every time you add a recipe, you can easily add it in the right place. In the same way, if you prefer, you can make your recipe book in a ring binder album, so you can add, remove or change the order of recipes without messing up the project.
Document storage
A good album and some Photo Pocket Pages are all you need to create an album with all your documents in it. Many of us have electricity bills, doctor's prescriptions or important contracts piled up somewhere around the house. Even if you have a folder assigned to store all these valuable documents, many times, when necessary, accessing them becomes an almost impossible mission, as you have to rummage through dozens of papers until you find the right one.
A ring album and a few plastic sleeves and problem solved. You can assign each album a category, which is very easy because our eco-leather albums come with a label holder on which you can write the theme of the album. Although our cardboard albums do not include it, you can always add one of our label holders and that's it ? On each album you can write "HOME", "WORK" or "INVOICES" and organize all your documents in sleeves. We can even organize them chronologically and if you want to go a step further in terms of organization, you can write on each sleeve what is inside (date or subject within the album) and even add separators to make it much easier to move between all documents.
To organize scrapbooking materials
We have already mentioned that an album and a few covers are great allies to organize scrapbooking materials, especially the ones that are often lying around our table and are hard to find a practical way of organizing them.
To organize our dies, stamps, or stencils
You only need a scrapbooking album, some Photo Pocket Pages, and some Magnetic Die Sheets, and you can easily make your die catalogue. In a small space (what a scrapbooking album takes up) you can keep a lot of dies and have them all in the same place, and best of all, you can access them quickly and easily. Always at hand and so that you won't be too lazy to put them back in their place. If you haven't tried this way of storing your dies yet, try it, because you'll love it, and you won't be able to stop turning the pages of your album to see again and again your die collection organized.
In addition to organizing dies, you can use the same method (without the magnetic sheets) to organize your stamps and stencils. This way, you will always have all your tools at hand.
What do you think of all these ideas? Do you use your scrapbook albums for any of these purposes? If you use your albums in any other way than the ones we've mentioned here, let us know in the comments! ?
