| By :
Michel Maling
As an avid scrap booker, I find it difficult to keep moving my scrapbooking pages in and out of my album, as the pages are never done in the order that you want the final album to be in. 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. It is much easier to file your scrapbooking layouts inside of a ring bound album. 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. These are the materials you will need to make your 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. Use the spray adhesive and glue the smaller piece of fabric onto the top of the file, making sure to position the fabric centred so that it covers the centre gaps. Smooth out any air bubbles. Flip the album over and position the larger piece of material, ensuring you have an even amount of fabric hanging over the top and bottom of the file. Attach with spray adhesive and then turn over and fold the overhanging fabric over and glue down. The fabric will now be holding the wooden file together on both sides. Once the fabric is attached, you can fold the wood over so that it looks like an album. 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. Make sure that the curved part of the binding mechanism is closest to the spine and the flat part faces outwards. Round the corners of your album with sandpaper or a round-it-all and decorate your album in whatever way you see fit.
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