There are so many different types of Scrapbook Albums out there, that it’s easy to become overwhelmed in choosing! There are two standard sizes for albums. 8.5″ x 11 and 12″x12″.  It’s all up to you.

Before you commit to buy just any album, you might want to consider the following:

• Cost Can you afford to  buy more albums as you need them? What about the extra’s- page protectors, expanders, specialty pages?
• Availability Is this a special brand of albums, made only by one company? Or can you find them most any where?
• Themed vs. Plain Some 12×12 albums are sold with a design or as a kit with themed papers and embellishments to match.  If you need to buy this type, make sure you buy extra papers in case the theme is discontinued.  As for the plain albums, these are readily available in solid colors and can be found in discount  and any favorite craft store.

• Durability If at possible, open and close the album a few times at the store. Does it look sturdy? Can you fit more than 20 pages inside? Can the album cover be wiped with a soft cloth if needed? Sometimes fabric covers or too many raised decorations make the album hard to keep clean.

Now for the types.

Post Bound Albums. These are the most commonly found albums. They come with 12 sheet protectors allowing you to fill it with 24 12×12 lay outs. Adding extra pages it easy too. All you need to do is screw extra posts   to expand the size of your hinge.

I personally use these albums and love how they are “top loading”, meaning I don’t have to take apart the album to add new pages.

Even though I love the post bound books I’m in the process of converting them to a strap hinge which still gives me the freedom of the top loading feature.

Strap Hinge Albums These are generally albums you can find by a private company( unless you have found a conversion for your post bound albums). They are pages connected by a flexible strap. The straps must come undone to add any pages as they are not top loading. These books need special page protectors.

Notice the nice bind, similar to a novel.

3 Ring Binders (or D-Ring) These are the same binders used in schools or at the office.  They can be bought in bulk or individually and are always in demand. Many current styles mimic the standard 12×12 albums with decorative themes to choose from.  You can fit a lot of pages into these albums and page protector sheets are also easily available.

Other albums I like to use are spiral notebooks, altered board books, art journals, clear acrylic albums, paper bag books, fabric books, assorted themed mini books,  and the list goes on.

What kind of albums do you like to use?

Tags: Albums, discussions

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 7:41 pm and is filed under General Chatter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.