Photo Album Ideas

We all have our own photo albums that we've maintained over the years. We know how nice it is to be able to relive our most precious memories by looking at pictures. But most people fail to take advantage of the creative possibilities that their photo albums present. Instead of just putting your pictures in the albums nicely and neatly, why not add a little flair to the presentation? You will find that when you get creative with your photo albums and put in a little extra effort, they can make great gifts for friends and family.

What do I mean by "get creative"? Well, the first thing you will need is a pair of craft scissors. Craft scissors are scissors that have fancy edges rather than straight. You can get lots of different shapes, but the most common is probably the scallop edge. When you have your craft scissors, experiment a little bit by snipping away the superfluous backgrounds in some of your pictures. Then instead of the boring straight edges, you will have nice wavy ones. You don't have to stick to rectangle or square patterns, either. Cut out different shapes, such as hearts or circles, or cut in irregular patterns. This will prevent your photo album from having the same boring look page after page.

You might also want to get out some construction paper for your photo album project. With construction paper, you can make simple borders for pictures that will add a splash of fun color and allow them to really stand out. You can also cut out stars, flowers, and other easy shapes to add to the overall theme of your album.

If you want to make your album a personalized gift for someone, don't just limit yourself to photos of people. Take pictures of the intended recipient's favorite things, and make special pages like that. For example, we recently held a farewell party for one of the mothers in our children's playgroup. Among her favorite foods were Doritos and chocolate chip cookies. So we took pictures of open and closed Doritos bags and plates full of homemade chocolate chip cookies for one page in our photo album gift. It might sound a bit corny, but these kinds of pages are always a hit with the recipients.

The great thing about photo albums and pictures is that your presentation options are limitless. You can make the albums as fun or as formal as you wish, and you can tailor them to fit almost any theme you can dream of. They are also very inexpensive to put together, so you can create a personalized album no matter what kind of budget you have to work with.

So the next time you are called upon to give a gift to a friend or family member, why not do something creative with a photo album? You will be giving that special someone a gift from the heart that he or she can treasure for years and years to come.