the hybrid album and my first (paper) sewing project

I am terribly excited. Here it is...the hybrid album! (slip-in-pocket album meets scrapbooking album).

Let me explain. It's a regular slip-in pocket photo album, but combined with some scrapbooking. I just looked at the pockets as individual scrapbook pages. Here's why...

I realised that with up to 200 or more photos for this project, and with dozens of other scrapbooking projects waiting for attention, I would have to prioritise. I mean, Tasmin is approaching 3 and I haven't done any layouts for her album yet, or Angus. But I digress.

I wanted to make an album for my sister as a Christmas present and knew I would only have a few nights to complete it. So this was my approach...

Night 1: first, I recorded the time and date each photo was taken - they were all from the last 12 months, but the time and date really helped to write the story.

Night 2: with a pencil and notebook, I worked out how to fit 170 or so photos into the album that would fit 200, so there would be spaces here and there. I kept the photos in singles, pairs, or groups of three or four. So each page contains at least one photo.

Night 3: I created little title blocks, an idea borrowed from an Ali Edwards mini-project(click here to see a similar project), to fill in many of the gaps. I used the same colour and style for almost all of these.

Night 4: Where there were single vertical photos on pages, I gently removed the plastic page protectors with a plastic ruler, and rubber stamped flourishes for embellishment directly on to the white paper background, keeping it simple and sticking to the same stamps. Where there were vertical photos to slip in a pocket, I trimmed them to fit, and sewed a small piece of patterned paper and ribbon to fill the gap. That was fun! I also stamped or wrote directly on some of the photos.

Night 5: I used the lines in the middle of the album to do the journalling. I also included a date stamp, to show the progression of time, as I wanted the story of the year told chronologically.

Amazing. One whole beautiful album completed in just five nights. That is my new record.

P.S. just for the record... the hybrid album term was coined by DH, so credit where credit is due. And second, by 'nights' I mean until well after midnight...