CropMom online scrapbooking: Animal ABC Book Mini Album Tutorial

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Hybrid Scrapbooking: Animal ABC Book Mini Album

Animal ABC Book Chipboard Album

Make a colorful alphabet book using your child's photos, CropMom's Animals A to Z digital scrapbook kit and chipboard. This adorable mini album is a hybrid scrapbooking project, meaning that it is a combination of digital scrapbooking and traditional scrapbooking. This personalized animal alphabet book is easy and can be completed in an afternoon, and it's ideal for either a boy or a girl.

If don't want to get your hands dirty with a hybrid scrapbooking project, this ABC book is also adorable when you have it printed by a photo service as a softcover, 8" by 8" photo book.

Materials:

26 photos, each one representing a letter in the alphabet, uploaded to CropMom
26 print-quality 8" by 8" scrapbook pages created at CropMom using your photos and CropMom's quick page backgrounds from the Animals A to Z digital scrapbook kit
1 8" by 8" print-quality CropMom layout for the front cover
1 8" by 8"' print-quality layout for the back cover
14 pieces of 6" by 6" chipboard
3 one-inch book rings
Several colorful ribbons, cut in 8" lengths
Home printer or professional photo service to print your layouts on 6" by 6" matte photo paper
Sandpaper
Hole punch
Scissors
Spray adhesive, acid free
Optional: chipboard ABC shape and ball chain

Instructions:

Begin making your alphabet book by uploading 26 photos that represent each letter of the alphabet.

Making the 26 scrapbook pages of your book is a breeze with CropMom's quick page backgrounds in the Animals A to Z digital scrapbook kit. Use the 8" by 8" canvas size for each page. Just drag and drop a photo onto each page. Use the Lindsay Pro font to fill in the blank where it says A is for _________, B is for _________, and so on. We added a backwards staple from the Social Butterfly kit to the flash card on each page.

Use a quick page background for the cover of the book, then add the brown chipboard letters or word art to create a title for your book. We added the words "an alphabet book" using the Goudy Old Style font below the title.

For the back cover, we used one of the collage background papers, as is.

Purchase your layouts and download the high-resolution print-quality JPEG files.

Print your layouts (or have them printed) on matte photo paper. If you print your layouts at home, use the software that came with your printer to print the 8" by 8" prints 20 percent smaller so that you end up with 6" by 6" prints. Use 8" by 10" photo paper when printing at home, then trim your prints.

You can use a photo service, such as RitxPix.com or Scrapping Simply, to print your 8" by 8" layouts as 6" by 6" prints. The photo service will automatically resize your prints. We had our pages printed on matte photo paper.

Use the adhesive spray to glue the prints onto the 6" by 6" chipboard pieces, making sure that you keep the layouts in the correct order when gluing to the back side of the chipboard. Use the spray adhesive in a well ventilated area. Be careful not to get any adhesive on the front of your prints.

After the adhesive has dried, trim any excess from the prints so that it fits the chipboard. Our chipboard had rounded corners, so we used scissors to round the corners of the prints.

Now, use the sandpaper to gently sand the edges of each page in your book. This helps to give the book pages a smoother edge.

Use a hole punch to punch three holes on the left side of your chipboard pages for the binding for your ABC book. Make sure that you punch the correct side of each chipboard page. You need a sturdy hole punch and plenty of pressure to punch through the chipboard.

Thread the book rings through the punch holes to hold your book together. Dress up your book by tying the 8" pieces of ribbon to the book rings.

To embellish your book even more, purchase a piece of chipboard in the shape of the letters ABC and a ball chain from a scrapbook store. Now, make an extra print of the back cover of your book on matte photo paper. Glue it to the ABC chipboard letters on both sides and trim. Use the ball chain to attach it to your alphabet book. This last step is optional.