My 12th Birthday Photo Album Scrapbook

I love the concept of a Photo Album Scrapbook (PAS) - basically a photo album that is decorated (or not) and used to showcase a group of photos, just like a theme album. Some of the slots can be used for journal boxes and embellishments can be added throughout. They are very simple to create and a great way to "scrap" a large group of photos. I have created several PASs over the last several years, but I didn't really use this "fancy" name for them until I read about them in Stacy Julian's PhotoFreedom book. This week's lesson in the Library of Memories workshop challenged us to create a PAS with a group of photos from our storage binders.

I decided to create a mini-PAS using the 44 Polaroid photos from my 12th birthday. It really isn't a huge group of photos, however Polaroids are such a unique size and shape that I knew a traditional layout was out of the question. I really wanted to use all the photos, even though my photography skills weren't that great and the lighting wasn't always right. I purchased this inexpensive photo album at Hobby Lobby to create my Photo Album Scrapbook.

For my 12th birthday, Grandma had given me a Polaroid camera AND an overnight trip to Galveston with a day spent at SeaArama MarineWorld (which has since closed down). I was amazed when I sorted these photos and realized that I must have used 5 cartridges of film on this one trip alone - the cost of the Polaroid film has always been high! [Truth be told, I was Grandma's favorite. :>)] Each photo was labeled in my 12-year-old handwriting, and I had even saved a few pieces of memorabilia from the trip - the map and schedule from SeaArama, a matchbook from the hotel, our ticket stubs, and the souvenir bracelet Grandma bought me. I sorted all these items, then mounted each of the photos to a 4x6 piece of black cardstock that would fit into each sleeve of the photo album.

This left four open slots in the album. I used one for a title page, two for the memorabilia, and the last one for a dedication page. On the title page, I included a piece of the page from my old deteriorating scrapbook where I had described why I had kept those pieces of memorabilia.

I then took the charm off the bracelet and attached it to the outside of the album along the strap and printed a label for the front cover window.

The whole project took less than two hours, and I have preserved this fun memory in a cute album!