I've been busy making a mini album for the sister in law of one of my colleagues and thought I'd share some tips on how to make the album feel really special and personal... this one brought tears out so I must have done something right!
If I'm doing a personalised album for someone I don't know, I will try and find out as much about their history and likes as possible and incorporate them into the design and embellishments I use. So if you're thinking of doing one here's some things to get the answers too...
1. Favourite colours
2. Style- do they like modern, vintage, goth etc?
3. Where were they born
4. Where do they live now
5. What's their favourite song
6. Do they have pets
7. What are their hobbies
8. Do they have a nick name and why?
9. Anything funny, cute about them?
Am sure you can add some more too- all of the answers above will give you more of an idea of the person and you can start planning your layout.
The one pictured below is the largest one I have made- it was 9 inches square with 10 inner pages and I had 36 photos to go in there- it took me 2 nights after work and a whole day of the weekend- so a big project!!
I started off with the base colour- the birthday girl's favourite colours were green and orange- so I pulled together all my vintage-y green papers that went really well together and decided to use orange as an accent colour. I then made the inner pages of the album to get ready for the next stage- the photos.
When you get the pics- if they are needed in order of time- make sure the person let's you know what order they should go in... this one started from childhood up to the present day so I didn't want to put a pic in the wrong time line. If it's a wedding or something it's a bit more easier to map out the flow of the day. Some albums can just be random too.
I started by resizing the photos- cropping them if need be as well to get the nicest end result and enhancing them if need be as well. Sometimes I will convert a lot of them to sepia and black and white- but this was going to be a colourful album so I stuck with colour.
I put the images onto a power point presentation- it's easier as I can then print 4-6 images on one sheet of A4 photo paper- and I can play around with the size etc on power point.
I then print the images out in grey scale and on normal paper- cut them out- and start to decide what is going where, see if anything needs to be made smaller or bigger.... this saves your precious ink and photo paper.
Once I've decided the plan I then print the pics on photo paper, cut them out and start to design and build each page.
I also make sure I've found things to make the album personal- whether it's from embellishments I already have or things I find on the internet- e.g. photo of their first school, map of their home town- or I will type up key phrases like words from a song and make trimmings from these too. I use stamps with letters to get their name incorporated throughout as well.
It's these little touches that make people feel really special!
Here's some pics of the 30 birthday album I just made and hope you have fun making yours- this one was hard work but I really enjoyed the end result- and most importantly so did the birthday girl!
Hope you enjoyed this post and it's given you some ideas for your next mini album too!
If I'm doing a personalised album for someone I don't know, I will try and find out as much about their history and likes as possible and incorporate them into the design and embellishments I use. So if you're thinking of doing one here's some things to get the answers too...
1. Favourite colours
2. Style- do they like modern, vintage, goth etc?
3. Where were they born
4. Where do they live now
5. What's their favourite song
6. Do they have pets
7. What are their hobbies
8. Do they have a nick name and why?
9. Anything funny, cute about them?
Am sure you can add some more too- all of the answers above will give you more of an idea of the person and you can start planning your layout.
The one pictured below is the largest one I have made- it was 9 inches square with 10 inner pages and I had 36 photos to go in there- it took me 2 nights after work and a whole day of the weekend- so a big project!!
I started off with the base colour- the birthday girl's favourite colours were green and orange- so I pulled together all my vintage-y green papers that went really well together and decided to use orange as an accent colour. I then made the inner pages of the album to get ready for the next stage- the photos.
When you get the pics- if they are needed in order of time- make sure the person let's you know what order they should go in... this one started from childhood up to the present day so I didn't want to put a pic in the wrong time line. If it's a wedding or something it's a bit more easier to map out the flow of the day. Some albums can just be random too.
I started by resizing the photos- cropping them if need be as well to get the nicest end result and enhancing them if need be as well. Sometimes I will convert a lot of them to sepia and black and white- but this was going to be a colourful album so I stuck with colour.
I put the images onto a power point presentation- it's easier as I can then print 4-6 images on one sheet of A4 photo paper- and I can play around with the size etc on power point.
I then print the images out in grey scale and on normal paper- cut them out- and start to decide what is going where, see if anything needs to be made smaller or bigger.... this saves your precious ink and photo paper.
Once I've decided the plan I then print the pics on photo paper, cut them out and start to design and build each page.
I also make sure I've found things to make the album personal- whether it's from embellishments I already have or things I find on the internet- e.g. photo of their first school, map of their home town- or I will type up key phrases like words from a song and make trimmings from these too. I use stamps with letters to get their name incorporated throughout as well.
It's these little touches that make people feel really special!
Here's some pics of the 30 birthday album I just made and hope you have fun making yours- this one was hard work but I really enjoyed the end result- and most importantly so did the birthday girl!
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| The front- with touches of personality included |
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| Wedding picture with lyrics of their wedding song- nice touch! |
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| Photo mats and trimmings |
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| The back cover with a birthday message and other memories |
