Friday, June 19, 2009

Make Your Own Scrapbook Spine

Creating a scrapbook is an art form, and a purchased scrapbook album is not always the best option for binding together the pages. You can create your own custom scrapbook spine and gather together all of the pages of your scrapbook.


Instructions


1. Measure the height of the scrapbook pages you'll include in the book.








2. Measure how thick the book will be. Do this by stacking up the scrapbook pages and measuring the thickness of the total pages.


3. Cut a rectangular piece of cardboard. Use the measurements of the height and width obtained in Steps 1 and 2, and add an inch to both measurements. For example, if the scrapbook page was 9 inches high and the thickness of the stack was 3 inches, the rectangle should measure 10 by 4 inches.


4. Cut a rectangular piece of fabric the same size as the cardboard and glue it onto one side of the cardboard. Spread the white glue (partially dilute with water) onto the cardboard with a paintbrush. Press the fabric down and allow it to dry.


5. Center the rectangular piece under the end of a scrapbook page to mark the location of the holes. On the side of the rectangular piece without the fabric, mark the location of the holes with a pencil.


6. Cut two holes along each line that marks the holes for the scrapbook. Space the holes so that there's an equal amount of space between each hole and the edge of the cardboard.


7. Insert each ribbon through a pair of the holes. Insert one ribbon end into the right hole and the other end into the left hole, and pull through so that they are each the same length when pulled out the other side.








8. Cut a piece of fabric for the outside of the scrapbook spine. Measure out a rectangular piece of fabric that is 1 inch taller and wider than the cardboard spine. If the cardboard spine measures 10 by 4 inches, the fabric should be 11 by 5 inches.


9. Center the cardboard piece onto the middle of the fabric piece. Glue the fabric onto the side of the cardboard rectangle that hasn't been covered. Roll the edges under and wrap them around to the other side of the scrapbook spine, securing them in place with glue. There should be a 1/4-inch rolled seam along the inner edge of the scrapbook spine. Allow this to dry.

Tags: rectangular piece, piece fabric, scrapbook spine, cardboard spine, location holes