How to Make a Simple Friendship Album – an Ideal Gift

Published on October 26, 2009 by Frances Lawrence in Collecting

A friendship album makes an ideal Christmas gift, in fact it is suitable for any occasion. It is easy and inexpensive to make and it can be adapted to suit young or old.

This project requires four (or more) pieces of thin card all cut to the same dimensions. In this case I made the pages large enough to accommodate a standard size photo with a margin around the outside. Card from a cereal box can be used for this. Join all the pieces of card together using broad strips of masking tape on each seam.

Next you will need to design a layout for each page to completely cover the base card. To create a sense of unity try to use the same pattern or colour scheme on each page. You can decorate the pages in whatever way you choose, small tags can be used to write messages or phrases and you can add whatever embellishments best suit the theme of the album.

Ribbon or paper can be used to make photo corners, so that the photos displayed in the album can be changed from time to time. Use small simple embellishments that will not detract from the photos.

If you use ribbon ties on either side of the first and last page the finished book can be tied closed so that only the front and back is visible or it can be displayed open to show off all the pages.

To add the finishing touch make a simple box in contrasting colours. Be careful to use very light card or it will be too heavy to fold neatly. For the base draw a rectangle slightly larger than the album, then draw a larger rectangle around it so that the space between the two is twice the depth of the box. Cut out the larger rectangle and cut in towards the smaller rectangle to make tabs (marked in red on diagram). Use double sided tape and fold the short sides first and bend the tabs round, then repeat the process for the long sides to create the box. The lid can be made in the same way, but it must be fractionally larger.