My previous article has instructions on How To Make a Paper Bag Album, so in this article I will look at various ideas for decorating an album with a Christmas theme.

Usually I am not keen on a lot of ribbons, bows and trailing bits, but if you use clip rings you will need to decorate them in someway. I would have chosen trailing ribbons rather than bows for this album, but it was a shared project with my teenagers so they chose bows. The writing was done on the computer and printed on to plain paper then backed with contrasting paper to form a border. This looks effective and is much cheaper than using rub on words or stick on letters. The backing paper was cut from a sheet of 12×12 scrapbook paper and the embellishments were bought on the internet

It is important to think hard about how you are going to fill the album, you will want photos of course, but you may want to write about what you did, where you went etc.  The simple white panel with Christmas backing paper makes an attractive page to write about favourite presents or anything that you choose.

Tags are a nice way to record short phrases to remind you of things that happened, you can add small photos too. If you make a pouch you can accent it with contrasting paper to make it look as if the paper has been folded over to reveal a contrasting pattern on the reverse.

If you are using patterned paper you do not need a lot of embellishments. A plain border around a photo will stop the surrounding patterned paper from distracting attention from the photo. 

A well as the small tags, I put larger inserts in the pockets of the album. I kept the decoration fairly simple so that there was room to write. On one insert I wrote a recipe for Snowman Soup (a rather special hot chocolate drink) that we enjoyed at Christmas. On another I wrote about our trip to Lapland to see Santa, and on the other I wrote about favourites of the Christmas season, television, music, that sort of thing.  I also put some larger photos in the pouches and the children were able to add other bits and bobs such as a program from a band concert that my daughter took part in.

You can make your album in whatever style you choose, it can be much more grown up, but whatever the style it will be filled with special memories and mementos, so it would make an ideal gift for a family member or a special keepsake for you to treasure.

Please take a look at my other craft articles

How to decorate a paper bag album for a teenager

How to make a photo box

How to decorate a photo box

How to make a tag album

How to make a Journal Jar