Which style of photo album is best?

ali99

Hello

I am going to make a photo album for each of my three girls as they grow up, 4 pages per year up to age 18. So I have been looking around for nice albums. The nicest big ones all seem to be traditional style, where you attach the photos with glue or similar. However, all my usual photo albums are the sort where you peel back the plastic and then put it over the photos. So I wondered if anyone could advise me about the traditional style. Do the photos stay in? (I have photo dots with the one album I already bought). And do they stay 'nice' in the album - not aging too quickly or anything? I guess they must work well or noone would buy them, but I don't want something that is going to look rubbish in 20 years time.

Any advice very welcome
Thank you
Ali

whitewing

I would google some scrapbooking sites like Creative Memories and Simple Scrapbooks (which are more expensive versions, so look there first to find out and then search for cheaper versions) and make sure you get something that is archival quality so it will last really well. You're creating an heirloom.

ali99

Thanks - I had a look and now I am a bit intimidated by the whole thing! How do I know if a photo album has acid-free pages - I have bought a nice one from M&S - if it is a proper expensive one is it generally acid-free? I have emailed M&S but as the web site didn't even have the measurements I don't hold out much hope of them knowing the answer!
And if I put in little notes to say who is who in the photos or whatever, why does the paper and pen have to be acid-free if it isn't touching the photos?
And now I have learnt that magnetic photo albums are bad bad bad and that is where I have all my photos!
I thought this would be easy!
Thanks
Ali

bestpud

Have a gander on the ukscrappers site. They break it all down on there and also have a very friendly forum.

My advice would be to avoid albums that don't say they are acid free as they usually do say if they are. You can buy really nice scrapbooking albums and they are not all expensive. It can be a very expensive hobby but it can be done on a budget if you don't get carried away!

The sponsers (craft shops) have their own section on the forum too and post when they have offers etc so it is worth a look through that before you buy anything. Plus they have a marketplace for people to sell on craft items they don't want. Loads of things on there actually - well worth a look. I have no link to them btw, I'm just a member and have found it a useful site!

It really is worth doing properly as it would be awful for them to have faded before they can show their grandchildren.

Good luck, it's a lovely idea and one they will really appreciate, I'm sure.

smileypigface

I would just say that I have some 25 year old albums with family pictures in them - they are the sticky page ones - where you peel the clear sticky stuff off the page, bung your photo where you want it and seal the sticky layer back over the page again.

And all the photos are badly deteriorated and yellow - and I've tried prising the sticky layer back off to try and rescue the pictures but they have become welded to the backing page and wont come off again! Doh!

Good luck with yours - I've scanned in all my kids baby photos and now only use a digital camera - so I've created electronic photo albums for them (although I've got paranoid about backing them up .. just in case!)! I've also scanned in other stuff, like some of their first drawings and paintings. A virtual scrapbook!

Murtle

the ones with photo corners are great so long as there is a score line down the side of the page so the pages can be turned flat not curved....

not sure if that makes sense...but hopefully....

x

LJM

ive got all my albums from ebay