Picture Box

This is a bit fiddly as there is a lot of cutting out but it looks great and people seem to like it. It involves making a series of boxes of decreasing sizes with a square base and oblong sides. You only need to make the lid for the largest box. Adapt your box size to fit the pictures you intend to use, but don't start too small or it will be very hard to find pictures to fit the smallest box. I used thin card for the box with glue dots and double sided tape to stick one box inside another and to stick on the pictures and embellishments. Don't make the lid too deep because it will obscure decoration on the outside panels of the box, but it needs to be deep enough to hold the box sides in the closed position.

Paper Bag Album

I love making paper bag albums because they are fairly easy and there are endless possibilities in terms of design and decoration. They are made from strong paper bags (the sort sometimes used for packed lunches). You pile 3 or 4 bags on top of each other and sew a seam down the middle to make the spine of the book, before doing this you will need to use a hole punch on each folded bag to make holes that fall on either side of the spine, I usually tie these with ribbon to make the spine stronger. I buy my paper bag books ready sewn from ebay, it saves the effort and they don't cost much. The open ends of the bags create pouches so you can add larger folded documents or card inserts depending on the theme. I usually reinforce the inner edges of the pouches with patterned card. I have done several books with a family history theme and I have used the pouches to store a folded family tree, maps and larger photos. The album illustrated below was made for the recipient to add photos etc, I prefer making completed albums but you can choose either depending on who the gift is for. The Eeyore pictures and phrases used in this album came from one large sheet of Eeyore scrapbook paper, bought from an online craft store. Most of the other paper and card came from Tesco and The Works.

Tag Album

I made a little tag album when my daughter started university, it cost almost nothing but she loved it. I bought the tags in bulk on ebay, the photos were so small that the whole thing only took one A4 sheet of photo paper, the rest was made from scraps I had collected in my craft box and one or two embellishments. It was surprisingly easy to make and once you have chosen your pictures it doesn't take too long to make. It can be adapted to almost any age or occasion.

Journal in a Jar

I made the journal in a jar for a 9 year old girl. I used the instructions from this site http://organizedchristmas.com/adult-journal-jar and I adapted the journal questions into British English and printed them with a patterned background onto photo paper. As these jars were for children I wanted to use plastic jars so I bought a jars of sweets at the 99p shop, the sweets were so bad that they went in the bin, but the jars were just right. I printed the jar label and stuck it on with glue dots, I added a few stickers and ribbon to decorate the jar.To complete the present I bought a folder and put together some stickers (from The Works) some glue dot sheets (taken from a larger pack) some scissors and gel pens (Home Bargains) and a notebook with coloured pages (Tesco). I decorated the front of the notebooks and I added some foam stickers to the jar, for the child to decorate the journal. In total it cost about £10 per jar, but you can adapt this depending on your budget.Here are the question sheets I made, some sheets have girl and boy colour versions, others are suitable for both. I have also included the jar label in two colour options.