Brown Paper Bag Scrapbook Album – Basic

Brown Paper Bag Scrapbook Album – Basic

This brown paper bag scrapbook album is a great recycled look for your scrapbook albums and shows you how to make a basic album as a base for your own designed scrapbooks.

What you need

Non Gusseted Lunch Bags or Brown paper bags
String or Cord
Hole Punch
Hammer

Instructions

This brown paper bag scrapbook album uses non gusseted lunch bags which can be found in supermarkets in the food packaging sections.

Brown paper bags without gussets are quite lightweight which means your album will not have the same bulk as a traditional gusseted brown paper bag album.

Fold the bags bottom

Fold the bags bottom

Start by folding each of your bags 1 inch (2.5 cm) in from the bottom. This will create a strong spine for your album.

Stacked Brown Paper Bags

Stacked Brown Paper Bags

 

Stacked Brown Paper Bags Another View

Stacked Brown Paper Bags Another View

Stack all your bags together to form the album, making sure they are aligned together.

Punch the holes

Punch the holes

Next mark out your holes for punching. If you use a metal hole punch that requires you to hit it with a hammer you can punch multiple bags at one time, making the process much faster.

If you want your scrapbook album to be more durable and stable you can include a cardboard front cover and back cover.

Binding your scrapbook album

There are many different ways to bind a brown paper bag album. You can use ribbons and tie bows, cords and tie knots or you can bind it in a more traditional book binding way as we have done here.

Bind the album with rope

Bind the album with rope

brown-paper-bag-album-binding-tutorial

Take your string or cord and thread it through the holes, looping under each hole to form a blanket stitch style.

To finish off the binding we simply threaded it back through each of the loops. You can bind your scrapbook album however you want, it really is a simple method and there are no rules as such. Just make sure it is loose enough to turn your pages.

Once your album is bound you can begin creating your scrapbook.

Please note:

While the majority of scrapbook supplies and papers are considered acid and lignin free, paper bags are not. So please make sure you use duplicate photos when making this project. Non-digital photos can easily be color copied or scanned and printed in a copy store or photo lab.

brown-paper-bag-scraobook brown-paper-bag-scraobook-album-tutorial-craft-recycle

Comments

  1. nice idea!simple and easy…!!

  2. Love it!! Thanx for the great idea!!

  3. Love the idea~I have made scrapbooks, but not exactly like this~

  4. What an awesum project!!! Have just got some paperbags to start my own project and your ideas are very helpful!!! Thanks trillions 🙂 Shazza

  5. I love the type of bags you used! I’ll have to find those someday!

    🙂
    Candy

  6. very clever and very original 🙂

  7. 1. love the idea!! my friend made one, that i loved. your instructions are very helpful.
    2. to solve the acid paper problem, would it help to have a piece of acid-free paper between the paper bag and any photo?
    3. friend’s idea: you can use eyelets to bind the pages together if you don’t want all the ribbons or cords at the spine.

  8. Fun Idea.

  9. This is hard… 0_0 Need a easier way to explain.. I really wanna try this it looks cute!!! XD

  10. Very Nice Indeed!! My younger kids had an easier time using these bags than the traditional one. I really love the way you bound them.

  11. This is very useful indeed, i am working on a project for a lesson and this would come in handy, thank you!

  12. smart thinking yo smart thinking

  13. easy, excellent way to use those bags

  14. Thank you for this great illistration. I am new to the Paper Bag album idea and I had never seen any done with non-gusseted bags. They are great! I can’t wait to get started!

  15. so beautiful hope i can make one too…

  16. I love things made from other things, no one would expect!

  17. cute craft. i’ll definately try it!

  18. love the old look!!

  19. Looks great!

  20. a little old.

  21. awesome looks cool…really!!!!!!!!

  22. Very Cute

  23. lassie_cassie says

    This idea is really cool!!! Love It!!

  24. CraftBits (Shellie Wilson) says

    These bags were found in the food wrap section of the supermarket

  25. Awesome!~ I wonder where to buy the non gusetted paper bags from tho’. Thanks for the info.

  26. Awesome, Can’t wait to get started

  27. where can i get paper bags from ?

  28. Love this look!

  29. The instructions could be a bit clearer as to how to make this scrapbook. Folding the ends was not enough info.

  30. Great idea.

  31. beth_guilloty@hotmail.com says

    Love it!!!!!!

  32. I’ve made one out of lunch bags, and it was very cute, but confusing on how to put it all together…this one is much simpler!!!

  33. CuteBunny116 says

    Love It! You could put you spare bits of paper and stuff in the pockets of the bags.
    (\_/)
    (^.^)
    ( u u )
    O–O

What do you think of this project? Let us know!