Song Lyrics Album

When my daughter was 4 years old, she loved to dance around the house and sing, pretending to be on stage.  Even now, at 10 years old, she still “performs” once in a while (but you didn’t hear that from me).  Looking at these photos reminded me of the song, “I Hope You Dance,” by Lee Ann Womack.  This song sums up all the hopes and dreams I have for Haley, so I wanted to incorporate them into a mini scrapbook with the photos.  The mini book is easy to make and requires only one sheet of 12” x 12” cardstock.  You’ll also need a paper trimmer and a scoring board. 

Using your scoring board, score your cardstock at 3”, 6”, and 9”.  Turn 90 degrees to the left, and repeat the same scores.  You should now have a grid that has 16 squares.  Referring to the photo, cut where the red lines are, using your trimmer.  Be careful not to cut all the way to the end of your cardstock.  Now, accordion-fold your cardstock, and adhere the backs together so that you have a book with one spine along the left edge.  I tied a ribbon around the edge of mine.

If you’d like, you can fold down the front and back covers to form pockets for little tags. 

Another option for covers is to cut cardstock or chipboard a little larger than the book, and attach the covers to the first and last page.

Of course, the lyrics are essential to this mini book, so I typed them all out and printed them, which allowed me to pair each verse of the song with a corresponding photo.  I didn’t embellish my mini book because I wanted to keep it super simple, but you can certainly add just about any embellishments you’d like.  Actually, if you consider inking the edges of the papers embellishing (and sometimes I do), I guess I did embellish it a little.  I find that doing this with a mini album adds cohesiveness to it.  So does using only one font for the lyrics.

 The last step for me was adding the photos.  I cropped them to varied sizes and decided to forego the mats.  If you do add photo mats, you might want to crop your photos to 2 ½” squares and make your mats 2 3/4” squares.

Don’t forget to add the date somewhere inside or on one of the covers.  I cut little tags to slip into the pockets on the outside, and I wrote Haley’s name on one and the year on another.

A song lyrics album makes a wonderful gift for birthdays, anniversaries, etc., but you don’t need to wait for a special occasion.  It’s so quick and easy that you can make one just to say, “I love you” to someone special.  I hope you give it a try.