by Sunday Lamdin

I have loads of scrapbooking pages and mini albums and I am quite lucky in that I display them at each crop and workshop where I demonstrate.  However, most scrapbookers have their pages inside albums.

Where are these albums?  Are yours on your coffee table perhaps, so that everyone can thumb through the pages regularly?

I think the answer to those questions are probably that you have them tucked away on a shelf, and rarely look at them!

So, let’s change all that shall we!  Let’s get your masterpieces out on show for everyone to enjoy.

1. Off the Shelf and Standing up

The easiest and quickest way to “get ‘em out” is to take an album off the shelf and open it up.  Now stand your open album on a sideboard, or display shelf somewhere.  An open album is an open invitation to people to “come and have a look”.  With the post bound 12x12 and 8x8 albums, the covers and the pages in their sleeves are weighty enough to be able to easily stand the album up and open it enough that two pages can be viewed from across the room.

Change the pages on view regularly, maybe every time you dust… oh actually perhaps that’s not a good idea.. because in my household the dusting is rarely done! LOL so just as and when you think of it!

2. Hang your layouts on a pinboard

No… don’t worry I am not suggesting you stick pins in your layouts!!  Find some bulldog clips, (see examples below) and make sure they are smooth as some of them have ”teeth” and we don’t want to ruin our pages with "bite" marks!

Place these in the middle of the top of your Page and place the ring of the clip over a pin which is in the pinboard.  If your clip only has a small hole in the handle you will need to place the pin through it.  I have a number of clips on a pinboard and I change the layouts frequently as I make new ones.

3. Hang them on a line!

Now, don’t rush outside and get out the whirligig! This is a DIY hanging solution for inside the house!

This is a similar way to display as above as it uses bulldog clips again (or foldback clips, etc), however, a piece of string (or ribbon) is needed for the “hanging part”.

Decide what size layouts you are going to display (makes it neater if they are all the same size per hanging string).

So, this is how I made mine (because I couldn’t be bothered to start measuring everything, I did it by eye!)...

First I tied a loop in the end of the string to hang over my hook on the wall  I then tied my first bulldog clip near to the top of the string.  (Just tie through one “arm” of the clip)  I then hung  up the string and clipped my first layout to the top. 

I then tied my next clip just below the bottom of the first hanging page.

Another page was hung using this secnd clip and I tied a third clip underneath that one.  As they were 12x12s I stopped there, but you can hang four or five 8x8s in a line.

This is a great way to display your layouts, it’s really easy to constantly change them for your latest masterpieces and if displaying smaller pages such as 8x8 or 6x6 pages, you can even hang one of these strings in those thin wasted wall spaces you often find in between doorways, such as in hallways.

4.  Frame it

Finally you can frame your layouts.  This, of course, will cost some money for the frame, but is well worth it for those special scrapbooking pages.

I give special layouts to friends and family already framed and ready to hang as gifts.  I also have a few hanging up in my own house!

A friend made my 12x12 and 8x8 frames, but there are a number on the market now which include the necessary gap between the page and the glass for thick embellishments.

Alternatively, you may find “deep” frames in charity, or thrift shops where you can replace the picture already within.  Obviously (at the moment anyway) scrapbooking sizes are not usually found in such places and so your layout would need to reflect the dimensions of your bargain frame.

Oh and I'm not proud - I will put my scrapbooking pages in all sorts of places!

This one is in my downstairs toilet! Probably the most "seen" layout! LOL

Actually come to think of it... perhaps I should put one on the back of the door! LOL