Making Gift Scrapbooks in a Snap: 20 Perfect Presents for Fammily and Friends

The book shows a good variety of theme and specialty scrapbooks suitable for gift giving. Techniques include mini-albums, flip calendars, and other novel ways to document an event or honor an individual. Being new to scrapbooking, some of the instructions were too brief for me and didn't always clarify terms or show detailed enough examples. Still there are plenty of ideas to be gained. Each page shows two or three colorful album pages.

The book shows a good variety of theme and specialty scrapbooks suitable for gift giving. Techniques include mini-albums, flip calendars, and other novel ways to document an event or honor an individual. Being new to scrapbooking, some of the instructions were too brief for me and didn't always clarify terms or show detailed enough examples. Still there are plenty of ideas to be gained. Each page shows two or three colorful album pages.

There is nothing more appreciated than a gift from the heart, and making a keepsake scrapbook for a family member, friend, or really just about anyone who touches your life is a gift that will be treasured.MAKING GIFT SCRAPBOOKS IN A SNAP is an indispensable book for ideas for small themed scrapbooks and for techniques (which many experienced scrappers will probably already know about) to include on the pages. However, for someone crunched for time, or a simple scrapper like myself, having step-by-step instructions to follow is exactly what is needed.Some ideas included in the book are: year-in-review, bridal shower/wedding, timeline (i.e. for a pregnancy or baby's first year), family history, calendar of events, memorial, ABC albums, children's storybooks, altered books, and a brag book; but really, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of themes presented.With 20 projects included and an additional 50 album ideas to inspire you, you will never be at a loss for ideas to show those close to you how much you care.

Three and a half stars for a job adequately done.The title of this book brought up all sorts of expectations for me: yes, I know, you'd think I'd learn by now, huh? Well, when "gift", "scrapbook" and "In a snap" are in the same sentence, my mind makes connections before I know it. These expectations were:1. The book would focus on small scale scrapbooks (smaller than 8 & 1/2 by 11) suitable for gifting2. I would learn how to plan such an album from start to finish 3. The author would teach ways to organize my time so that I could finish the album quickly4. The book would thoroughly picture some examples of complete gift scrapbooks and/or layout plans, from the first page to the end.5. I would be shown both how to complete a variety of ready-made albums and also how to make our own albums from scratch6. The layouts featured inside would be the same kind of high-quality, cutting-edge styles found in Memory Makers magazineI'd say most of these expectations were fulfilled. I did learn a lot about how to plan my gift scrapbook before I started, tips on how to unify the look of the album and how to cut down on unnecessary materials so that I could work quickly. There were some cute mini album projects detailed in the last section which are to be made from scratch. There were a lot of ideas for theme albums that I wouldn't have thought of on my own, but which I will use to make great gifts for my family and friends in the years to come. I really wasn't surprised that the looks of the scrapbooks that author Pam Klassen used to illustrate these methods were on the simple side-it makes sense that simpler means faster. Not a collage style clutter in the bunch (which suits my style perfectly).The two that weren't fulfilled do bother me a bit, though. Numbers 4 and 6 just didn't come through for me. We see a few object lessons illustrated with more than one page from an album, but never the whole thing: I wanted to see how a gift album should flow from start to finish. It's one thing to read about it, quite another to see the pictures. At the very least I thought there should have been some flow charts or diagrams to guide me in the final organization; I wouldn't have to follow them slavishly, but they would have helped me with the "big picture" much more than just text. This is a visual medium, after all. My opinion about that last one, number 6, is based on having read most of the other books that Memory Makers has ever produced. I am familiar with their publications, which usually have at least a few layouts that "wow" me and many more that make impressions on my own layouts long after I am done reading. Making Gift Scrapbooks in a Snap had some nice but unimpressive layouts compared to those other books. I just didn't come away inspired. As any scrapbooker knows, that's half the reason to buy these books!So, this is a good solid guide to the basic concept of making quick gift scrapbooks. I suspect that beginning scrapbookers will be the one