Got an old photo or scrapbook album that could do with some updating? Found a cheap album somewhere that isn’t very pretty? Well, here is a DIY project for you!
You will need:
- 1 ugly photo or scrapbook album.
- 2 sheets of pretty paper. Each should be big enough to cover one side of your album, with 2cm overhang on all sides.
- 2 sheets of paper in a complimenting shade. They should measure 2cm LESS than the width and height of your album covers (you want a 1cm margin of pretty paper on the inside covers).
- a cutting mat or surface on which to trim your paper sheets.
- a ruler longer than your album.
- craft knife.
- adhesive of your choice (I used a glue stick).
Step 1 ) Take your album apart. For my finished album, I chose to discard the cardboard for the spine and the paper wrapped around each end of the album pages.
Step 2) Take one sheet of pretty paper and the front cover of your album. Place the paper right-side-down and put the front cover on top, also right-side-down. Try to get the cover as centred as you can. You can do this using your ruler and by marking the paper accordingly, but I just go by eye.
Step 3) Lightly fold each edge of the paper over the cover – this was used as my guide when gluing the cover onto the paper. If you choose to mark during Step 2, you can skip this step.
Step 4) Put adhesive on the entire right-side of the cover. Use your folded edges/markings as a guide to place your cover onto the paper. Turn over and smooth the paper using the edge of your ruler, ensuring any air bubbles are removed. Turn over.
Step 5) For this step, make sure you work on your cutting surface. Starting at one corner, take your ruler and place it at a 45 degree angle, about 1/2 cm from the corner of the cover and cut across. You need to have the slight overhang at the corner otherwise when you go to glue the edges of the paper to the inside of the cover, you won’t have a nice overlap and some of the original cover will show through. Yucky! (You can see my example of this here.)
Repeat for the remaining 3 corners.
Step 6) Put adhesive over one edge of the paper. Fold the edge onto the inside on the cover, and smooth down with the ruler. Repeat on the opposite side.
Step 7) Take one of the remaining edges and fold the corners of the paper in, like you would when wrapping a gift. This ensures a nice finish on your corners. Glue and fold over as with the other two sides.
Repeat on the opposite side.
Step 8) Put adhesive all over one sheet of your complimentary paper and place onto the inside of your cover, as centred as possible. As you can probably tell, I don’t bother with markings, but if you want to, you could draw some guide lines in pencil before gluing the page onto the inside.
Step 9) Repeat steps 2-8 on your back cover.
Step 10) Reassemble your album!
Now you can go ahead and further decorate your album if you like, or insert photos or scrapbook pages accordingly. 
Stay tuned for more updates regarding this particular album. I am definitely not finished with it yet!