I’m a huge DIY-er and I love making homemade gifts for people I love. I decided (at short notice) to make my boyfriend a DIY one year anniversary scrapbook of our year together. It was a nice trip down memory lane and looking back on the great times we had last year. And, he absolutely loved it! This would be a great project for any anniversary or even make one every year for your little one so they can look back on their years when they are older. The sky’s the limit for this little scrapbook idea, so get to crafting!
Related: DIY Gifts for your Valentine
Supplies:
- Cardstock
- Metalic Markers and Paint Pens
- Scrapbooking stickers of your choice (I picked mine out a Michael’s)
- Ribbon (for tying book together)–> I used this one or you can pick different colors here. Try to get under .3 inches so the ribbon fits into the punched holes.
- Hole Punch
- Scissors
- Pictures
- Cardstock
This project is really simple and all you need is a little creativity and your supplies. First, you need to get your pictures organized. I used envelopes to organize my pictures into months so I didn’t get confused with when they were taken. Once, you have that tackled, you can start folding and cutting your cardstock in half. I only used about 8 pages [front and back]. So the amount of card stock depends on how many pictures you’re including and what other things you want to include. I had a ton of pictures but decided to just pick my favorite from each month. It’s your creation so customize to your liking 🙂
Now the fun part! Cutting, gluing, and decorating.
I did my cover first. It took me a couple tries to get it just right because I was being a little perfectionist. But homemade isn’t perfect and that’s what makes it special. You give it your own unique touch with little quirks here and there.
I started organizing pictures on pages and gluing them. I filled empty space with wording and scrapbook stickers. I tried to find stickers that related to events and the style I was going for. Speaking of stickers…Let me tell you about the struggle of picking out scrapbook stickers! I took over an hour looking for the perfect stickers and combinations…Michael’s has so many options. If you don’t want to waste too much time go on your hunt with a plan and a list of what you’re looking for.
Once you’re done with all your pages just tie them together with color coordinating ribbon and trim the ribbon. I choice a gold ribbon because my cover was brown with gold lettering and I think that went best together. I also thought of weaving the ribbon through the holes too but maybe for my next scrapbook gift. Have fun with your project and remember the person who is receiving it will cherish it forever!♡

SHOP
What are your favorite DIY gifting projects that you’ve gifted?
Let me know in the comments below.
XOXO, Christine
Such a cute idea!!
Thank you! 🙂
This is such a great idea! I love being crafty and making something homemade. It means so much more and yours turned out amazing!
Thank you! 🙂
Way to go super wife! I’d love to make something like this, but I’m pretty sure it take me a year!
Thanks Natasha! I’m sure it wouldn’t take you that long! lol
This is so cute! I love the idea!!
Thank you Britney. 🙂
I absolutely think this is such great idea. I love love love it. Great way to savor memories.
Yes I thought so too! 🙂
SOOOOO cute! I love this 🙂 I need to do this
Thank you Rowan! 🙂
What a cute idea for a memory keeper and gift! Congratulations on your anniversary!
Thank you! 🙂
Such a cute idea! I just started working on mine this week after seeing your post. I love A & C stickers on the cover. Did you get those at Michaels too and do you remember the brand that they were? Can’t find anything similar and I love those. Thanks!
Oh you did!!!??? That’s awesome! I would love to see how it turned out. I don’t remember what brand they were but I found them at Michaels in the scrapbooking section. 🙂
Great idea. I saw this and started to make one for my boyfriend this week. I love the A&C letters on the cover, but cannot find anything similar anywhere. Did you get those at Michael’s too and do you know what brand they were?
Thank you!
Hey!
Just wanna know how you were able to get your pictures to be so small, what size did you print them?
Hi Michael! I just opened a Microsoft Word/ Pages (MAC) document and add pictures to the document. There I adjusted the sizes. I wanted to use a lot of pictures so I tried to make as many fit on one page. I believe I printed out 5 pages total. 🙂
Such a great idea Christine! Mine and my boyfriend’s first year anniversary is coming up so this is the perfect gift, I know he’ll love it! You’ve definitely inspired me – get me to the craft store now!
Can’t wait to see your next DIY masterpiece!
Thank you! He absolutely loved it and we still look at it and keep it on display. 🙂 I hope it comes out perfect and he will definitely love it. 🙂
Hi! I love the idea but i was just wondering what size cardstock you used for this project? Lmk! Thanks!
Thank you so much! I just bought 8.5 X 11 card stock and then cut it in half. 🙂
Absolutely love this idea!!! How long did it take you to make once you got supplies? And is there another way to make the pictures smaller? I have no idea how to do that on word and don’t have a photo printer 🙁
I made it in a couple of hours. 🙂 I added all my pictures in a Word document: to do that just open a blank document, go to “Insert” tab and click on pictures. Once you insert your picture you will have guides that allow you to make it smaller. I added as many pictures as I could fit on a page without them being too small. You might have to experiment a couple times to get the right size. Also, I just printed them out with a normal colored printer. If you don’t have a printer you can save the document and go to staples.com and they can print it out for you. 🙂 I hope this helps! Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you so much!!!! Very helpful ☺️ Also, I have found that my holes from the whole punch aren’t lining up evenly, how did you do ensure that they did?
I used a 3 punch holder and unscrewed the brackets to move the holes a little closer so the would fit my paper. Then I would use an already punched page as a template to line to holes up the same. 🙂 Does that make sense? haha
Hi this is just a great idea and I’d like to do something similar to this but I’d like to know what kind of paper you used for the pictures when you printed them was it regular printer paper or did you get a specific type of paper?
Hi Jazmin, I used just regular white printing paper. 🙂