The Official Guide To Creative Memories Albums

Our Creative Memories albums have been trusted for 35+ years — they’re known for their durability and quality. These five-star rated albums have customers bragging that their albums and the photos they hold from the early ’90s are still in pristine condition… and to put that in perspective, they’re talking about albums that were made around the time the World Wide Web was born! 

If you’re just getting started with scrapbooking or are new to Creative Memories, you might like a little guidance on how to choose an album. This guide will break album info into convenient bite-size pieces so you’ll leave with the knowledge to find the perfect one for YOU. But before we dive right in…

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— Why Choose A Creative Memories Album? —

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NOW you’re probably ready to dive right in!

— Choosing an Album Based on the Number of Photos —

If you know how many photos you want to scrapbook in your album, you may choose to select your album following the recommendations below. (For example, you have 100 great photos from a recent trip.) One perk of our albums is that they’re expandable and can accommodate more or fewer pages (and therefore photos!) based on your needs.

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— Choosing an Album Based on Size and/or Function —

Download the Creative Memories Album Guide Flyer here!
Download the Album Compatibility Map Flyer here!

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The Timeless Favorite: 12×12 Albums

12×12 album cover pictured. Watch the Introduction to 12×12 Albums video.

Key Benefits:

• Spaciousness & versatility:
  • The 12×12 size offers ample space to showcase photos, memorabilia and journal your memories with plenty of space to decorate your pages.
    
    
  • They’re ideal for making chronological albums (e.g., yearly, a specific span of year, lifetime), capturing a special event (e.g., wedding, new baby, graduation) and/or for making a themed album (e.g., vacation, heritage, pets, sports, holiday). 
    
  • Outside-the-box idea: We’ve seen customers use the 12×12 for making a guest book for wedding, graduations and retirements — they let guests add photos, messages and well-wishes!

• Classic style:
  • Our 12x12s have a five-star rating for a good reason — they’re the best on the market and we offer a variety of beautiful bookcloth covers in solid colors and stunning foil designs that look great on any coffee table or bookshelf. As two customers put in their online reviews, “The color and quality are perfect;” “The colors are vibrant and the bookcloth is very sturdy and durable.”
    
    • Solid bookcloth albums are currently available in the color swatches seen below (visit the website for the most recent colors available):
    • Foiled album designs are launched for new seasons and collections. You can expect to see matte and metallic foil finishes ranging from monochromatic bookcloth/foil colors to up to four foil colors, depending on the design itself. Here are three examples:
      

• Most popular with the most options: 
  • Every page type is available in 12×12, including Refill Pages, Fast2Fab™ Pages, Pocket Pages and Multi-Pocket Pages. The 12×12 can also accommodate the 8.5×11 Pocket Page for certificates.
    
  • This size has the most options for bookcloth colors and/or foiled designs.
    
  • Several times a month, we release new decorative papers in the 12×12 page size. (With the 8×8 and 6.75×10 sizes, you will need to trim any designer papers that you choose to use.) 

12×12 custom album cover pictured with a regular 12×12 album.

• Customization options: You can design your own album on the Creative Memories website using our FREE design tool! You can personalize your 12×12 album with the following:
  • A Complete Custom Album (includes cover and pages with your photos and designs inside the album.
    
  •  A Custom Cover featuring a special photo or message, making it a truly unique treasure. 
    
  • A Custom Foiled Spine can be a creative addition to a new Creative Memories album OR to add to a Creative Memories 12×12 album that you already own! It’ll add some flair to your shelf! 

Considerations for 12×12 Albums:

• As the largest size that we offer, the 12×12 — when loaded with too many pages — can become heavy. We recommend keeping your album to a maximum of 2 inches of pages. Learn more about our recommended maximum size here.

Perfect for: Those who want to make a chronological album for a specific period of time, those who have lots of photos they want to fit into an album, scrapbookers who love to tell stories and decorate with lots of photos, journaling and stickers/embellishments. And the 12×12 size is easiest to use if you prefer to use 4×6 photos without cropping them.

Watch how to seamlessly add pages to your scrapbook!

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The Compact Charmer: 8×8 Albums

8×8 album cover pictured. Watch the Introduction to 8×8 Albums video.

Key Benefits:

• Perfect size for themes and portable: 
  • The smaller 8×8 size makes it ideal for creating themed scrapbooks dedicated to vacations, hobbies, school albums, baby’s first year and more. 
    
  • It’s also portable, allowing you to easily take it with you and share your memories on the go.
    
    Note the size difference in comparison to the 12×12 album.
    
• Cost-effective: 
  • 8×8 albums are a budget-friendly option, perfect for beginners who are just starting out or those who want to create multiple themed scrapbooks. 
  • 8x8s are quick and easy to make multiples (e.g., wedding parties, host gifts, reunions, etc.). 
    
• Multiple options: Creative Memories offers 8×8 albums in a few formats to best accommodate your needs.
  • 8×8 Bookcloth Albums: Our 8×8 bookcloth albums function as our 12×12 albums do — simply choose your cover and add your desired 8×8 pages into your album.
    
    8×8 album cover
    
  • 8×8 Album Kits + Kids Kits: 
    • Available for baby and school themes, our 8×8 Album Kits make a fantastic gift or help a beginner get started, as it comes complete with the themed album, pre-designed pages already inserted and the tools to complete your album end-to-end.
      
      8×8 album kit
      
    • We also offer 8×8 Kids Kits, which come packaged perfect for gifting and lets the kiddos get creative and make their own paper album!
      
      Learn more about the 8×8 paper albums with our Introduction to 8×8 Paper Albums video.
      
    • 8×8 Paper Albums: 
      • These are a great, easy and quick way to complete an album with fewer than 30 photos. It makes a great gift. You can choose from select themes that have eight pre-designed pages for options like birthday, school, travel, seasons and everyday (as seen below). When they arrive, just add photos and decorate how you see fit!
        • Hint: They make an AWESOME photo greeting card for grandparents, parents, teachers and coaches!
          
          8×8 paper albums
          
      • Paper albums can be created from scratch on our website! Pick your backgrounds and digital artwork to embellish, upload your photos and have fun creating your custom paper album! 
        • One of the great features of this album type is that you can print as many copies of it as you’d like! They work great  for gifting to kids sports teams, dance teams, scout troops, etc.
          
      • These albums can be enjoyed as standalone albums OR you can trim the pages and insert them into an 8×8 bookcloth album using Side Loading Pocket Pages. Watch how in this video!

Considerations for 8×8 Albums:

• If you have more than 75 photos, you’ll have to get creative with your page design and/or you will need to crop your photos. 
  
• Because our designer papers come in the 12×12 size, you will need to trim most of your decorative papers if you choose to use them. We recommend that you use an 8×8 Fast Formula worksheet.

Perfect for: Those who have a small number of photos they want to fit into an album, those who want to make an album for a specific theme like a travel album, scrapbookers who want to make a memory book for a loved one or friend, beginner scrapbookers and kiddos!

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The Magical Medium: 6.75×10 Album

6.75×10 album cover pictured. Watch the Introduction to 6.75×10 Albums video.

Key Benefits:

• Unique size: If you’re looking to take an album with you on the go, the 6.75×10 is a great option as it easily fits into totes, handbags and backpacks. Or if you’re into journaling things like gratitude or mood, or keeping a photo diary, it’s a subtle size that fits on your nightstand.
  
  See how the 6.75×10 album compares to a 12×12 and 8×8 album.
  
• Planner option: Many fans of the 6.75×10 album love that there’s a Planner Kit! It comes with calendar papers and stickers that you can adhere to refill pages to make it easy to track appointments, to-do lists, mementos and memories — and you can add photos!
  
  
• Design variations: Like our other albums, the 6.75×10 is available in foiled and solid bookcloth options. Choices are more limited with this size, however the annual covers with the foiled year design are ONLY available in this size. 

Considerations for the 6.75×10: Less frequently released design options for album covers and pages (or need to crop designer papers to fit the size) and only accommodates one 4×6 or 6×4 photo on each page (unless you trim photos, add pockets or use pocket pages).

Perfect for: Creating specialized daily tracking scrapbook pages, using as a planner, young adults and teenagers.

— Okay, so that’s a wrap on our Creative Memories albums deep-dive! —