When we went to Disneyland, I was fortunate enough to wander into a shop that had scrapbooking supplies in it. I was so excited to see a scrapbook made especially for Disneyland. I snapped it up to take home with me and the surprises kept on coming. The book is a 12×12 album but on the cover, you can push a little button for LED lights to blink on and off for a short amount of time, my daughter loves this function. The function I have ended up loving is the folder with pockets that came in the back of it.

It really is just simply a piece of coated cardboard with pockets on the front and back (Fig 1). When I first started the book, I almost threw it out thinking there wasn’t anything I wanted to do with it. I am so glad Chica’s voice rang in my head, “don’t throw that out!” After I was finished, as usual, I had some leftover snapshots that were still good but just wouldn’t fit and some leftover maps, pamphlets, etc. that I didn’t want to toss. I just put them in the folder pockets instead! What a ridiculously simple thing to do but a great idea. Now I will have all of my extras with the album instead of off in some shoe box somewhere taking up space and never being seen. Here’s a few ideas for making them yourself:

• Take a regular folder and turn it inside out. Punch holes in it to line up with the wholes in your binder scrapbook.
• Take a 12×12 sheet of cardstock (or whatever size fits your album) and cut it in half. Line up the halves with the bottom of another sheet. At this point, decide how you would like to attach the pockets to the cardstock. I would start with a bit of glue as the first layer and then either do ribbon you thread through holes, grommets, brads or more glue! You can use whatever you have leftover from doing your layouts to affix the pocket. Figure 2 shows how I used papers my friends gave me from making the baby shower invitations to decorate the pocket.
• I have also just taken a plain white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope and cut it in half (Fig 2 and 3). Glue the half to a sheet of cardstock and slip all of your extras inside. This works well to hold lots of birthday cards in a kids album or wedding/shower cards for the bride.

P.S. There are tons of Disney scrapbooking supplies available on eBay. What a wonderful array of layout-inspiring goodies!