Summer Scrapbook

Summer Scrapbook is a printed scrapbook without the glue: sixteen pages of tape frames, tilted polaroid stacks, a five-photo collage and handwritten-style captions, filled from your phone in an evening. It is for the summer with too many photos, the school holidays, the festival, the last term, and for anyone who likes the scrapbook look but never finishes a real one. The scrapbook style prints cream paper with a light texture, Caveat handwriting for the titles and captions, and tape strips across the corners of the photos. The cover holds a photo with the title. Three pages of two tilted polaroids are spaced through the booklet, between photos with captions and dates, single polaroids, two photos side by side, a collage, a four-photo grid, a three-frame strip, and a photo with a journal block for the story of the summer. Page fifteen is a quote page, and the back cover has a small photo and a sign-off.

The tilted stacks and tape hide crooked horizons and soft focus, so this is the template for beach photos, group selfies and things shot from a moving car. Use the caption pages for the two or three photos you are proud of. Keep handwritten captions to five words; Caveat needs room. Print on cream 120 gsm paper if you have it, so the texture looks like real paper rather than a printed one, and a matte finish is better than glossy for the handwriting. The rotated photos and tape are extremely forgiving of duplex offset, which makes this a good first double-sided booklet. Twenty-nine photos fill it.

Printing this booklet means two pages per side on both sides of the sheet: 16 pages is 4 sheets of A4 or Letter, nested and folded to A5 or half-letter. If your printer duplexes, use the flip-edge setting shown on the download card; if not, print Side A, reload the stack and print Side B, and run the free one-sheet test page first so you learn your printer's flip before spending photo paper. 100 to 120 gsm matte paper for the inside, 160 to 200 gsm for the cover if your printer's bypass tray takes it, and score the fold on anything heavier than 160 gsm. Two staples on the spine with a long-arm stapler, or open a normal stapler flat over a folded towel. The template uses 29 photos across 16 pages.