I suppose the title is a little misleading as I am not going to show you how to make a photo album. I will highly recommend a place that will show you though, does that count? I received a gift certificate from my mother (Marie to you and me) for Christmas for a photo album making class. Marie thinks I should be printing out my photo's instead of keeping them on my hard drive (my words because my mother doesn't know from hard drive), which she is probably right but she doesn't know how tough it is to get a good print from home (ask Jules) it's near impossible. Sending out for printing hasn't been much better, so if anyone wants to help me with my photo printing dilemma I am listening.
The photo album class was a few hours long and even though they didn't have the book cloth color I wanted I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. The teacher thought I was a good "gluer", which made me proud (also, it made up for the fact that I cut like I am drunk). I am going to have to toot my own horn and say the darn thing didn't turn out half bad, in fact I think it turned out pretty good. Yes, I was as surprised as you are. It looked store bought if you asked me (and trust me I am super duper picky). I was so thrilled with my new found skill, I considered asking Jules if we could add handmade albums to our Besotted Brand arsenal but I know that would just get me an eye roll and a, "and when will you have time to make these?" Jules is my voice of reason, which I need in a business partner/bestie as I am totally out of my tree.
The photo album success came on the heels of my very first real photo session.Yes, if you are curious I was scared out of my wits. I was shooting my good friend's new baby. The baby is 7 months old and this was actually the first time I met him. I am so not used to babies that I really thought 7 months was a newborn. I had all these newborn type shots laid out in my head. 7 months is basically a teenager. I had to improvise--gasp. Please note, I am such a type A personality that if there's not a plan attached well there's going to be a problem. They actually liked the photo's. I can not express how utterly relieved I was.
I decided to mark the 'firsts' by giving my friends the album I made filled with shots from the day. So here it is in all its glory-- my little album...

If there's not a Paper Source near you to take the class, I also bought this used book Bookcraft from Amazon on book making, which is really, really helpful (and I think it gave me a slight leg up on my classmates). I love the idea of making my own books and hope to do more book binding in the future. If you have another suggestion please leave it in the comments, I am sure we would all love to know...
P.S. Self-adhesive photo corners blow away gummed photo corners any day.