What about one of the wesbites where you upload your pictures and text and then they print and bind the book for you? I think different sites allow different amounts of customization - you may do best with one that is specifically marketed to scrapbookers since I suspect you already have your layout and design in mind. But the ones I have seen have all had great image quality. As to your original question, take a look at regular papers designed for color printing with the type of printer you are using (inkjet vs. laser). 24lb would be your basic copy paper weight. Most cardstocks are 110lb. 65lb may be a happy medium that would have a bit of structure without feeling like a turning pages in a toddler's board book. Here is a link that might be useful: craftfetish blog

Barbra, I am hoping that I helped answer some of your questions. I too have gathered scrapbook pages (with the help of a great many of you on here) for a little girl who had lukemia. Unfortunatly she passed away but her mother loves the books and pages that were made by the many people who tried to make her life special. I know your friend and her daugther will especially treasure these books and I hope for a good out come for her daughter. Love Penny

I guess it depends on what you used for the background of your page. If you stuck your bits and pieces onto the 'cardstock' that comes with the album, then certainly use the back of it. I tend to use other paper for the background, nearly always a sheet of coloured cardstock. Then I slip in between the album page and the page protector. Then I do the same for the other side. I wouldn't use both sides of the coloured cardstock though, because I don't think it is sturdy enough. Looking at the finished product, it is usual to open the album and see a left hand side and a right hand side. How you get to that is entirely up to you. You may choose whatever look you want to. A matter of individual choice with what works for you. Jocelyn in NZ

Hi, I see that it's been a little while since you posted this, but I wanted to share the info I have in case you still need it. I discovered Creative Memories Digital Scrapping software around 6 months ago and haven't looked back. I packed up all my traditional stuff, (and I had lots and lots of it...) and I'm now trying to decide who to give it to. Creative Memories is great, I had tried scrapping with Adobe Photoshop Elements since I already used it to manipulate my photos, but I could never get the hang of it, (I've since discovered that many other people say the same thing, you have to have a good working knowledge of it to scrap with it.) CM does all the major things that PSE does, you can lasso an area and turn a photo into sepia or b/w while leaving that one spot in color just for one example. There are bunches of free paper collections that you can download, along with a free version of the scrapping software, Storybook Creator. The free version is very limited in what it will do though, you can basically only use it to drag and drop photos into all the pre-designed pages available. It's not terribly expensive, and if you buy the beginners collection you get a 39.95 coupon toward a storybook, (an 8x8 is around 40.00.) With it you also get a large kit of paper/embellishments/overlays, (which you can fill with color, gradients, paper, etc.)/and word art. You can do things like change the look of a piece of paper or embellishment simply by changing the hue or color of it. You can change it to match your photos or just to get several different looks from the same paper or embellishment. CM collections that are available to purchase, (in addition to the free ones) are very inexpensive. They range from 3.95 to 9.95 for a very large collection. There are also freebies added daily to my website that you can download, or you can use products that are not CM although I rarely need to because they have so much to choose from. I know some people like to use the freebies you find online though and most of those are compatible with it. I was so impressed with the company that I signed up as a consultant a few weeks ago and I'm loving it. I have a Facebook group called Tamela's Scrapbooking Divas where you can check out some of my work along with a few other people who have posted there. The software is extrememly user friendly and what I do is teach people how to use it, in addition to the free web claasses that CM offers covering beginning to advanced techniques. If you would like more info just e-mail me at Tgillespie67@aol.com and put CM in the subject line so I know to open it. I will be happy to tell you how to download the free software and papers if you contact me. Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be so long... Have a great evening! Tamela (Tammy) Gillespie