Christmas 2021: Carta Bella Paper 6″ x 8″ Poinsettia Album Kit – 157 Piece Bundle

Are you in need of a Christmas-themed photo album for displaying your holiday photos — or for giving as a Christmas gift to a friend this coming holiday season? If so, I have a suggestion for an album kit I hope you’ll consider: It’s the Carta Bella Christmas Album Kit from Scrapbook.com. This kit is an AMAZING value for the money you spend on it — and it includes ALMOST everything you’ll need for putting your photo album together. (I say almost everything because it doesn’t include adhesive; if you don’t already have an archival-quality, photo-friendly adhesive on hand, you’ll want to make sure you also grab some of that so you’ll have everything you need for putting your album together.)

I went looking for the best deal on a Christmas photo album, and this is the one I ended up buying.

I think this Christmas scrapbooking kit is a truly fantastic value for the money you spend on it. But to be honest, I was a little skeptical about this kit at first, because I’m honestly not a fan of two-ring binders. However, now that I have this one in hand, I’ve had to revise my opinion; it turned out to be a LOT better than I thought it would be.

My first experience with two-ring binders was in the Middle East. All the office supply stores in the Middle Eastern areas I visited had full-sized two-two ring binders available instead of the full-sized three-ring binders I was accustomed to from my school days. The full-sized two-ring binders are not at all ideal for holding loose leaf paper that you use for school or work. My experience was that two-ring notebook paper is much more prone to tearing than three-ring notebook paper is. As it turns out, that third ring somehow seems to alleviate a lot of the pressure on the notebook paper. When using two-ring binders, I had to buy bunches of page reinforcement stickers to use for mending all the torn filler paper in my full-sized two-ring binders — a huge time waster.

So that experience initially soured me on the idea of wanting to ever use a two-ring binder in my scrapbook albums, which need to last much longer than my work notebooks do.

When I first decided to switch over to using 6″x8″-sized photo albums instead of the larger 12″x12″ photo albums I used to use, I initially decided to try a six-ring binder instead of a two-ring binder. The six-ring binder is fantastic! But the biggest downsides with them are the high cost and lack of widespread availability of the page protectors to use with them. I bought two of them, and then the page protectors for them went out of stock at the store where I bought them. I found another source for them and bought the last few packages that source had in stock. Then after that,
I discovered that Scrapbook.com has them in stock, but I decided to hold off on buying more of them in favor of trying a different style of album.

Honestly, I’d prefer to have a simple three-ring binder, but I haven’t yet found a 6″x8″ three-ring photo album I like. (If you know of one, please comment!)

But in this smaller album size — which is 6″ x 8″ — the two-ring binder turned out to not be a deal breaker. I think there are two things saving it from being a disaster:

• The page protectors you put in it are substantially heftier and stronger than ordinary notebook paper, and so they are less prone to tearing.
• Although the entire album ends up being heavy, this smaller-sized album isn’t as heavy as a full-sized filled notebook, so there’s less of a burden on the pages in this binder than there is on the paper in a full-sized two-ring binder.

I haven’t had this album long enough to comment on how it will hold up in the long term, but so far it’s doing well. It seems pretty sturdy overall. When it’s filled with layouts and photos, the album turns out to be heavier than you would probably expect, but so far the binder is holding them effectively.

In the end, I decided to give this kit a try because I thought the deal on it was too good to pass up. The poinsettia-print Christmas album alone sells for $12 and change, and the Christmas cardstock pad sells for $18 full price or $9.99 on sale. So for $19.99 total, with this bundle, you also get the page protectors, stickers and dies in addition to the photo album and cardstock pad. Overall, the bundle looked like it would be a really great value for the money, so I decided to give it a try. I’m SO GLAD I did. I liked this kit so much that I’m likely to go back and buy a second one.

The poinsettias printed on the album cover are lovely and festive. This print coordinates beautifully with the prints on the other products in the “Home for Christmas” collection by Carta Bella (which are sold separately). I didn’t buy any of the other products, but if you’re inclined to do so, those look super pretty and festive, too.

The cardstock pad that comes with this bundle offers you a varied selection of Christmas-friendly colors that are all totally usable (although they aren’t an exact match for the colors printed on the cover of the pad. In the cardstock pad I got, there are two reds shown on the color, but there aren’t really 2 reds; the one that looks like the darker red on the cover is really a brown — which is fine with me, as I find browns easier to use in my pages than the reds are).

Overall, this is really a fantastic selection of cardstock colors. The grays, browns and black are totally easy to use, even if you’re a beginner to scrapbooking. If you have cardstock left over when you’re finished putting together your album, you’ll find that these colors work well for designing everyday layouts in addition to your Christmas layouts. Aside from the greens and the one red color, the other colors are all highly usable neutral colors.

The black alphabet letter stickers come in a basic, narrow font. The font is a great size and shape for using on 6×8 pages.

The page protectors are high quality and attractive. You can get them as part of the kit, and you can also buy them separately at Scrapbook.com. The album will hold many more page protectors than the amount that comes with the album — so if you take a lot of photos during the holidays, I recommend picking up an extra pack of 30 page protectors. The page protectors are also available in packs of 10 in case you need a different amount. The album has a 2″ spine and holds bunches of pages. I haven’t tested its upper limits to know for sure how many it will hold, but I’m guessing it would hold around 50 filled page protectors, assuming you make pages that are relatively flat and not too weighed down with heavily textured embellishments.

The die looks like it will be really useful, although I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. In addition to using it for making your scrapbook album pages, you could also use it for making your own professional-looking Christmas cards to send to family, colleagues and friends.

Overall, I’m more than satisfied with my purchase of this Christmas photo album kit. If you celebrate Christmas, I’m delighted to recommend it to you, too.

Where to Buy This Christmas Photo Album Kit:

Click here to shop for the Carta Bella 6″ x 8″ Poinsettia Album Kit – 157 Piece Bundle — at Scrapbook.com.

Over to You:

Have you found a better deal on a Christmas photo album or Christmas-themed scrapbooking kit? If so, please give us the details! We’d love to hear about the Christmas-themed scrapbooking goodies you’re LOVING for Christmas 2021.

Also: If you have had any long-term experience with this album or with two-ring binders in general, how did it work out for you? Thanks in advance for any insights you have to share.

More Christmas Crafts You Might Enjoy:

• The Best Christmas Craft Books
• Christmas Card Making Ideas and Instructions
• Festive Christmas Ornaments to Make
• DIY Christmas Card With Snowflake, Snowman and Paper Lace Doily
• How to Make a Snowflake Christmas Card — Free Instructions
• Beaded Christmas Napkin Rings — Free Instructions
• Christmas Knitting and Crochet Patterns
• More Holiday Crafts

Posted By: Amy Solovay