Thinking of making a mini album or small scrapbook album measuring 6″x8″? If so, you’ll want to consider using a two-ring Sn@p! Binder by Simple Stories. Read on for our detailed product review of these affordable, appealing, small-sized scrapbooking albums.
Simple Stories is a manufacturer of scrapbooking albums, page protectors, stamps, papers, embellishments and supplies for scrapbooking. They are one of my favorite brands; I love all the supplies I have purchased from them, and their Sn@p! Binders are some of my favorite albums for scrapbooking.
What Is a Sn@p! Binder? How Is It Different From a Simple Stories Flipbook?
Sn@p! Binders each have a hard cover, a metal frame on the spine for labeling, and a two-ring metal binder-style binding. They are available in different colors and styles and at different price points.
Simple Stories makes multiple styles of scrapbooking albums available:
- Sn@p! Binders — The Studio Collection With Kraft Chipboard Covers: The binders in this collection have kraft paper covers and a colored spine, plus a metal frame on the spine for labeling. In the pictures above and below, there are 3 of these albums pictured at the far left — one in the Navy color and two in the Robin’s Egg color. These albums are a bit more expensive than the others because they come with many of the supplies you need to create a completed scrapbook. When you buy one of these albums, you get 8 SN@p! pages, 3 kraft chipboard album dividers, two 6″ x 8″ pocket pages, two 4″ x 6″ pocket pages, two 3″ x 4″ pocket pages, two 3″ x 4″/4″ x 6″ pocket pages and two 2″ x 8″/4″ x 4″ pocket pages. You’ll need photos and adhesive to complete your album. You can also add additional papers, embellishments and other supplies if you want to. I do recommend adding other items, especially more page protectors, to maximize your investment in these albums — but that is totally optional.
These albums are refillable and will hold many more pages than the ones they come with. You can buy more of the same page protectors from Simple Stories, and there are many other manufacturers whose pocket protectors will fit in these. I’ve successfully used the page protectors from Scrapbook.com and Echo Park with these binders at times when I couldn’t find the ones made by Simple Stories. - Sn@p! Binders — The Studio Collection With Striped Covers: The binders in this collection have colorful striped covers, plus a metal frame on the spine for labeling. In the pictures above and below, you can see bunches of these on the right-hand side. I have multiples of the black-and-white striped binders and the pink-and-white striped binders. These albums are a bit less expensive than the other style, but they come empty — which is perfect if you want to provide your own pages, page protectors or other materials to place inside the binders.
- Sn@p! Christmas Binders (not pictured) — Simple Stories sometimes releases binder albums with covers decorated to coordinate with their Christmas collections.
- Sn@p! Studio Collection Flipbooks (not pictured) — These are available in a variety of different sizes, configurations and styles. Simple Stories makes some of these with solid-colored covers and some of them with decorated covers that coordinate with their paper collections. These come with page protectors, and additional page protectors are available in case you want to add more pages to them. They hold quite a few pages. They are super affordable and are an awesome value for the money. The pages for these are different than the pages for the Sn@p! Binders; they ARE NOT interchangeable.
The Sn@p! binders are different from the Simple Stories flipbooks; the biggest differentiating factor is the type of binding holding the albums together. The Sn@p! binders are two-ring binders; in comparison, the Flipbooks are sort of like sophisticated report covers that you’d get at the office supply store — although the decorated Flipbook covers are prettier than most of the similar products you’ll find available at the office supply store.
If you’re on a tight budget or you don’t have much space for storing scrapbooks, you might want to consider getting the Flipbooks; if you have a bit more to spend, and you want a top-quality product, you’ll definitely want to take a look at the Sn@p! Binders.
Or you can do like I do, and buy some of each.
The binders are my favorites; as you can see, I own a collection of them — and I have plans to buy even more of them.
I buy the kraft-covered Sn@p! binders when I know that a good number of my photos will coordinate with the colors on the cover and the provided interior pages.
I buy the striped Sn@p! binders when I want to use a different brand’s page protectors or when I don’t need any of the interior pages that are provided with the kraft-colored Sn@p! binders.
I buy the Flipbooks (not pictured) for various reasons. They are my go-to gifts for acquaintances that I do a lot of activities with; I fill them with pictures of whatever things we’ve done together (hikes, day trips, crops, whatever) and give them when I need affordable birthday gifts or Christmas gifts.
My husband is a Realtor, and I bought one of these in the 6″x8″ size to hold examples of all the postcards he has printed advertising cabins that he has sold and listed for sale.
I bought several of the Flipbooks to use for organizing alphabet letter stickers and stamped images.
I also have bunches of these holding pictures that I am not going to use for making layouts.
I know other crafters who are also using the 2-ring Sn@p! Binders for organizing various embellishments and other supplies; they are fantastic for storage and organization purposes.
The Verdict: I Highly Recommend Sn@p! Binders by Simple Stories
I think Sn@p! Binders offer you an amazing value for the money you spend on them. There are cheaper ways to scrapbook; if you are on a super tight budget, instead of buying these, I recommend considering Simple Stories Flipbooks as an alternative. They’re fantastic, too, and they tend to be more affordable than these albums.
Another alternative would be to make your own mini albums using chipboard and paper; it isn’t that difficult to do.
However, if you have some money to spend on scrapbooking, and you want to make it easy on yourself, my opinion is that Sn@p! Binders are totally worth the money. These are my go-to albums for scrapbooking everyday adventures. I love them, and I think you will love them, too.
Where to Buy Simple Stories Sn@p! Binders
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We invite you to check out our related resources, linked below:
- Find Page Protectors for Scrapbooking HERE.
- Check out more of our picks for the best craft supplies HERE.
- Learn more about scrapbooking HERE.
- Find more pages about paper crafts HERE.
Posted By: Amy Solovay
This page was last updated on 1-1-2023.