Hello everyone, I’m here to bring you a tutorial on how to make a hybrid mini album from scratch!

I started making albums a few months ago, and since I couldn’t find the chipboard albums in the stores I started making them myself out of cereal boxes. (of course, now you can find many great albums here at ScrapMatters, but if there’s a shape you cannot find, or if you just want to give hybrid a try and you don’t want to risk wasting a chipboard album for your first try, you can always cut an album out of cereal boxes too!).

Don’t get overwhelmed by the length of this tutorial: I get verbose when I describe my projects and wanted to cover all the basics, but it really isn’t as daunting as it seems and you ought to give it a try!

1. Designing the digital pages
First off, there’s the digital part of the process. Pick the products you want to use and your pictures. I chose the gorgeous Gretchen mini kit, the Date Stamped elements and the Minnie Alpha by Britt-ish Designs. At this point you also need to choose the format of the pages for your album.
In August my husband and I celebrated our 10th dating anniversary and I decided to create a little album, with one photo for every year together. I picked a basic square shape, with rounded corners, and created all the pages quite small, so that they would all fit on a single sheet of paper when I printed them out.
You need to prepare an even number of pages (including cover/back cover).

2. Printing out the pages
You have mainly 2 options here: printing at home, or outsourcing. Personally, I print my projects at home – I find it much simpler and faster. (if you’re outsourcing, check what sizes you can print before you start designing your pages)
I printed out this project, as most of my hybrid projects, on Epson matte presentation paper. It does make a big difference and the colors are much brighter compared to normal paper. I personally do not use glossy paper much because I hate the fingerprint marks on glossy paper – but really, it’s up to your taste what paper you want to use.
I also recommend you learn how to make your printer print borderless (I always try to make the most of my paper, and print many things on one sheet of paper!).
Once your pages are printed, you can gather your supplies, because it’s time to put the album together:

3. Creating the template and the pages
I used the chipboard of a frozen pizza box for my album – I’m sure you all have something at home that would work. Cereal boxes are sometimes thinner, but they can work too. I usually peel the printed part off of the chipboard so I can glue my pages to a rougher surface and don’t have to worry about the printed cereal box showing through. 
Once your pages are printed out, cut them and use one as a template to draw the pages out of cereal boxes, by simply tracing the border with a pencil.

Cut all the pages out and check that they match the printed pages before you glue them – you’ll probably need to cut a bit more than the markings you made with the pencil but you’ll get the hang of it pretty fast.
You need half the number of digital pages you created (since you’re gluing 2 printed pages to every chipboard page).

*optional*: you can paint the chipboard at this point, if you want a color to show at the edge of the pages, instead of chipboard. I’m fine with the chipboard showing so I skipped this step.

4. Gluing
My adhesive of choice is Mod Podge, so that’s what I used to stick the printed pages to my album. I know of hybrid scrappers who use double sided tape instead; I simply used Mod Podge for my first project and then I kept using it because it works well for me, but you can use whatever you feel more comfortable with.
Applying Mod Podge is pretty straightforward if you’re used to it, but it’s not easy if you’ve never done it before – so if it’s your first time using it, I recommend you try with some scrap paper and chipboard first.
My main advice is to use Mod Podge sparingly: a thin coat of it really goes a long way. I use a foam brush to apply it.
I don’t have pictures because my hands were busy , but this is how I do it. I line up the paper with the chipboard. I lift up one side of the paper to expose the chipboard beneath, holding the rest of the paper firmly down on the chipboard, and I start brushing some Mod Podge on the chipboard. I adhere the page to that part (so now the page is fixed and won’t move anymore, and I know it’s nicely lined up because I positioned it carefully), and can now move to brush the rest of the chipboard and finish adhering the page.
Pay special attention to cover the edges properly, so the page will adhere properly without air gaps.

5. Punching holes
Now that the pages are ready, you need to put the album together. I decided to use a ring to hold the pages so I needed to punch holes in the pages.
I now own a Crop-a-dile that makes punching very easy; but if you don’t own any fancy scrapbooking tool to punch holes, you can use what I used for my first project: a school page puncher will work just as well (even though it’s more tricky to make the holes aligned).

6. Adding eyelets
If you punch a hole, you have to use eyelets. They make the page look so much better! I used my Crop-a-dile to put the eyelets on.

Now that’s it, the album is ready!

7. Embellishments
It’s always fun to embellish the album with some ribbon.

I hope I’ve inspired you to go out and try a hybrid album, if you’ve never dared before. It doesn’t have to turn out perfect, but you’ll love having something made by you for a special memory.  If you have any question, head over to this thread in the Hybrid is Hot section of the forum!
I also created a matching card to accompany the album: