IPhoto won't rebuild - 'no photos'

Am posting here as a last resort that someone may be able to help me.
Last night I was transferring photo's from my phone onto iPhoto (v.8) and I ran out of space. I tried deleting things, uploading more etc, and got an error message 'iPhoto is unable to save your changes' (or something similar). I honestly didn't pay much attention and put my computer onto sleep and figured i'd just deal with it today. I launched back up my laptop this evening and iPhoto shows that it has no photos. But it should have thousands in there.
I checked the folders and all folders are still intact, and full of photo's - which means I haven't lost any data, it's just hugely annoying that nothing's no longer organized and when I now connect my phone, it doesn't read all the previous one's i've installed, and going through 6000+ to see where I last uploaded them is a huge task, plus, as I mentioned, my computer is low on memory so I can't just install them all over.
I have searched the internet for hours, and my hubby has tried to help too. I held down option upon start up and selected the library, but it still shows 'no photos'. I have tried creating a new iPhoto library from holding down 'option' on launch of iPhoto and then copying the folders across, but it's then not reading those new ones I move across.
I also tried holding 'command + option' upon launch of iPhoto and selected all options to rebuild the library, but it comes back with 'no photos' again.
Really not sure what else to try. I looked into all the folders and couldn't see anything obvious. I can also admit that I often try and delete photos in the backend (from the finder view), so am wondering if moving things around in there corrupt something? I tried removing everything I imported / moved yesterday, and restarted the application 500 times and still nothing.
I also downloaded 'iPhoto Library Manager' and tried rebuilding from there, but it tells me my .xml has no image data. I looked over the .xml file but couldn't see anything obvious in there.
Please help!

TD's option #2:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note:  your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

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