How to Scrapbook

Create your own scrapbook and cherish your most precious memories without breaking your budget. Whether you are looking to preserve your memories with simple scrapbook layouts or traditional scrapbook albums with lots of papers and embellishments – there’s a scrapbooking style to suit everyone.

With this step by step guide, you’ll learn how to create your own scrapbooks quickly, easily and affordably.

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Scrapbooking is a creative way to preserve memories by combining photos, memorabilia, and journaling on decorated pages. It can be as involved or as simple as you want, there are no rules in scrapbooking. It’s all about your creativity. Scrapbooking certainly can be an expensive hobby but it really does not have to be. You can quite literally scrapbook for free if you wish.

Follow these steps and get started.

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Step 1: Choose Your Photos and Memorabilia

I start every scrapbook layout by deciding which photos I’m going to use. Typically this would be photos of a single day out or event.

Try to keep your photos to 2 – 3 for each event. 2 – 3 photos is a nice easy number to fit onto a single layout. But if you want to fit more on you can find ways to do that. One large photo can also make an effective layout. So as with most scrapbooking “rules” this one can be fun to break.

I like to choose my photos and make a note of the event, the date, how many photos I’ve picked, their orientation, what colour scheme would work well and if I have any memorabilia from the event. Once I’ve picked a good number of photos I print them off or send the files away for printing.

If you have your own photo printer you could just print off the photos as you come to make each layout. This would allow you to choose the size of each photo based on the layout you’d like to make with them. But it does mean having your printer ready and loaded with premium inks. That’s never worked out for me so I like to have my photos printed in a standard 4 x 6 inch size.

Gather together any memorabilia you have from the same event or theme. For example I like to use Christmas cards with my Christmas themed layouts. They make great titles and embellishments.

Once you start scrapbooking you’ll find yourself saving lots of little bits and bats of ephemera. Such as tickets, leaflets, maps, tags and scraps of ribbon and twine. They will add interest and texture to your Scrapbook pages as well as enhancing those precious memories.

And of course they are completely free. You could create an entire scrapbook page with just your collected ephemera.

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Step 2: Choose Your Papers

Your photos probably have a common colour and theme. Maybe outdoor photos have a lot of green and blue. A Christmas dress might be a deep red. Pick whatever jumps out at you from the photos. Maybe there’s an obvious theme such as a New Baby.

Choose your papers or paper pack based on that colour scheme or theme. To start your first scrapbook page you’ll need 3 – 5 sheets of co-ordinating paper or thin card stock.

Plain paper can add a nice effect, especially if your patterned papers are very busy.

I get most of my scrapbook papers from the Range or the Works shops. They offer a wide range of great value paper packs by Craft Sensations and Make and Create. For my friends over the pond Scrapbook.com has a fantastic range of Scrapbooking papers.

If you want to scrapbook for free take a look around your home, particularly in your paper recycling bin. The inside of envelopes often feature lovely patterns, cut them open and you have free patterned paper. Magazines, newspapers, wrapping paper, packaging, old books . . . there are loads of options. It doesn’t even have to be paper what better way to preserve the memory of the flowers you received than by using the plastic wrapping?

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Step 3: Choose Your Embellishments

Before I start scrapbooking I have a look through my embellishments and pick out any that suit my photos and papers. That might be things in the right colours or theme. For example I’ll often pick a scrap of ribbon or some other type of fibre. I usually include a pack of gems because gems are great for adding a little bit of interest to a bare looking corner of your scrapbook page.

I like to leave these embellishments off to one side while I’m working on my scrapbook page. I may or may not decided to include them but having them handy reminds me to allow space for them.

Assuming you will be putting your scrapbook layout in an album you will want to stick to embellishments that are quite flat. A little dimension will add some interest and texture to your layout but you don’t want it to get too bulky.

There are so many different ways to use your embellishments. Here are a few of my favourite techniques.

For more in depth instructions take a look at my scrapbook embellishment ideas you can steal.

There is an overwhelming variety of scrapbook embellishments to choose from. It’s easy to get carried away buying all the things.

You do not need to buy any scrapbook embellishments at all. Save tags from new clothing, ribbons from packaging, greetings cards you’ve received, buttons can be cut from old clothing, pressed flowers, napkins . . . once you start looking around you will find so many unique embellishments, all for free.

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Step 4: Design Your Layout

Now for the most fun part!

Take your papers, photos and any memorabilia and arrange them until you find a layout you are happy with.

If nothing jumps out at you don’t worry, you can use a scrapbook sketch to get you started. A sketch is a rough layout that’s either been designed specifically for the purpose or taken from another person’s scrapbook layout. You aren’t copying their work, just using the same rough layout.

Here are some of my scrapbook sketches that you can use to get started:

There’s loads more on this page too:

There are lots of different techniques that you can use to make your photos and papers pop. Here are some of my favourites for you to try:

For more in depth instructions take a look at these different scrapbook paper edging ideas you can steal..

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Step 5: Add a Title

You’ll usually want to include a title on your scrapbook layout. A short title will be easier to fit onto your page. Think “Hello Fall” or “Fun in the Sun”, simple catchy titles that will stand out.

Here are some of my favourite ideas for creating titles on your scrapbook pages.

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Step 6: Add Journaling to Your Pages

Try to add a sentence or two to your layout – I know I hate my handwriting too! But it really does help to preserve your memories. Ideally your journaling should say who is in the photos, where they were and what the occasion was.

If you want your journaling to stand the test of time then stick to acid free pens.

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Step 7: Stick it All Together

Once you are happy with the positioning of all of the element of your scrapbook page it’s time to stick everything down.

You’ll want to start by stick the bottom most layer down first but this will probably involve moving most of the smaller layers on top. It’s too easy to forget what you decided to put where especially if you run out of time and have to leave your layout to finish later.

There’s a few ways round this problem. Some scrapbookers take a photo of their finished layout then they are free to disassemble and reassemble it, safe in the knowledge that they have their photo for reference.

I never remember to do that. Instead I start by looking for the easiest thing to stick. Usually it’s sticking my photos onto their mounts. So I stick them first then pop them back in the right place on my layout. Anything else that is mounted onto a larger piece of paper comes next. Slowly I combine all of the elements of my scrapbook layout until I get to the largest, bottom most piece and stick that in place. Last of all I stick the smallest and most fiddley bits like the embellishments and the title.

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