Starting your Own Scrapbook

Sometimes, having your travel or holiday pictures printed and putting them in an album sound like a bore. Sure, you want to make the memories last forever, but you also think: who would want to take a look at them afterwards?

The answer to those concerns is scrapbooking. You could find a lot of benefits in doing this craft, such as:

It will never be boring. If you’re the creative type, you’ll find lots of ways to make each page unique and beautiful.

You will not only be able to preserve your pictures, but you can also use the postcards, letters, and small artworks you received.

You and your friends will find it more interesting to browse through your cute scrapbook than a plain photo album.

What are the steps to make a scrapbook?

Have your best pictures printed. Go to Fedex/Kinkos and get to choose the size and type of your printed photos (i.e. colored, black and white, matte, etc.).

Get ready with your double-sided tape, scissor, post cards, old stamps, stickers, paper frames, and whatever you can find in your ‘memories box’ that you think you can include in your scrapbook.

You can buy a scrapbook album or create one from scratch. If you want to create your own, you can choose the size of board paper that you want, as well as the color. The suggestion is to use brown or white, plain paper since the photographs and other decorations will add to the color.

If you don’t think you have enough scrapbook decorations at home (like stamps, stickers, etc.), look harder. Are there old magazines or calendars with good prints that you can cut and use? Or, you can always buy ready-made scrapbook decorations from bookstores, dollar stores, or specialty shops near you.

Get inspiration from Pinterest. You need to be excited and full of ideas when you start your scrapbook, so you won’t feel the lack of motivation. You’ll be able to discover hundreds of ideas that you can incorporate in your own work.

Group your photos accordingly. For example, your high school friends’ photos are separated from your work friends’ photos; your baby’s photos should be separate from your vacation photos when you were still single. You can arrange them chronologically or by theme.

Attach the pictures and decorations in your scrapbook. One technique is pasting an old letter and/or colored paper on the page, you don’t have to cover the whole page. It is better to leave some ‘breathing space.’ Afterwards, attach the pictures. You can cut the sides if needed. Add smaller decorations on the sides and/or corners of the pictures.