- The best part about learning to scrapbook is how to preserve pictures, memorabilia and special tokens. Many times photos are just placed inside boxes or shoved in drawers only to find a few years later that they are damaged or lost. When placing photographs into a scrapbook, they are being preserved to last for years to come. An advantage to scrapbooking is that photos can be placed in chronological order so that they remain intact and correlate with the pages in the book. With a scrapbook, each page should be able to tell a story. Several photos can be used on one page, or just a single photo can be used. Photos can be cropped so that they can fit to the page. Photos can also be scaled down or cropped to get rid of background items in the photo that are not needed.
- Journaling is an important part of the scrapbooking process. Stickers and die cuts can be used to create names or titles for pages, but journaling will describe in more detail what is going on with the picture. Writing about a subject or telling a story can be done by choosing an index-sized cardstock that is lined for writing. This is the perfect size for writing a few small sentences, a paragraph or a photo description. A great way to get a paragraph started is by looking at the photo while writing. Taking a few moments to reflect on the mood of the photo will help the thoughts and words flow to the paper. Journaling can also be done on the scrapbook paper itself. A special waterproof and smudge-proof marker is recommended. Scrapbooking markers come in a variety of colors with fine and thick tips, depending on the scrapbooker's preference.
- One of the final steps in creating a scrapbook is to combine embellishments such as stickers, die cuts and paper trim with scrapbooking pages and photos. Working with more than one sheet of paper will allow for various cuts and designs to be formed on the bottom sheet. Corners and photo background papers add dimension and style to a page. Ribbon can trim out photos or the edges of papers. Stickers can accent corners of photos or journal cards. Die cuts made from a Cricut or Sizzix machine can create things such as animals, letters or objects. They can become dimensional when two layers of colored paper are used. Instead of colored borders, raised stickers can be used sequentially to create an original design.
