How to Make a Memories Scrapbook Album

Decorative paper dresses up the pages of a scrapbook.

Scrapbooking has become a popular hobby, enjoyed by schoolchildren, teenagers, young adults and grandparents alike. Avid scrapbook enthusiasts attend scrapbook seminars and classes, and embellish their scrapbook pages with a wide array of decorations such as designer paper, stickers, rubber stamps, clip art, ribbons, lace and more. Some scrapbooks are primarily photo albums, while others capture and preserve a collection of keepsakes. Keepsakes might include photographs, theater tickets, newspaper clippings, postcards, letters, small trinkets or other sentimental treasures.

Things You'll Need

• Memorabilia
• Box
• Scrapbook
• Tape or glue
• Scrapbook embellishments

Instructions

1. Establish a theme for your memories scrapbook album. This might be a specific vacation, time spent with a certain organization, your high school years or some other event or period of time in your life.

2. Collect the items to include in the scrapbook album. Ideally, items should be flat or small enough to fit within the pages of the scrapbook. Fill a box with the collected items until you are ready to begin making the scrapbook.

3. Purchase a scrapbook with acid free, lignin free paper. There are countless scrapbook albums on the market from which to choose. Acid free paper helps prevent deterioration and yellowing. The once popular magnetic photo albums, which weren't acid free, caused photos to fade and yellow.

4. Purchase supplies such as acid free double tape, glue and embellishments designed to use in scrapbooks. Use these materials to secure items to the scrapbook pages or to add decoration.

5. Determine the order in which you'd like to present the items in the book. If the pages come out of the scrapbook easily, you can create the pages in any order and then order pages when reinserted in the book.

6. Visit craft stores, attend a scrapbook class or visit scrapbook websites to get design tips for scrapbook pages.

7. Lay out items on a scrapbook page before securing them to the page. This will allow you to reorganize the layout, if desired.

8. Include identifying text when creating your scrapbook pages. This includes names, dates and places. Create the scrapbook so that if someone looks at it in one hundred years, he will understand it.

References

• Purdue Extension: Looking at the Big Picture
• Scrapbook Scrapbook: Just Beginning to Make a Scrapbook? These Tips Might Help
• Scrapbook-Crazy: Make a Scrapbook Mini Album