Ideas for the Construction of Scrapbook Pages

Scrapbookers enjoy seeing their photos displayed creatively in a memory book. It can be a very rewarding experience, however getting started on a layout can become cumbersome when you first begin. But, there are ways to make the construction process of your layouts easier. Don't just start gluing down photos without a plan; follow a few tips and put some thought behind your layout to create a page you will be proud of.

Theme

After choosing a few photos to be grouped together, it is important to determine the theme or sub-theme of the page. For example: the theme of the scrapbook might be honeymoon but the sub theme of a particular page is Spa Day. The theme will determine the style of papers you choose, title and the embellishments used on the layout. You will lay the photos out according to where you place your embellishments and how the title will be placed on the page. You can also look for creative quotes and tailor your captions to the theme.

Papers

Background paper and mats are important when constructing a scrapbook layout. Adding visual interest to the page, the papers can either make your photo pop or distract from the beauty of your photograph. Papers come in solid colors as well as a variety of patterns. You can go with all solids or choose a mixture of patterns and solids together. Look at the colors in the photograph and choose paper that compliments the photo. Some scrapbookers prefer to use papers within the same family throughout the entire scrapbook to pull it all together while others like for every page to be of a different color and pattern scheme.

Scrapbook Pockets

Sometimes scrapbooking your photos alone just isn't enough. If you are the type of person that collects souvenirs, tickets, ribbons, school assignments and other memorabilia along the way, you would benefit from adding a scrapbook pocket to your page. A big no-no in scrapbooking is over-cluttering a page. This pocket will display your memories making your page look organized and far from cluttered. To make a pocket use a medium to heavy-weight cardstock. Fold the paper upward to desired depth and press down on the crease. Glue the outer edges of the paper, press down and hold until the glue has dried.

Two-Page Layouts

Double-page layouts are ideal for utilizing multiple photos and letting your idea or theme flow onto more than one page. To balance the pages out use coordinating paper, mats and embellishments while trying to maintain a symmetrical layout. Also, treat the two 12-by-12 inch pages as if they were one large 12-by-24 inch page. Spread the photos, titles or embellishments across the pages and then actually cut straight down the middle of a photo or title to split it between the two pages. Avoid cutting down the middle of someone's face in a photo. This is a good method for a picture with two people in it or a landscape photograph.

A Masquerade Idea for Scrapbooking

Masquerade pictures inserted into your scrapbook pages add vibrancy and interest to your album. Other pages may focus on classic colors and basic designs, but masquerade pages help channel your creative spark and wild side into your scrapbook album.

Themes

Several themes are appropriate to base your pages on. You may wish to model your themes around your own experiences. A masquerade party, the circus, acrobatic routines and Mardi Gras are a few events that lend themselves to a masquerade page for your scrapbook album.

Paper

Masquerade pages can be full of color. Use a lighter tone such as a brown or taupe if you want your pictures to pop against the background. For a bright punch of color, use jewel and earthtones, such as purple, gold, blue, green, orange or red. Masquerade pages also evoke an old or vintage look, so classic colors like black, white and gray will also work. A busy pattern matches the busyness of a masquerade or you can stick with solid papers.

Masks

A mask makes a meaningful focal point for your masquerade scrapbook page. Use a white "Phantom of the Opera Mask" or decorate your own with paint, markers or glitter. Your kids can make their own masks to add to the page with the help of flowers, construction paper and feathers. Place one or more masks in the center of your page or by the corners.

Photos

Add photos to the page that show off the bright colors for your masquerade page, such as pictures of you or friends wearing a mask, pictures of decorations and the event. One photo will suffice or you can make a small collage in one section of the page. Another option is to make a two-page layout with the pictures placed in the same location on both pages for symmetry.

Embellishments

Add dabs of glitter on the page for decoration. Vintage embellishments like picture frames and stickers of masks add glamour and Old World charm to your page. Use feathers and swirl cutouts around pictures and the sides of your page to accessorize your page.

Scrapbook Ideas for Everyday Life

Favorite Things

Every year, around the same time, ask your child about his favorite things. When he is younger, include things like colors and toys. As he grows older, eliminate these and ask about friends. No matter his age, you can ask about food, TV shows or movies, songs, games, places to go, restaurants, books and activities. You can just use a photo of your child at this age or pair photos of him with these things or places in your scrapbook.

Events

Daily events, such as picnics, school occasions, birthdays for family and friends and outings to the zoo or park, can provide some of the most challenging events for scrapbooking. Include just basic journaling, like who, what, where and when on these scrapbook pages. Pack as many photos as possible in without overcrowding your pages. At the same time, be selective with your pictures -- you don't need to use all of them. Keep embellishments to a minimum and let the photos take center stage.

Schedules

Schedules -- you and your children have them, as basic as they are. These change throughout our lives, so document them. You can scrapbook your own schedule, your spouse's or your child's school schedule. Pair with appropriate photos for this season of life. For example, when the children are toddlers, you might take them to the park after breakfast. Include a few pictures of your children playing at the park.

Journal Your Heart

If you are creating a scrapbook for your child, journal your heart to him. Write about his birth, from start to finish. Write about how you met his father. Tell him what your favorite song or book is and why. Expand upon a character quality you value, like love, patience or forgiveness, and tell him why. Make it personal. If you don't want the world to read some of your most intimate thoughts, hide your journaling in a secret envelope or on the back of your layout where everyone won't read it. Include a random favorite photo.

Scrapbooking preserves your treasured memories for future generations and years to come. While you want to remember the important events, such as weddings, vacations, graduations and milestone birthdays, life mostly consists of the little things that make up your daily routines. Several different perspectives and fresh ideas will help you scrapbook everyday life creatively.

Ideas for a Scrapbook for a Deceased Mother

Journaling

Journaling for a deceased relative is one way to incorporate memorable moments into your scrapbook album. Ask each family member to write a page about her favorite memory with your mother. Place the letter on the page exposed or inside of an envelope. Add pictures that correspond with the memory if possible, or use a picture that captures your mother and the other person.

Chronological Album

Your scrapbook for your deceased mother can take the route of the traditional scrapbook in a chronological order. Start with her birth, her childhood and her meaningful personal relationships. Add information regarding your own upbringing and quotes that she made that taught you important lessons. You can embellish your album with store-bought accessories, or use mementos that your family has accumulated over the years. For example, use birth certificates, childhood drawings, pages from her journal or any other items that you can get your hands on that depict the life of your mother.

Funeral Album

You can make a scrapbook album that focuses on the funeral and related events if you prefer. Gather mementos surrounding your mother's death, such as the newspaper obituary, funeral program, a copy of the eulogy, poems or bible verses recited at the funeral, pictures of her headstone and pictures of the people who attended the funeral. You can also add pages from the funeral registry.

Memorial Album

Another option for your deceased mother's scrapbook album is to make a memorial album. This album commemorates her life and details meaningful moments in her life. Some options for items to include are a list of her professional successes, her famous recipes and her family's sentiments. Include poems and bible verses that relate to her personality and her journey to the afterlife. Leave space open in the back of the book and let people who attend the funeral or wake add their own memories.

Losing your mother can be one of the most devastating events that you will ever have to endure. Commemorating the love and affection that your mother showed you in a scrapbook could be a therapeutic activity that reminds you of the joy you experienced during her lifetime and offers you the comfort of treasured memories.

Birthday Scrapbook Embellishment Ideas

You probably scrapbook to document important and everyday events for your child or family. While birthdays represent a popular scrapbook theme, it can sometimes be difficult to decide what embellishments to use. Several fresh ideas for decorating your birthday scrapbook layouts will help you jump-start your creativity.

Stickers

You can find all types of stickers at your local craft store. Remember to include brightly colored alphabet stickers to spell out the words "Happy Birthday" and your child's name and age. In addition to obvious birthday-themed stickers, look for three-dimensional stickers to add an interesting touch to your scrapbook. You can make your own three-dimensional stickers in a minute or two. Carefully remove the sticker from its sheet. Apply a dusting of baby powder to the back. Place a pop dot on the back of the sticker. Adhere to your scrapbook page.

Stamps

A wide variety of companies design birthday stamps you can reuse over and over. Stamping techniques with different types of inks, embossing or using markers can keep these embellishments fresh. Include a stamp on a tag. With some types of inks, you can even stamp directly on a photo, depending on the size of the photo and the amount of white space the photo contains.

Party Decor

Include the party decor itself in your scrapbook. Add a napkin or the themed paper plate or paper cup. Remember to include two copies of the invitation, one for the cover and one for the inside. If these items are too large, cut a small piece to highlight the colors or theme of the party.

Punches and Die Cuts

You can use punches with basic shapes to create your own embellishments. Punch out some oval shapes and group them together for balloons. Draw your own strings. Specific birthday-themed punches, like candles or cupcakes, add a decorative touch to your scrapbook. If you don't have your own die-cut machine, you can use the one at your local scrapbook store for a small change. The personnel will usually help you find the dies you need.

Non-Traditional

Go with a non-traditional idea. You can find items to add to your scrapbook pages that are not specifically birthday-themed. Use buttons, paint, tags, bright paper clips and fiber. Add brads or eyelets. For a frilly birthday tea party for little girls, add ribbon, charms, lace or vintage buttons.

Scrapbooking Page Layout Ideas and Suggestions

Scrapbooking is one of those things that keep our memories alive and brings smiles to people’s faces for years to come. It allows you to relive the feelings and occasions as if they happened yesterday.

What is Scrapbooking?

Scrapbooking is basically a journal in which you keep your records through out your life. You can capture events that mean the most to you and your family. For instance you can capture birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and family vacations. You can scrap anything that you find special and want to share for years to come.

Now that you are entertaining the idea of a scrapbook, it is important you make those memories as alive and beautiful as possible. Here are some layout ideas:

• Depending on the occasion, make the page have color coordination. Use themed paper and/or matching colors to accent the photos.
• Pictures, take and record as many as possible, whatever the occasion, and later on you will be glad you did.
• When you get photos back from developing, write a few memories on the back so that you can remember all the little details you want to preserve. Sometimes we forget the smallest things that made the occasion special, writing them down will make it a lot easier when you start the journaling.
• Keep mementos from the occasion to add to the pages. Birthday cards, airline tickets etc. Use these as backdrops for photos or as the title to the page.
• Use accents such as brads, photo clips to add to the layout. A little dimension adds to the character of the pages.
• There are several different ways to make a scrapbook layout. These pages are very personal to each of us for different reasons. Chose for yourself what works best, however, there are many ideas and examples available in case you run out of scrapbooking page layout ideas.

Whatever way you choose to record your memories, a scrapbook has to represent you and the ties you what to capture and save, so even if there are many ideas, it is what connects you to the memory that will be the right choice.

Take the time to create a scrapbook, if you don’t have one already; it is sometimes better then an album or a standard journal and can become a bit of yourself. Memories created in a scrapbook live beyond you, to be cherished and enjoyed forever, so don’t just create a scrapbook, put a bit of love and soul into it. You will be happy that you did when you look back in years and live those times again.

Embellish Your Scrapbook Page

Now that you have learned how to crop and frame your picture, you now need to focus on telling your story creatively. Just like you would decorate a home to make your home feel homey you can decorate your scrapbook page to make your story feel more heartsy.

There are a variety of embellishments you can use… but remember that your scrapbook page needs to be able to go into the page protector. The more embellishments you place on your scrapbook page, the more risk you have at not fitting the page into the page protector.

Mandatory Embellishments:

• Scrapbook Titles - scrapbook titles really help the reader understand what picture you are trying to paint. Experiment with rubber stamps or fonts to create fun and interesting titles.
• Journal Entries - journal entries add another dimension to your scrapbook page where your heart and motivation will really come through and bring the reader of your page to the same place your heart was when the memory was created.

Other Embellishments:

• Stickers that are acid free are a wonderful way to embellish your cherished memory. Attach the sticker to solid color cardstock and trim a frame around it for a more interesting dimension.
• Ribbon is a wonderful and lightweight addition to your scrapbook page. Experiment with different types of fibers and colors to bring out the photo.
• Hardware, eyelets and brads are also another wonderful dimension. Make sure the hardware you use is lighteight and acid free. You can again draw a person’s eye using hardware to the area of the page or photo that is most important.
• Buttons are another way of drawing a person’s eye to the journal entry or photo. Again ensure that the buttons you use are acid free.
• Tags and Envelopes and Pockets are another way to place elements related to your story on your page and can make the page more 3-D and interactive.

Things to avoid:

• Glitter!!! Loose glitter can actually ruin a cherished photo by scratching the surface. If you are scrapbooking for the purpose of long term usage - then avoid Glitter totally.
• Heavy Embellishments… heavily weighted embellishments can actually tear the page as person flips it. Avoid using these types of embellishments on your page to preserve your hard work.
• Rub on transfers. Again over time if you do not rub properly, the rub on images can actually rub off the page or stick to the page protector causing you a lot of heartache.