How to make a scrapbook

Perhaps you’ve got a special moment coming up such as a wedding or your child’s first birthday, scrapbooking is a beautiful way to save any memories for you to reflect on later or share with others. Whether this is a hobby you want to pick up or think this might make a thoughtful gift for someone else, we’ve pulled together this handy guide full of scrapbook ideas and tips.

How to make a scrapbook: a step-by-step guide

When it comes to any DIY project or trying out a new hobby, the hardest part is actually just sitting down and getting started. So, if you’re a scrapbooking newbie, here are step-by-step instructions on how to make a scrapbook to you going:

1. Choose a theme

First and foremost, you need to decide what you want your scrapbook to be about. Whether that’s your travels with your partner or your baby’s first year, the theme is what will form the basis of your scrapbook and make it easier to organise your memories. Don’t worry if you can’t think of anything right now though as we’ve got some scrapbook theme ideas for you later on in this guide.

2. Figure out what memories you want to include

After picking a theme, you need to figure out which specific memories you want to include. Of course, a scrapbook is personal so it’s entirely up to you which moments mean the most and are worth highlighting.

Our top tip is to try and organise your memories into chronological order, if possible, as this will give your scrapbook some structure.

3. Find photos or other ways to represent your memories

Now you know your theme and which memories you’re going to include, it’s time to do some digging and gather your favourite photos (and possibly other mementoes) to use as reminders of these moments. And if you don’t have any keepsakes, you can always get creative and write out a little story about something that happened for you to look back on and reminisce about.

4. Start arranging your scrapbook pages

Onto the fun yet maybe most stressful part, arranging the scrapbook pages! The most important thing here is to not rush this step, layout your pages a few different ways before actually gluing anything down to see what you like. To remember how you’ve laid things out you could even take some pictures as a reference, or you can find inspiration elsewhere online.

Scrapbook theme ideas

As we touched on, one of the first steps to getting started scrapbooking is by choosing a theme. If you’re not sure what you want to do yet, here are 10 scrapbook theme ideas:

  1. Baby’s first year scrapbook
  2. Pregnancy journey scrapbook
  3. Wedding scrapbook
  4. Graduation scrapbook
  5. Travel scrapbook
  6. Birthday scrapbook
  7. Anniversary scrapbook
  8. Christmas scrapbook
  9. Pet scrapbook
  10. New home scrapbook

Easy scrapbook ideas

Other than the memories themselves, the thing that makes a scrapbook special (and tonnes better than a plain photo album) is all the embellishments and decorations you add to the pages. This is what really brings it to life and makes it personal to you!

Calligraphy

One way to make your scrapbook pages look fancy is by adding some calligraphy. You can use calligraphy to make your page titles stand out whilst also sprucing up your pages making them look less basic. But if you’ve never given it a go before, just take a look at our handy piece on how to get started with calligraphy for everything you need to know.

Little paper envelopes

If you’ve got other mementoes like letters, tickets, and so on then you can always make some envelopes out of patterned paper to add to your scrapbook. This way you can keep everything safe whilst also looking neat and tidy.

Here’s how to make envelopes out of paper:

  1. Take a square piece of paper and turn it so it looks like a diamond. If your paper is rectangular, then cut it into a square.
  2. Fold three of the corners into the centre, leaving the top corner unfolded. Make sure each edge has a sharp crease.
  3. Put a tiny piece of tape onto the bottom corner and carefully stick it to the sides so it forms an envelope shape. Be careful not to stick your envelope close, you need to be able to put things inside it after all.

Pressed flowers

Another way you can make your pages look extra lovely is with pressed flowers. Perhaps they’re from a special day such as a wedding or anniversary, or maybe you’ve just got a vase of flowers lying around that you want to give another life to. Unsure where to even start? Lucky for you we’ve already written all about how to press flowers, so there’s really no excuse to not give it a go!

Washi tape, stickers, and stamps

You can do all sorts with just some washi tape, stickers, and stamps and these really are the final touches to your scrapbook pages. For instance, you can use them to frame photos or cut them into shapes to really make your pages pop. All that you need to do is take a trip to your closest stationery or craft supplies shop and see what catches your eye.

Look at you, now you know all about how to scrapbook like a pro and can treasure your memories forever! Alternatively, if this still sounds like way too much work for you then you could just go for the easy (aka lazy) option of getting a treasure box to throw everything in. But where’s the fun in that? For more creative DIY projects you can check out our other how-to guides over on the thortful blog.