Blog #93:

How to start scrapbooking? Scrapbooking keeps the memories alive. With technology, we tend to take pictures and just save them on our phones and upload to social media or google photos. Don’t get me wrong, those are awesome ideas. Especially when you want to show a loved one or friend pictures of your children or vacation. I remember as a little girl people used to carry pictures of their children in their wallets. Funny how times have changed. I however, love to print pictures and create scrapbooks so one day my children will have these memories. Just like a book, I love turning the pages. It is not the same as in e-book or audio book.

How to Start a Scrapbook

Thinking about scrapbooking may overwhelm you or get you excited to start the next adventure of pictures! For a long time, I kept saying I would create albums and kept saving all my pictures. WOW that was not a good idea. That became years of work. It was fun organizing the pictures in the beginning and the longer it took to finish one album the more I became overwhelmed.

Start off with a plan on what you want to scrapbook. Do you have random pictures when you were a child that you could put together in one album? Is there a vacation, baby album, school pictures, honeymoon or wedding pictures you would like to put together? Decide how you want to create this album. Would you like to just add a picture on each page or a couple of pages worth of pictures. Consider the size album and If you will be adding pictures throughout the year.

Supplies

All you really need is:

• A scrapbook album
• A marker
• Pictures
• Scrapbook paper
• Glue

Optional Supplies

• Stickers
• Different colors of scrapbook
• Stencils
• Cards (birthday, Christmas, etc)

Scrapbooking can become very expensive. However, you can scrapbook without the extra costs. I promise! When I first started I bought stickers and different colored sheets, etc. In the end, my scrapbooks were looking too busy and not focusing on the pictures. Overtime, I learned to just focus on the pictures. For some major events I did buy stickers but kept everything else to a minimum.

Baby Album

My two oldest boys who are now 9 and 10 each have their baby albums complete. It took forever!! Since I started their albums when they started preschool! When I completed their baby albums, from birth to 5 years old, I promised I would not torture myself with so many pictures! For the birth pictures I purchased some stickers to add, also added the hospital items you get to bring home; such as the bracelet and footprints. After the big events I learned to just add the pictures. Of course there was the first haircut picture and saving a bit of the hair! A small collage or a few pictures on each page is what my scrapbooks have become. I write down the month and how old everyone is on the pictures and location. Simple! Years later that is what we are all wondering, when and where and “how old was I in this picture?” I have now started my youngest, baby album. He will be a year in August! How time flies by!

School Album

This album is probably the easiest of them all. I use a 3 ring binder and print out the few pictures from the year; first day of school, field trip, school picture, last day of school and if there is a graduation or extra pictures in class, such as guest reader. The preschool and kindergarten years usually have a few more pictures but as the kids get older, there are less pictures from school. When I first started these albums, I purchased school themed paper to scrapbook but soon realized it was to busy. A cheap and easy way to use colorful paper is to use your kids school art work and glue pictures on them for the album! My plan is to keep adding pictures every year until they graduate high school!

Wedding Album

This was also another easy album for me to create. I purchased some stickers for “wedding” and saved some of my flowers for the album. In addition, I saved my wedding cards. My husband and I eloped and went to Aruba for our honeymoon. Therefore, I did not have an overwhelming amount of pictures. We had professional pictures taken and then our honeymoon pictures. As with all my scrapbooks, I use the 12×12 albums (except for the school albums) and purchased a wedding theme album, which I love!

Family Album

Lastly, There is the family album. I ended up starting this album when I started scrapbooking. Forget about all the other years. It would be too much! To make things easier, I create one album for the year, starting from January to December. Less albums and all the memories for that year in one place!

When to Start

Start with one project and write down your ideas. You want to know how to proceed and follow a certain path so I does not become confusing. Easy way is to choose a scrapbook size and color paper you like to use. To save money, I save all birthday cards, christmas, baby, thank you cards, etc. I cut out what I like about the card and incorporate into my scrapbook page. I also like to print pictures every 3 months so I don’t fall behind. Scrapbooking is one my hobbies and always on my list of things to do!

Wherever you begin, start and finish your project. The end result is amazing to look at for years to come!

Enjoy!