5 Biggest Scrapbooking Mistakes

Creating scrapbooks is a wonderful way to preserve memories. Photos, mementos and stories can be creatively and beautifully presented and preserved in a scrapbook to be enjoyed by generations.

There are so many different ways to scrapbook: you can choose from various sizes of albums, use different kinds of colored and patterned papers, add all kinds of embellishments and even include stitching or painting on your pages. One of the great things about scrapbooking is that there is no "right" way to do it: It's a personal endeavor that can and should reflect the personality of the scrapbooks creator.

While there are many different ways to create your scrapbook pages and preserve history and memories, there are a few things you should definitely avoid. These "mistakes" will decrease the sentimental value of your scrapbooks and even cause their premature deterioration.

As you enjoy putting your albums together, make sure you avoid these 5 scrapbooking mistakes.

#1 Scrapbooking Mistake: Not Journaling

You may think you will never forget your child's first Halloween. After all, you have beautiful pictures to remember what costume he wore and how much candy he got. However, after ten more Halloweens, are you sure you will remember how he said, "TREAT!" instead of "trick-or-treat," or how he had to stop after every door and immediately eat his candy?

Even if you do remember these cute little details, will your spouse? What about the future spouse of your child and your future grandchildren?

Maybe you think you are scrapbooking your pictures chronologically and so it will be obvious how old kids are in the pictures and what the dates are. What happens if that scrapbook comes apart and all the pages fall out? How will you know how to put them back together?

Write dates, write details, and write your thoughts. There is no need to create a huge narrative, if you don't want to. But you should at least write the "who, what, where and when" of each set of photos. You will be glad you did and so will all the others who enjoy looking at your beautiful scrapbooks.

#2 Scrapbooking Mistake: Not Cropping

Cropping your pictures means cutting them down to just the most important elements, or the subject of the picture. You can also crop your pictures digitally using a computer program like Photoshop. Even professional photographers crop their pictures so the subject matter and any appropriate background is framed in a pleasing way.

When you crop your pictures down to the most important elements, you can fit more pictures on each page and tell your "story" better. In addition, you will be able to draw attention to the people and places you want to draw attention too, not the unimportant things in the background.

To clarify, "unimportant" things in your pictures might include other people you don't know, cars, garbage cans, buildings or a field of weeds. Of course one person's "field of weeds" might be the next person's "field of wildflowers," so decide what the most important elements are and crop out everything else.

When working with old photos, take care in cropping. Don't cut out a nice picture of the family home in the background of a picture of Great Grandpa Joe. You will need to use more discretion with old photos than you would with current photos.

#3 Scrapbooking Mistake: Not Using Archival Quality Supplies

Since your scrapbook will most likely become a family heirloom and enjoyed for generations, make sure that your hard work doesn't get wasted by using paper and other products which are unsafe for use with photos. Archival quality supplies will be acid and lignin free. You should make sure that your markers, paper, and adhesives are all photo safe by being acid and lignin free.

Acid causes paper and photos to disintegrate and photos discolor and disintegrate more quickly than they would naturally. This aging process is slowed significantly when acid is removed from paper during the manufacturing process. Lignin is the natural bonding element which holds wood fibers together. Like acid, lignin can be removed during processing to make scrapbooking paper safe.

When purchasing scrapbooking supplies, make sure they are labeled "photo safe."

#4 Scrapbooking Mistake: Keeping Your Scrapbook "Off-Limits"

There is no doubt that a lot of work, time and even money can go into creating a scrapbook of photos. Your natural instinct may be to put the scrapbook away when you are not working on it and not allow anyone, especially little kids, to look at it.

What a tragedy! Kids love looking at pictures of themselves and seeing them displayed in such a loving and creative way gives them a sense of self-worth. By keeping the scrapbook out of reach, kids will quickly learn that the scrapbook is more important than they are.

To protect your scrapbook from little hands, purchase some inexpensive page protectors and teach kids to wash their hands before looking at their scrapbook. Another great way to let kids look at scrapbooks is to look with them and tell them their story while they see the pictures. For example, "this was the day you were born, we were so happy and so was your big brother...here he is holding you!"

#5 Scrapbooking Mistake: Not Letting Your Pictures do the Talking

With such a great selection of scrapbook supplies available, it might be a challenge to, as they say, "leave well enough alone" with a scrapbook page. Little silk flowers, stickers, brads, lettering, press board shapes, ribbons, buttons, and the like can turn an ordinary scrapbook page into an extraordinary scrapbook page, but only when used in moderation.

Think of these embellishments as the spice and your photos as the meat of the page. The whole reason for your scrapbook, after all, is to have a great place to showcase your photos and journal your memories. Make the photos the main focus and use embellishments to draw attention to the photos, not away from them.

Scrapbooking can be a very enjoyable hobby. You can choose what your scrapbook will look like and by avoiding these scrapbook mistakes, your scrapbooks will be the best they can be!