Your Step by Step Guide to Creating a Scrapbook Page

Scrapbooking has become one of most popular hobbies among women today. Placing treasure photographs, newspaper clippings, announcements and trinkets into a creative, embellished scrapbook page is more than fun. By keeping your mind creative, you may help your brain stay young and you will have a beautiful finished product that will hold cherished memories for generations to come!

While everyone loves looking through other people's scrapbooks, for some getting started on their own is quite difficult. In this article, I will explain a simple method for creating a beautiful finished page. Just add your own creativity and supplies, and before you know it, your page will be complete before your eyes!

The first thing you need to do when creating a scrapbook page is to pick out the pictures you want on that page. You can do a single page layout, or choose to do a double spread over both pages. Either way, 5 pictures is usually the maximum, and 3 the minimum.

Next you will want to choose some coordinating paper. I like to look through the pictures I will use for that page and try to find one common color on all the pictures. Then find a matching paper of that color, and at least one other patterned or different color scrapbook paper to contrast with it. Mix and match until you feel the paper combination is just right for your photographs.

Then you will want to crop your pictures. Some people do not like to crop their pictures and that is fine as well, but you can create a more interesting scrapbook page if you cut the pictures to a better size and eliminate some of the extra clutter in the photograph. You can crop to square size, rectangles, circles, ovals, or just about any shape you like. Each step that goes into making your scrapbook page is a chance for you to show your creativity and personality.

Next is the matting stage. Most photographs will look better if you place them on a matted background. This simply means to create a border by cutting a piece of coordination paper slightly larger than the photo and placing the photo onto the mat. This will create a border and emphasize the photo more. Mats are best done by using a solid color cardstock or scrapbook paper. To add an extra emphasis on a particular photo, try doing a double mat by creating two pieces of paper slightly larger than the other that will fit behind the special photo you want to highlight. You can choose to mat all the photos on the page, or just highlight a few.

After you have matted your pictures, and perhaps even while you are matting and cropping your photos you will want to set up your page layout. By setting up a layout of the page, you can better see how the finished page will look. Change the setting of the pictures until you feel you get it just right. Do not tape or glue anything down yet!

The next step is many scrappers favorite, the embellishment stage. Many scrapbook pages have extras on them such as die cuts, stickers, brads, flowers, eyelets, ribbon, and the list can go on and on. This is where creativity really comes in. Look through your supplies, and add as you feel led. Some pages require very little embellishing which allows the pictures to be the true star of the page. Do be careful to not over-embellish as you may over shadow the pictures.

Once you have completed all the above stage, you can take a final glance at your page, and be sure it is just how you want it. Once you approve, begin the taping stage. Tape all your pictures and embellishments as you need. Very little tape can secure your page, so be sure to not over do it.

The final step for many scrap bookers in the journaling stage. Add your thoughts, feelings and special memories about the pictures and the activity they show. This is often the icing on the cake for a scrapbook. Jot down all you can remember so that as the years pass by you can read the writing and remember the day more clearly!

I love to scrapbook, and each page is a new creation. Once you complete a few pages, you will learn the method that works best for you, and you can always rearrange and add new steps as you feel you need to. Scrapbooks can be the story of a person's life, so be sure to make them beautiful!