What Is Scrapbooking?

Scrapbooking is recording the stories of your life with photos and words. The main thing that sets scrapbooks apart from simple photo albums is the stories that you include with the photos. When you look at a page in a photo album, you see a few photographs, but when you enjoy the pages of a well-executed scrapbook, you are transported to a different time.

Many people organize their photographs in photo albums. They might also display special pictures in frames in their homes. But photos alone will have little meaning for your family or others if you aren’t around to share the memories that they capture. “Scrapbooking” is a way to display pictures along with text that explains their significance.

A scrapbook need not have anything other than photos and words arranged on background paper. However, one of the appealing things about this increasingly popular pastime is the opportunity to express your personal style by decorating the pages of your memory books. This can be done by using coloured paper for backgrounds, creative styles of text, and other forms of embellishment.

Getting involved in the hobby is not too expensive. There are elaborate tools that can add interesting effects to a scrapbook, but simple pages often have the most impact. Basic scrapbooking tools include scissors, paper, photographs and glue. As you progress into more advanced techniques, you can purchase cut-outs, stencils, colorful pens, templates, die-cutters, stickers etc.

Getting started in creating your own unique keepsakes can be overwhelming, but it needn’t be. The key thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong way to scrapbook. Your albums should reflect who you are and what’s important to you.