Scrapbooking is a fun, creative way to preserve and showcase memories. If you’re new to scrapbooking and looking for scrapbooking techniques for beginners, the scrapbooking tips on this page will be very helpful.
Some basic supplies for scrapbooking are a scrapbook album, acid-free cardstock, 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper, various types of scissors, adhesives, and pens.
3D embellishment scrapbooking can be made with 3D dot tape. Other embellishments include stickers, washi tape, ribbons, buttons, grommets, and die-cuts to add flair.
Helpful tools to make crafting easier are paper trimmers, hole punches in various shapes and designs, and corner rounders.
tips on this page
Some ideas include organizing photos by sorting them by theme or event or placing them in chronological order. It’s always a good idea to choose the best quality photos that tell a story or evoke strong memories.
Find tips for several ways to work with glue and adhesives. There are many ideas for embellishments and ways to incorporate them into the scrapbooking process.
Learn how to choose paper colors to enhance photos or evoke a particular mood. For example, photos of the kiddos playing in the snow look great, with blues and whites to set the tone for winter play.
The ideas below show tips for adding personal touches like writing captions, journal entries, or quotes to provide context for the photos being used.
There is a link to an article with ideas for incorporating meaningful items like tickets, postcards, pressed flowers, and other pieces of memorabilia.
Want to learn how to perfect handwriting and use stamps for decorative text? There are tips for these, too!
Find inspiration for one-page and two-page layout scrapbooking ideas. A two-page layout design adds so much more to the content and importance of the theme. Look at our page for free scrapbooking layouts and designs.
Be sure to keep scrapbooking fun! Don’t stress about perfection! Keep the focus on self-expression. It helps to involve family or friends in collaborating on pages.
Try experimenting with themes like seasonal holidays, vacations, or hobbies.
Scroll down to find excellent tips to help with scrapbooking!
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Save the phony plastic credit cards you receive in the mail and used telephone cards. Then use them as glue-spreaders.
Needlepointers.com
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You don’t need as many scrapbook supplies as you might think. Instead, look around your house for things you can use, like old fabric, clothing tags, buttons, office supplies, or ticket stubs. When it comes to scrapbooking, anything goes!
The Papermill Blog
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Metal charms aid as unique, decorative elements to scrapbook pages. Charms are available in all sorts of sizes and shapes to fit nearly any theme.
Annie's Scrapbooking Tips
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Take a good look at your photos first, and select colors and papers that are complimentary. For instance, if a photo includes a considerable amount of red, incorporate the same tone of red and other complimentary colors in your color choices.
Hershey's
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Choose colors that match the setting and the mood of your images.
Root & Branch Paper Co.
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Punch your craft punch through a piece of wax paper several times to lubricate the punch and clean off any adhesive residue.
Crafty-Crafted
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Every scrapbook page needs a focal point! Choose a central photo, craft, or embellishment to serve as your focal point when designing a page.
Zenpop
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Your photos are priceless memories! Keep them safe from computer theft or failure by storing and backing up your files.
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Fabric can be used in many ways to enhance scrapbook pages. Fabric can be used as a background or as a border to enhance dimension and texture to your scrapbook.
Annie's Scrapbooking Tips
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When using fabric either for the background or just cutouts if you aren't going to sew them on you can use a fusible bond to bond it to the page. This works great especially when using 12 x 12.
Scrapbook
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Don’t have any ribbons to add to your scrapbook layouts? Cut out strips from your lined patterned papers and adhere these faux ribbons to your pages.
Everything About Scrapbooking
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To add glitter to a scrapbook page, apply liquid adhesive, sprinkle on the glitter an allow the glue to dry before shaking off the excess glitter.
Needlepointers.com
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To make a stamped design glitter, just ink the stamp with glue, stamp it and cover the design with fine glitter. Clean the stamp well with warm soapy water or disposable wipes to eliminate stickiness.
Scrapbook etc. Magazine
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A great way to apply white glue or liquid adhesive when scrapbooking is to spread it with a gift or credit card.
Needlepointers.com
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When gluing keep the glue bottle upside down in a plastic cup. The glue will always be ready to use.
Needlepointers.com
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Personalize your layout with your handwritten journaling. Lightly draw some straight lines with a pencil, sketch in your words, and then go over them with a pigment-ink pen. Erase off the pencil marks and you’ll have almost perfect handwriting.
Everything About Scrapbooking
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Incorporating memorabilia such as ticket stubs, postcards, letters, and other keepsakes adds depth and context to your scrapbook page.
Craft Stash
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Add a premade envelope to your layout to tuck in the extra journaling. Give your envelope a unique look by customizing it.
Everything About Scrapbooking
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Use a pigment ink fine-tip pen that is fade-resistant, lightfast, bleedproof, and waterproof.
Scrapbook Preservation Society
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Running low or out of a certain letter? Look at what you have, using a little imagination can turn a 3 into an E. You could also turn g's into h's and y's with a little work and the right font.
By Cholee Clay on HugPages
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A quick tip for mounting letters on squares. Cut a strip of double sided acid-free tape the length needed. Mount where the letters will be placed. Take the letters (mounted on squares) and simply place them on the tape.
Tasha at Crazy for Scrappin'
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An easy way to make an inexpensive favor is with store purchased lip balm. If possible remove the original wrapper, then glue strip of scrapbook paper around the barrel and add a ribbon embellishment.
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You are better off copying the newspaper article onto good quality office paper (acid-free, lignin-free, and not recycled) using pigment toner and putting the copy into your album.
Scrapbook Preservation Society
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Rather than organizing scrapbook supplies by color, try organizing them by them - such as pet, love, birthday, beach, Disney, etc.
Associate at Needlepointers.com
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Tell a story. A good title, arranging your photos in a certain way, and evocative journaling can help you tell the story behind your page.
The Papermill Blog
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Don't discard the paint chip samples you get at home improvement stores when trying to decide on a painting color for your home improvment project. These paint card samples can be used for card making or scrapbook embellishments and crafts.
Thirfy Fun
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Don't throw away any pretty paper! You can use paper scraps with die cutters to cut some shapes such as circles, stars and other small shapes to use on a scrapbook page. Or free-hand cut shapes.
Annette at Needlepointers.com
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Embellish a picture by creating a border around the photo or page by machine-stitching along the edge.
Needlepointers.com Associate
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Your scrapbooking and you have run out of photo corners. Don't fret! Make your own. Just get some grosgrain ribbon, cut it a little more than double its width, fold top corners to bottom center and iron. Attach with adhesive.
Needlepointers.com
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Scrapping photos in different shapes, like circles, stars, and ovals, makes for a more fun and interesting page.
Needlepointers.com Associate
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Place your prints in photo boxes and sort them with dividers. This makes it easy to flip through photos.
Scrapbook Etc. Magazine
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Print multiple photos, especially if you plan on cutting them. That way, you’ll have a backup in case something goes wrong.
The Papermill Blog
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Do you have drawers and boxes of photos? It might be best to divide the photos by themes rather than in chronological order.
Scrapbookscrapbook.com
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Look for packets of pre-cut papers in different sizes and colors to add layers of colorful accents to your pages. White index cards with no lines are especially handy for journaling.
Hershey's
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Don't toss your old rotary blades away! Store them in the plastic container marked "Used" and use them to cut paper for scrapbooking and card marking projects.
Needlepointers.com
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When choosing a scrapbook album size, consider the amount of space you need for photos and embellishments.
Needlepointers.com Associate
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Scrapbook albums come in different sizes. Many are 12" x 12", but you'll find 8 1/2 x 11, 8 x 8, etc. There are also adorable 2x3" mini albums.
Needlepointers.com Associate
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Sometimes it can be challenging trying to decide where to place photos, the titles, and your journal on your layouts. Begin by making a page sketch.
Scrapbooking Coach
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Use the phrases or covers from greeting cards you've received to decorate your scrapbook pages.
Associate at Needlepointers.com
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Keep a notebook handy so you can jot down scrapbook ideas for page titles, sayings, poems and quotes. You can find lots of ideas in newspapers, magazines, books, movies and on the Internet.
By Annette at Needlepointers.com
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Knot or glue thread ends on the back of your project. It’s best to glue heavier threads to reduce bulk.
Scrapbook
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Store your pages and photos in a cool dry place and out of direct sunlight. Clean cardboard boxes and plastic storage bins work well for storing your supplies. Plastic trays with multiple compartments are great for storing small embellishment items.
Hershey's
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A scrapbook theme is the main idea behind your entire scrapbook. It can be anything from an entire person’s life to a single event, interest, hobby, or year. Or it can be a travel travel or family history scrapbook. Anything goes!
Capture
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Cropping your photos takes time. You can save time by making your page with 4" x 6" uncropped photos.
Spruce Crafts
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Visit the hardware store to purchase small plastic boxes with compartments to hold small embellishment, tools, stamps, etc.
Needlepointers.com
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Don’t throw away your soda tabs! Save them and use them as the “buckle” on your ribbons. If you want, you can sand the rough edge down a bit. Works with paper also!!!
Everything About Scrapbooking
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If you are using stickers or washi tapes, be sure to press them down firmly so they stick to the page.
Altenew
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Use old road maps as embellishment for scrapbook pages or and scrapbook paper.
by Annette at Needlepointers.com
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Wide washi tapes can be used as instant borders for your scrapbook page layouts.
Altenew
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