Looking through Pinterest pictures of elaborate scrapbooks can be incredibly intimidating. There are all the themed pages, calligraphy, and carefully planned layouts. Let me be the first to tell you that all that is absolutely not necessary! A scrapbook houses your photos and memories, and that is all it needs to be.
In this blog I’m going to be answering your scrapbooking questions so you can confidently start your own.
What goes into a scrapbook?
I like to put anything from photos to tickets to receipts into my book. Pretty much anything that would go into a shoe box of memories goes into my scrapbook. Over the years, I’ve added more and more things for decoration, such as washi tapes and stickers.
What tools do you use?
If you’re starting out, the basic tools you need are:
Notebook, preferably with stiff pages
Regular Scotch tape, glue, or double sided tape
Pens, markers, or highlighters
Stickers
And that’s it! That’s all you need to get started with scrapbooking. You probably already have all these materials at home and if not, you can buy them all from your local dollar store. Personally, I have a few more essentials that I have added over the course of my scrapbooking journey
Instax camera and film
Washi tapes
Gel pens and paint pens
How do you organize your book?
I like to keep my entries in chronological order, but if I dig up something from 5 years ago, I’ll insert it on my current page. Each piece of my scrapbook has a story, and I will usually write a small blurb explaining its significance.
As for the layout, it depends on what needs to go in. I get a lot of my inspiration from scrolling on Pinterest. Usually I’ll fit no more than 4 or 5 different items on one page with some room for descriptions.
How do you stay motivated to keep scrapbooking?
Good news for anyone that has trouble sticking with a hobby! Scrapbooking is probably the easiest hobby to keep up for a long time. After you get your book set up and your hoarded treasures in, it’s very low maintenance. It only requires about 10 minutes every so often to add in new entries (depending on how much detail and decoration you like to add). The easiest part of scrapbooking is that it doesn't really require you to practice. Improvement comes with experimenting with new layouts and looks. It’s a very low pressure, personal process, which I find is helpful for learning at my own pace over a long period of time.
If you find yourself having trouble sticking with your hobbies, read my blog post with tips on how to stick with a hobby long term.
Reach out to me on Instagram or Twitter @thenerDIYblog for more scrapbooking tips and share your work with me! If you'd like your crafting questions answered live, I stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/finding_doro.