A Scrapbooking album has no set number of pictures on each page. There can be simply one image or a whole collage of images. The idea behind scrapbooking is to create a theme and fit the pictures into it. This is done through elaborate decoration of the pages around the pictures to enhance and convey the theme.

Before starting, you will have to have a collection of photos around a certain theme. This can be an event, a celebration or just a collection of memories of a particular part of yours or someone else’s life.

With celebration themes, these may be for things like graduations, sporting victories, weddings and milestone birthdays such at 18th’s 21st’s 50th’s and etc. You will usually have a collection of photographs in a short time span for these kind of events.

For the collection kind of albums, you will find that your pictures tend to have been taken over months of years. Things that fall into these albums might be things like, childhood memories, school years or someone’s time in the army. There really is no right and wrong when it comes to these kind of albums, they are for any kind of memories.

Once you have your album planned out, you then set about decorating and arranging the pictures as you see fit. Really the limit here is your imagination. You will want to look up a more detailed guide on decorating a scrapbook for specific examples.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the world scrapbooking and wish you happy scrapping!

Scale

The first thing to consider in your design is the scale. This usually refers to the size that the actual scrapbook will be-will it be a small 12×12 or will it be a much larger custom size. Some things you could consider when making this choice include where you’d like the scrapbook to be displayed, as well as how many and what type of photos you’d like to be in it.

Repetition

Repetition is the second aspect you must determine when designing your scrapbook. You must always remember that scrapbooks are mediums not only made for yourself, but for others as well. So try to mix it up a little and avoid creating too many pages with very little differing elements.

Just as you would avoid repeating a story several times, so too you should prevent yourself form wasting too many pages on the same activity, theme, or event in your life.

Spacing

Spacing refers to the distance between the individual elements on the on page layout and can be difficult matter. There is a fine line between having a balanced scrapbook page and a gaudy mess. If items are too closely spaced your reader will feel overwhelmed. If your items are spaced too far apart your viewer will feel short changed.

Look at your page. Close your eyes. Open them again. Does your page look cluttered? Does your page have more photographs than background? Are your embellishments drawing the focus away from your mementos? Then, you need to simplify your page a bit and increase the spacing between objects. Remember you can always add more pages.

Is your page bare? Is your page uninteresting and colorless? Then, think about adding some more mementos and colorful embellishments. In this way, you can decrease the spacing between objects making your page more energetic.

Stability

Stability is when a page appears to be well balanced. This is largely a matter of how the arrangement makes you feel when you look at it. If it looks ‘lop-sided’ or too busy on one side, then you may not have your page balanced.

If, however, you want to create a feeling of unease, try putting your elements close to one side or the top. You might try this if you were assembling a page on mountaineering for instance, to create a feeling of height.

Janette

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Scrapbooking is usually defined as the method of creatively preserving and displaying photos, along with journaling and other memorabilia. There are a wide variety of ways to do this. It's no surprise that many people are not sure what to include in scrapbook page layouts? These six basic elements are the foundation for great scrapbook pages.

There are many ways these elements can be used in your pages. Most pages include these elements, but occasionally you will find that a page may not need them all. There are not too many hard and fast rules in scrapbooking. Using these as a guide you can come up with some beautiful pages. We'll look at these basic elements, then you can decide how to make them work in your page layouts.

• Photos – These are usually the essence of the page. Although, we may occasionally create a page with no photos. Choosing instead to focus on a piece of memorabilia or journaling. Photos should be the focus of the page. All of the other elements should compliment and enhance them.

• Scrapbooking Page Titles – The page title conveys the theme and often the mood of the page. The title can be positioned anywhere on the page, but is usually a prominent feature. Quotes and sayings can be used as scrapbooking page titles, as well a names and simple phrases. There are many options for creating a page title. Some of these options are, handwriting, using stencils, stickers and stamps, and computer generated or preprinted titles.

• Journaling – Journaling tells the story in the photos, often including events you cannot see in them. Don't forget to include the names, dates and places. You can also include events and your thoughts and feelings. Poems, quotes and sayings are also part of journaling. Sometimes a page can focus more on the journaling, even having no pictures at all.

• Photo Mats – A photo is traditionally matted by placing a paper behind the photo with a small border all the way around. This can emphasize a photo or help it stand out. You can double mat a certain photo for extra emphasis. Photos can also be partially matted by a paper. You can mat all or several photos, or only the focal point photo.

• Embellishments – Stickers and other embellishments, such as brads, eyelets, and ribbons; can spice up your scrapbooking page layouts. Embellishments should enhance the page, not overwhelm or distract from the photos.

• Borders – Borders add visual interest to a page. They can be placed at the sides or the top and/or bottom of a page. Many materials may be used, such as pen, stamps, paper, stickers and much more.

Whew, we made it through the list. It wasn't so bad was it? Now let's get started on that scrapbook you've been dying to make. Remember these are some of the basics. Don't be afraid to experiment with these, develop your own personal style, and most important…have fun!

About the Author
Melanie Hansen simply-stunning-scrapbooks.com Simply Stunning Scrapbooks
Melanie Hansen is an avid scrapbooker. She loves to share the ideas, tips and techniques she has learned. Visit Simply Stunning Scrapbooks to stay up-to-date with ideas, tips and tutorials on traditional and digital scrapbooking.