What do I Need to Start a Photo Scrapbook?

Precious memories are made and captured every day and every time you pull out your camera to snap a picture of your friends and family. Of course, after a while all of these pictures become lost, obsolete, or forgotten in an old shoebox that gets placed in the attic unless we do something with them.

Here are some reasons for starting a photo scrapbook:

• It is a fun/addicting hobby
• They become genealogy resources for future generations
• They allow you to save precious family memories in a fun way
• They are a great way to organize your pictures
• They help you remember specific days, trips, holidays, and family events

The very first thing you will need in order to start a scrapbook is a couple of pictures and in order to get pictures you are going to need a camera. If you do not already have a camera and you want to start a scrapbook than you might want to start the process of acquiring one.

I use a simple digital camera that I received as a gift because I am not a professional photographer but I still want the option of looking at my picture as soon as I have taken it. If you know how to use a more high tech camera and you can afford one then you should use that for the task of capturing memories. If all you can afford, or all you want to deal with, is a disposable camera than that will work just as well for our purposes.

For printing your pictures, I tend to wait until I have about 2 months’ worth of pictures or more so that I will have plenty to work on in my scrapbook.

The next thing you are going to need is a photo scrapbook, the actual book you are going to place your pictures into. There are a very LARGE number of options when it comes to finding a scrapbook for your pictures. I have a couple different kinds because I have been experimenting with what I like and don’t like over the years.

For a long time my mother and I both used Creative Memories’ scrapbooks, most of them were about 12” x 12” but you had to buy the paper and the plastic covers that they sold because nothing else would work with those particular books. I think they went out of business which is probably a good thing for me because buying the books, the paper, and the plastic covers became very expensive.

After that, I tried a simple scrapbook from Walmart that was about 12” x 12” in size and had 10 plastic sheets already attached, supposedly you can add more sheets/pages and make the book bigger but you have to buy some kind of nuts/bolts contraption in order to make it bigger. Needless to say I didn’t really like that book. I have recently purchased a leather-looking three ring binder book that is VERY BIG the plastic sheets that go with it are not too expensive and it is going to hold a lot of 12” x 12” pages.

In order to start putting pictures onto paper (to be placed in your book) you are going to need some paper for your book pages. I prefer getting a heavier paper in white and sometimes in black for my scrapbook pages, cardstock paper works great. The more sturdy the paper the less my pages bend. I always get my pages in 12” x 12”. You are also going to want some colored/decorative/scrap paper for your scrapbook. I try really hard not to waste any part of my paper (buffalo) by using up even the scrap pieces for decoration.

The next basic tool or necessity of scrapbooking is a pair of nice scissors and a ruler. You will be amazed at how often you are chopping/snipping pieces of paper, pictures, etc. And unless you have a straight edge cutter, sadly I do not have one yet, then you are going to want a ruler so that you can cut straight across a big piece of paper or a really important picture.

Of course having paper and pictures and pages to place them on will do you no good if you have no way of placing those things on the page. There are special kinds of glue/tape you can use for scrapbooking that are not acidic so that they will not ruin your pictures. One of my favorites is called a tape runner; Elmer’s CraftBond tape runners are especially great. Tape runners are awesome because they allow you more decorating, placing, and actual scrapbooking time instead of glue/taping time; they are quick and easy to use and easy to refill.

Investing in a nice fine tipped pen or two is a great way to complete your basic tools/scrapbook necessities. Of course you could just use a regular pen but a nice fine tipped marker/pen will give you a clear and more defined stroke and it will look much nicer if that is what you use to write on your pages.

These are not just pictures they are your memories and what better way to preserve those memories than to have fun starting the new hobby of scrapbooking? You also don’t have to scrapbook alone, if you prefer hobbies that include other people you can host your own scrapbooking/craft party. Invite your friends and family to scrapbook with you or invite them over to work on any other crafts they happen to be in the middle of at the moment. Have fun preserving your memories by starting your scrapbook today!