How to Make a Scrapbook Page
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Scrapbooking is a popular hobby that can bring out your most creative side, and it's an easy way to capture and share your favorite memories. Tap your inner artist and create a page of personalized memories by following this step-by-step tutorial to scrapbook your photos.
How to Scrapbook at a Glance
- Sort your photos and choose a focal point photo.
- Choose paper, embellishments, and a background.
- Double-mat the main photo; group mat the supporting photos.
- Write journaling entries.
- Add embellishments.
- Add the page to your album.
You'll find all the materials you need in your favorite craft store, including a scrapbook album to start your venture. Scrapbook albums are typically 12 inches by 12 inches, but they come in all different sizes, colors, and styles. Some may even come with a few pages to begin your project. Once you start, you'll likely want to add refill pages to expand your album.
Here's a free scrapbook page layout below to get you started. This scrapbook page layout has basic, clean lines that will look fabulous in any album. Use it as a guide to creating your scrapbook page.
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What You'll Need
Equipment / Tools
- Paper cutter or paper trimmer
- Scissors
- Pen or marker for journaling
- Adhesive (glue stick, double-sided tape)
Materials
- 1 12-inch by 12-inch square scrapbook album
- 1 12-inch by 12-inch square scrapbook page
- 1 12-inch by 12-inch piece scrapbook paper (optional, for background)
- Selection of card stock, white, solid colors, and patterns
- 4 photos for your page
- Stickers and other embellishments (optional)
Instructions
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Sort Your Photos
To start your page, select several photos of one theme. In this sample, there are four photos from a fall trip to an apple orchard. These photos are used to create a single, 12-inch by 12-inch scrapbook page. If you're considering creating a two-page spread, choose several more pictures to fill both pages.
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Choose a Focal Point Photo
- Select one photo to be the main picture on your layout. The easiest way to create a balanced, pleasing scrapbook page layout is to have a single focal point. Here, the strongest of the four images is the focal point of the page.
- Next, crop or reprint the other photos in a smaller size so that the focal point photo is the largest one on the page.
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Choose Paper and Embellishments
Select colors of solid and patterned papers that accentuate the photos. The selection for this page includes hunter green, navy, red, and white card stock, with a pair of blue-green patterned papers as accents.
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Create a Background
To begin putting together the scrapbook page, you need a canvas. You can use a solid sheet of 12-inch by 12 inch scrapbook paper as your background on which you put your images. Or, you can create a 12-inch by 12-inch background with patterned paper and card stock.
- Here, the background is made beginning with a 12-inch wide by 4-inch tall strip of solid green card stock.
- The green card stock is topped off with a 2-inch tall strip of patterned paper.
- Two more strips are added to the bottom of the green strip until the paper is 12 inches wide by 12 inches tall to fit onto the scrapbook page.
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Double-Mat the Focal Point Photo
A double mat gives extra emphasis to the focal point on the page.
- First, the photo is placed on a mat of white card stock.
- Next, a slightly larger frame of red card stock is added underneath the white card stock.
- Once the focal point photo is matted, it's placed on the large field of green card stock in the middle of the page.
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Group Mat the Supporting Photos
A great time-saving technique in scrapbooking is to mat several photos all on one piece of card stock. Here, all three of the supporting photos are placed on a mat of a single strip of white card stock.
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Add Photos
Experiment with your layout without adhesive. Dry-fitting the parts of your layout before adhering them to the layout is a great way to test the placement of the pieces to make sure you like how they will look on the page.
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Add Journaling
The photos on your page will lose their meaning over the years without supporting copy.
- Here the journaling is printed on a sheet of white card stock.
- The card stock is then trimmed to fit on a strip of navy card stock.
- The text is then placed next to the focal point photo.
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Add Simple Embellishments
This particular scrapbook layout does not need many embellishments. A simple nature-themed sticker added to the top of the page is all that is needed to complete the scrapbook page.
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Add the Scrapbook Page to Your Album
The completed scrapbook page is a simple and quick way to create a layout that uses four photos. It tells the story of the pictures in a clean and classic way that you will always be proud to display in your albums.