Draven Jackson
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One great way to showcase important family moments is through fun scrapbooks and photo albums. But how do you make your scrapbook go from plain and boring to exciting and colorful? We don’t want our family’s favorite memories shoved away on a shelf somewhere, so how do we make them aesthetic and coffee-table worthy? Here are some of our favorite scrapbooking tips and tricks to take your scrapbooks and photo albums from eh to amazing!

Have An Overall Theme in Mind

One of my favorite scrapbooking tips is the idea of creating a cohesive theme for your entire scrapbook. Whether it’s a minimalist look or a colorful, pattern-oriented design, having a set theme in mind can help bring the scrapbook together as one family album rather than disjointed snapshots.

Some moms like to make each scrapbook or album its own theme based on its contents – one album for the family vacation, one for the kids’ school achievements, a wedding album, a birthdays album, and so on. This can be a great way to showcase each individual arc in your family’s history with a distinguished album dedicated to those moments.

However, sometimes we don’t want to be cluttered with multiple albums and scrapbooks, but instead, want just one or two that really captures the story of the whole family. Choosing a specific thematic style can help create an overall unified album, such as a minimalist look, a cottage-core theme, or even a more complicated art deco style.

The best way to choose a scrapbook’s theme is to look at all the pictures you plan to include in your album and see what art style or look seems to best fit your family’s photographic aesthetic.

Stock Up on a Variety of Supplies

Another of my favorite scrapbooking tips is to stock up on a variety of supplies that can help you achieve the theme and style you’ve decided to center your album on. For those moms who love to craft, I know you already have an arsenal of drawers full of papers, stickers, pens, and tapes that you’re planning to use for your scrapbook.

But for those moms who may not be a seasoned crafting veterans, here are some possible craft supplies you may want to look into getting before you start your scrapbook:

• Calligraphy or inking pens and art markers
• Washi Tape
• Card stock or patterned paper
• Thematically relevant stickers and embellishments
• Acid-free adhesive

But what’s the most important part of your scrapbook? The album itself! Make sure to choose one that really fits in with your overall theme and aesthetic.

And don’t be afraid to stock up on card stock, tape, and embellishments you may not feel you need for a specific album’s theme – you never know what future scrapbooks may look like, so you’ll always be happy to have those supplies on hand. I personally am a big fan of raiding the clearance section of craft stores for all my future scrapbooking needs!

A Pop of Color Unifies the Page

While having an overall theme will help create a cohesive scrapbook, one of the best scrapbooking tips for creating a visually pleasing album is to choose a specific color to emphasize on each page.

This works best if you’ve chosen a minimalist theme, but you can also still decide to be monochromatic and keep a playful, exciting overall theme. By making your pages emphasize one color, you can help bring attention to specific details in the scrapbook.

For example, if you’re looking to make a whole page about your family’s vacation to the beach during the summer, choosing a blue color scheme might be a nice way to center the viewer’s attention on the beautiful waves and sky featured in your family’s pictures.

On the other hand, if you’re page is all about your baby girl’s princess themed 2nd birthday, choosing to feature only pink stickers, card stock, or washi tape can be a great way to show everyone flipping through the album how cute your daughter looked in her princess dress.

While being colorful and loud can be a great way to show how fun and bright your family is in their pictures, it can also make your scrapbook disjointed and busy overall. By centralizing each page on a specific color, you can help bring even more unity and visual appeal to your scrapbook.

Add Fun Handwritten Messages to Make It Personal

Don’t be afraid to get a little personal! If you’re anything like me, you might be nervous to write in your scrapbook or album for fear of messy handwriting. But it’s this personal touch that really shows the love and appreciation you feel for your family! Not everything has to look perfect or professional to be amazing.

Plus, writing personal messages or creating handmade designs in your album can be a great way to use your nice inking pens and art markers. Not only will it add that nice, handmade touch to your album, it’s also just a lot of fun!

So, one of the most important scrapbooking tips to remember is not to be afraid to add handwritten notes and handmade elements to your album. Not only will it be fun for you, but when your children are showing their family albums to their children or their grandchildren, it’ll add that special, personal touch of love and appreciation passed down from you to the future generations of your family.

Think Outside the (Photo) Box

Scrapbooks don’t just have to be about photos – one of my favorite parts of scrapbooking (and one of my top scrapbooking tips) – is to think outside of the (photo) box. Don’t be afraid to add non-photographic elements, like young love notes passed between mom and dad, ticket stubs for important moments, and early childhood drawings from your children.

Photos aren’t the only parts of your family’s history that hold memories, so you don’t need to feel inclined to stick to them. One of my favorite things to see from my family’s past are the letters between my great grandparents that my grandmother saved or the drawings from my youngest cousin hanging on my fridge at home. These are also important moments for my family, and they are just as important to keep as the pictures.

Your family is full of little trinkets, photos, and letters that make you who you are. Make sure to incorporate them into your scrapbook so future generations can see their history on each page!

Do you have more scrapbooking tips and tricks to help us improve our scrapbooks and albums? Tell us in the comments!

About Draven Jackson

Draven is an avid writer and reader who enjoys sharing her opinions on movies, books, and music with the rest of the world. She will soon be working as a teacher in Japan and hopes to use her experience to connect with other teachers and students around the globe. Draven spends most of her time at home with her family, her dogs, and her ferret.

To see more, view all posts by Draven Jackson here.

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