36 Great Scrapbook Ideas and Albums

Here are 36 of our most creative ideas for customizing the pages and covers of your scrapbook to make your scrapbook more personal. Think of your scrapbook as your novel. A scrapbook is a place to collect anything you don't want to lose, from ideas to recipes and postcards.

Think of your scrapbook as your novel. The scope can be small or large, focused or loose, a chronological narrative or a visual montage. At the most basic level, a scrapbook is a place to collect anything you don't want to lose, from musings on a particular experience to recipes and postcards. Here are some creative ways to customize the pages and covers of your scrapbooks.

Personalize a fabric-covered scrapbook album with decorative touches. We modified this one in two ways: covering the plain pages with patterned papers and adding a metallic monogram to the cover.

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If you can't find the perfect scrapbook album, create it. We took a plain album with removable pages, covered it with cloth, and added a decorative label and custom pages.

The front of a cloth-covered scrapbook can introduce the mementos concealed within -- just add a custom-made label.

Floral-shaped iron-on transfers give cloth-covered binders and albums a modern, screen-printed look.

Organize and display your child's photographs, artwork, awards, and reports with notebook paper-inspired scrapbook pages.

Create small albums for your scrapbook, each with a story to tell -- the ones here are devoted to family and summer friends. Stiff paper covers along with paper spines and corners give them a fancy hardcover feel. The book on top has a closure made with a paper fastener and string.

When you're young, summer seems to fly by so fast that it becomes a blur. A nice way for you and your kids to capture those special summer memories is by making a scrapbook featuring souvenirs and photos from the season.

The receipts, ticket stubs, maps, and postcards you collect on a trip paint a picture of vacation fun, but assembling an album can be a chore. To simplify the process, fill a three-ring binder with plastic sleeves meant for business and baseball cards. Slide souvenirs into compartments, or if they don't fit, use a paper clip to attach them to a pocket. Trim maps, and slide them into the binder's outside sleeves (even on the spine).

A page full of envelopes in many sizes and colors is ideal for storing hard-to-glue items or keepsakes you'll want to pull out and admire, like these birthday party mementos. So the envelopes don't get sticky, remove the adhesive with a wet paper towel, and let dry. Then glue on with flaps open, overlapping slightly.

Transform plain bookcloth- or linen-covered albums into one-of-a-kind keepsakes using iron-on transfer paper available from office-supply stores.

Use rubber stamps to embellish your album covers with an elegant, monogrammed velvet ribbon.

Martha's own first-day book was inspired by Skylands, her home in Maine. Knowing that the house and its landscape already had a long and distinguished history before her arrival, she decided to continue chronicling everything of interest that might happen there. Martha designed a large volume that could preserve anything from vintage regional maps and architectural drawings to snapshots of pets and flowers pressed by visiting nieces and nephews. Since New Year's Day of 2000, the book has been open to any friend or family member who wishes to contribute.

The album has a custom-made leather cover, and its oversize pages are made from archival-quality, acid-free paper interleaved with sheets of vellum to protect fragile items and guard against the transference of images and text. Archival-quality photo corners and envelopes will help preserve both the book and its contents for many years to come.

Give a decorative touch to your scrapbook by making colorful ribbon mounts.

Take your original photos and scan them or make color copies for an album. Save the scans on a CD; take the originals and keep them in a photo storage box or keep the photos in an archival sleeve. When creating a scrapbook page, pick foundation paper, and cut using a rotary cutter. Tape down the photo using tissue tape and pick a decorative border to frame the photo. Don't forget to embellish the remainder of the page!

Compiling "remember when" moments in an album and presenting them to a friend makes the bonds even stronger. Use our template with the headings "How We Met," "My Favorite Memory," and "Our Biggest Laugh," or make and write your own.

Scrapbooking can be a lot of fun for children and a wonderful way for them to relive and preserve the memories -- and memorabilia -- of their special experiences and trips. Here are some techniques children can easily do by themselves or with a little help from you.

Create a one-of-a-kind scrapbook page in the shape of a United States map.

Use a leaf-shaped craft punch, family photos, and card stock to create a fall-themed family tree scrapbook page.

Create a scrapbook page to capture baby's most peaceful moments.

During the holidays, an almost daily influx of greeting cards and family photos can be expected. Don't leave them piled in your letter basket. Make a holiday card scrapbook, and enjoy them long after the stockings and ornaments are put away.