How I Scrapbook

For nearly the last two years I've been scrapbooking - my mum made me a scrapbook of my childhood for my sixteenth birthday which I love, and I was looking for something creative to do as a hobby, so I decided that I wanted in! I have now started my second scrapbook album as I ran out of space in my first, so I thought now would be a good time to show you how I scrapbook! My first scrapbook runs from October 2016 (I received my first album and card for my birthday) to the end of 2017, and I started my new one for 2018. 

My pages are set out chronologically by month, but what's on the actual pages for each month doesn't really have an order - it comes down to what I think looks good together! I use 12x12 inch card and fit these into plastic wallets which I then insert into my album. I know you can buy scrapbooks that come with paper inside, but I like having the freedom to put as many/as little pages in as I want to an empty album. I also like the protection that the plastic wallets give as I know that the pages will not stick together/get ruined when I look at them and I think this will help make them last longer. I order my photos through Boots online, and do this quarter yearly so I have a good stock to go through and add to my scrapbook! To show you how I scrapbook I thought it would be good to show the process of putting together one of my pages - I actually need to place another order for photos so this run through is for April of this year.

I start out by choosing which colour card I want for that month; I have a pad with lots of colours in, and if I have more than one page for the month I like to use the same colour to tie it together. Once I've got my sheet of card I get out my photos and bits from the month and then start playing around with the layout. 

I like that with Boots you can order square photos as well as the usual 6x4, so I can include any photos from instagram for that month. I also have a instax mini camera which I absolutely love using for my scrapbook! In some months I'll have a couple of polaroids where I'll dot them about the page, but when I have quite a few from the same day I like to block them together. 

Once I'm happy with the layout I then stick them down! Depending on how I'm feeling I'll either stick them down with pva glue or with masking tape. What I like about scrapbooking is that I can go through the photos I've taken (all on my phone!), choose my favourites, and then use them in something I know I'll actually look back on, because I don't know about you but once I've taken my photos they just tend to sit in my phone! I also like to save things from places I've been to, so on this page I stuck in a theatre ticket from when Tom and I went to see Shrek the Musical, but I'll also keep things like train tickets or cards I've received. I have an accordion file which I have labelled with each month, so as I collect things I can put them in the correct month so I know what goes where when it comes to sticking them in. I've found that I don't end up using every single photo I order, or every single ticket that I've kept, but it's nice to have a choice over what I put in when I get to a page. Anything that I don't use I put together in their own folder in case I can use them as background things further down the line. 

I think one of things I find most difficult, is deciding what I want to use for a title each month. For April's page I used some brown paper and flower patterned plastic sheet that I got from a bunch of flowers I had before! As well as keeping tickets etc, I also keep anything I can use to add something else to my pages or pick up things like postcards from places I visit to add in. 

As I've got the protective wallets for the pages, I stick things on both sides of the page and the other side for April is below! 

As well as showing you the process I go through when setting up a page, I thought you might also enjoy seeing some completed pages from my 2016/17 scrapbook. You'll see that when I've been somewhere for a day out or taken a lot of photos in a day, I like to dedicate a whole page to it. I also like to create spreads for trips so below you'll see a double page spread of when Tom and I went to London and Edinburgh, when I went to Suffolk for a week last year and a three page spread of our holiday to Majorca!

 

 

I knew that I would enjoy scrapbooking, but I didn't realise how much I would! I love having all my photos together, along with different things like tickets that spark a memory, and also the space to write out any information or mainly inside jokes between myself and Tom from days out together. Having completed a scrapbook it's so nice going back and remembering things about the year that otherwise I would forget. As I spend a lot of my time on a computer at work, I love having a creative hobby that's offline and the action of cutting and sticking is quite therapeutic. I've already mentioned that I have an accordion file where I keep things like tickets etc throughout the year so I know what month they align to, but I also have two clip storage boxes from Hobbycraft where I keep scrapbooking things. One is dedicated to different cards and papers that I've picked up (I particularly like Paperchase for postcards!) and the other is for other things like stickers, washi tape and different patterned scissors. Hobbycraft are also a great place to pick up different cards/papers and embellishments at a reasonable price. 

WOW that turned this turned out a longer post than I was expecting and I'm hoping I haven't forgotten anything - if you don't scrapbook I hope this has provided you with some inspiration to start and if you already scrapbook I'd love to see how you set out your pages as everyone's are so different! Let me know if you'd like to see a run through of my 2018 scrapbook once I've completed it, and if I've missed anything or you have any questions about scrapbooking send them my way.

Jess x