Scrapbook Ideas to Get Started

Interested in scrapbooking? Here are some scrapbook ideas to start. Most experts will recommend you begin by purchasing the best quality albums and supplies you can afford . . . don’t use “magnetic” albums (the kind with the sticky pages) but don’t feel compelled to dress up every single page you do. In many cases, less is much, much more.

You can consider the following to get started:

• Find and sort your photos in chronological order. Depending on the number you have, place the photos in boxes by year until you’re ready to tackle them.
• Be selective when choosing the photos you’ll keep. You don’t need six shots of Bobby blowing out the birthday candles.
• Ready to scrap? It’s less overwhelming to start with your most recent photos first. There’s some logic in doing this, because at least you won’t put yourself any further behind.
• Plan to make a family album, and then at least one album per child.
• Document, document, document. Date photos with photo marking pens, identify the subjects, but also write down feelings, quotes and what was actually happening when the photo was taken.
• Be creative about cropping. Trim pictures that have too much background — or too much going on.
• Don’t crop out generational clues, like a car or the apartment you lived in.
• Save memorabilia and include it on pages: Locks of Suzy’s hair, ticket stubs, report cards, post cards from a family vacation.
• Don’t store negatives in the same place you store your photos. If something should happen to the albums, the negatives would be gone, too.

From the start, scrapbook enthusiasts have been concerned with the “archival quality” of albums and supplies — with good reason. In the past, many materials used for the storage of photographs have in fact contributed to their deterioration. Today, “acid-free” has become something of a mantra among scrapbookers.

While it’s a fact that photos stored in albums and away from light and temperature extremes will last longer than framed photos displayed on a mantel, it’s nearly impossible to find photos that have not been contaminated in some way.

The chemistry used at one-hour photo kiosks, for example, is most certainly not pure. So does it matter if you back a photo processed there with a paper that is not touted as “acid-free”? And how much longer a lease on life will “photo-safe” pens give to that priceless portrait, anyway?

Still, advances in technology have changed the face of photography. Seventy years from now, your grandchildren will be hard pressed to detect a change in quality in a photo you have displayed on your desk right now.