If you run out of ideas for your first scrapbook, you can always consult your best resource… YOU!
Yep, you do not have to be very creative to build the perfect scrapbook, but you do have to be very expressive.

How to personalize your scrapbook?

1. Your Colors

People associate colors with places, things and even people! If you love green and people know you love the color, you can adorn your scrapbook with green buttons and folded paper.

2. Would you wear that?

Part of the fun of scrapbooking is dressing up your photos in funny “outfits”. You can create new ones to fit the occasion just by pasting paper and potpourri on your photos. You can even make dad look like santa by pasting on a santa suit.

3. Your story

Maybe you have several childhood memories you want preserved, and your scrapbook is all about memories, so why not turn your scrapbook into a story. You need to use landscape photos or paint landscapes on your pages and place ordinary photos on them. One thing to ask yourself is this: what part of the scrapbook will make the reader feel something? That’s the “plot” of your story and you can work around that. Don’t forget the happy ending!

4. What memories do you have of the recipient?

If you’re creating a scrapbook for another person, you can make it look like a collection of funny memories about that person. Here’s where I well up. I have so many memories of my family members and I wish I made a scrapbook for each of those memories. Don’t let that happen to you. Preserve memories when you can.

I hope I have helped you to come up with more than several new ideas for the pages in your scrapbook.

Layout – The first thing to consider is how big your page is and will the scraps be too bulky or too humongous to place there? It’s a good idea to have little pockets built in each page, for very small things that could get lost or damaged by gluing and too frequent pressing.

The Story – An ideal scrapbook tells a story … I saw one scrapbook with pages that contained only hand prints and photos of a child. Up until the child reached 18 years of age. This is a really sentimental way of keeping those precious “growing up memories”.

Your First Layout

There are two ways of finding some great layouts for your scrapbooks.

1. Online Scrapbooking Ideas – The internet exposes us to the lives of millions of people. Usually these people will have blogs, myspace pages and customizable web pages. The really creative ones will adorn their web pages with photos and knick-knacks. The idea is to observe how the pages were built and get ideas. Internet surfing can be very productive, as long as you keep your eyes open and your creative juices flowing.

Alternatively, you can look for sites that SELL scrapbooking pages, print out those that you purchased and use them as ages for your scrapbook. These aren’t expensive if you just buy a few for your scrapbook’s dividers, but if you plan on putting all of these quality and high resolution pages in your scrapbook, it could get very pricey for you.

2. Magazines and Books -Learn from professionals who make a living putting out layouts of magazines and catalogs. See the colorful sales brochures? Where is the text located? How big are the photos? The best resources are sometimes the design magazines and real estate. They take photos of their products at very unique angles.

You can learn a thing or two from these professional publishers.

Inspiration may also be found from a book that has nothing to do with crafts, or an old calendar.Note that the beautiful and scenic photos from calendars can be good materials for your backgrounds.

Maybe you can create your “best memories” scrapbook according to the lyrics of your favorite song, poem, or quotes.

Lastly, you can learn a lot from friends. Why not propose a get together with friends and family who may or may not be into scrapbooking? You can obtain briliant ideas from their handiwork, or they can give you tips on how to improve a layout you’re already working on.