Today many people showcase their family memories and document their lives in a digital way, with Facebook albums and Pinterest boards. However, this way of capturing important moments in life is easy yet quite boring. Crafting unique and creative photo albums with your own hands is a great way to express your creativity and enjoy an interesting DIY hobby. A DIY scrapbook is a photo album filled with photos and different embellishments (texts, drawings, clippings from magazines and newspapers, images, stickers, memo notes, decorative papers, flowers, bows, glitter, rhinestones, etc.). 

To get started with the unique scrapbook you just need an empty photo book and some craft supplies like craft cardboard, washi tape, a glue roller, colored markers, and scissors. So, creating a personalized and creative scrapbook is a rewarding pastime even for those who would rather gamble at https://vave.com/prematch than craft something. You can break from the stress of daily life with this hobby and learn many DIY techniques. In this post, we will give you some more insight into scrapbooking and its history. 

History of scrapbooking 

Scrapbooking is a kind of handmade art, which involves the original design of photo albums, photos, as well as postcards and souvenir things. Originally, such creativity was a way of storing family or personal information or history. In general, the name consists of two words and translates as “clippings” and “book”. That’s why the term “scrapbooking” can be translated as “book of clippings”. We don’t know the exact origins of scrapbooking, but the first mention of documenting memories in such a way dates back to 1600.

In those distant times, people were so eager for something sublime that they began to collect quotes, their observations, poems, or excerpts of some works and paste them into photo books. But then scrapbooking implied a set of some sketches, notes, and clippings, not related to each other. In the late 1800s European companies started selling scrapbook albums. The invention of photography in the 20th century made scrapbooks popular and widely used. 

So, what do you need to master the technique? Here is the list of basic supplies:

1. Photo album (scrapbook) with paper pages. The density can be different, it all depends on the purpose. 
2. Photos. 
3. Scissors. You will need several types of them: ordinary, as well as a variety of shapes.
4. Glue, washi tape, or photo mounting corners. You can glue or attach photos with washi tape or simply put photos in special photo mounting corners in a scrapbook. 
5. Writing tools: gel pens, pencils, crayons, colored markers. 
6. Stamps or stencils for creating three-dimensional drawings. 
7. Embellishments. You can use different decorative elements to make your scrapbook creative. If you have colored papers, buttons, bows, stickers, rhinestones, clippings from magazines, newspapers, and books lying around at home, you can use them in your scrapbook. Get creative with them and experiment! 

One of the most popular scrapbooking styles is vintage. This trend is characterized by the use of vintage pictures, images, or photographs, as well as some historical accessories and objects such as postcards, jewelry, and postage stamps. The colors should be appropriate to the specific period from which all elements of the piece are borrowed. People use the “heritage” scrapbooking style to decorate old family or personal photos. The peculiarity is the use of a special color scheme characteristic of the period to which the photos belong. You can also cut photos in the form of some figures. 

Using scrapbooking techniques, you can make a lot of original and creative things, for example, a variety of cards for all occasions, frames for photos, beautiful boxes for storing small things, and frames for some important accessories. First master simple techniques (we will list them below!), and then move on to more complex ones.

Guide to the most basic scrapbooking techniques:

1. Distressing is a technique that allows you to age the elements. There are several variations of application: craquelure, creation of scuffs or scratches, torn edges, toning, and the use of so-called distress ink (after drying they look as if unevenly erased or burned out).
2. Stamping involves the use of stamps, applicators, and ink to create a variety of elements.
3. Embossing (extruding convex designs). This technique has two varieties, wet embossing and simple embossing. Wet embossing creates the elements by heating and subsequent melting of specialized powder. Simple embossing involves extruding designs through stencils on a base, such as foil, metal, or paper.

To make the whole process easier you can buy a photo scrapbook kit. Stick the printed photos in a scrapbook and highlight the best moments in life with fonts, sticky notes, small envelopes, or other cute things. Remember that you don’t need to place a photo in the middle of the page, but you can get more creative and create a special pattern with photos on the scrapbooking page. There are no rules and templates. Happy scrapping!