Make Homemade Scrapbooks

Make homemade scrapbooks inexpensively and preserve your memories in style. With so many materials on the market to craft professional looking scrapbooks, it’s easy to forget that you don’t need all that stuff to make a wonderful book of memories for yourself or to share with family and friends.

Homemade scrapbooks can challenge your creativity.

Scrapbooking is big business, but your memories don’t have to cost a fortune or look like an art student or professional designer created them. The goal of most scrapbooks is to help preserve memories, indulge your creative side, and express your sentiments.

Create your own memory book with a piece of cardboard or matt board and a hole punch. Make a front and back for your scrapbook by cutting cardboard or two pieces of stiff board the same size. You can go with 8 ½” by 11”, or make it larger if you have large items you want to showcase. If you feel that a more petite approach will work best for what you have in mind, measure the items you want to include, and make sure to leave enough of a border on one side to tie the book together. One of the great things about making your own scrapbook is that you can pick the shape and size.

Punch two pairs of binding holes about three inches apart along one side of one piece of cardboard. Once the holes have been punched, use them as a template to punch the second sheet of cardboard and the papers you will be using. Just line up the second sheet of cardboard under the first and slip a pencil through the holes in the first sheet to mark the second. You can do this with the paper too.

String an eight-inch piece of 3/8” satin ribbon through adjacent holes, back to front. Knot it in front and then finish off with a bow. Repeat this process with the second set of holes. When you finish, you’ll have double bows along one side of your cover to hold your scrapbook together.

If you plan on making your scrapbook longer than 16 inches or so, you might want to add another pair of holes and include another bow for support.

You can use almost any type of paper in a scrapbook, provided it’s heavy enough to support what you glue, tie, or tape to it. If you plan on adding photos, you may want to consider using acid free paper for protection. This is a good choice because it will protect your photos and won’t yellow over time. Beyond that, construction paper, velum, parchment, even transparent sheets will work. Your book may have all one style of paper, or can have a mixture of papers.

You might even consider making your own paper. Paper making kits are inexpensive, and the results can be stunning. Homemade paper also tends to be thick, which can be effective as a particularly sturdy scrapbook page, decorative element, or even as a cover for a small scrapbook.

You can see that when you make a homemade scrapbook, the options are pretty open. If you want to take a more creative approach, you can cover plain cardboard from packing boxes with decorative papers, fabric, or even wallpaper or vinyl. If you have a theme in mind, themed wrapping paper will work too, as will cellophane, tissue paper glued in place, and calendar pages.

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