Have you ever made a scrapbook before? There are lots of different types of scrapbooks you can make. Whether you’ve made lots of scrapbooks or have never made one, you can try out some of these scrapbook ideas!
Scrapbooks are great for preserving memories through photographs, writing, and mementos.
I am going to explain each type of scrapbook and give you a few picture examples of scrapbooks I’ve made to help you see the different types of scrapbooks you can make.
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| Related: Simple Scrapbook Page Ideas
1. Event Scrapbook
You can make a scrapbook about an event.
The scrapbook I made is small and is about a class I taught at a camp.
The class was about Hawaii. We learned how to hula dance, made some crafts, and learned some things about Hawaii.
In this scrapbook, I included pictures, written text, and mementos from the class.
This is a simple type of scrapbook you can make for any event you attend.
Examples of event scrapbooks include scrapbooks about: weddings, parties, performances, etc.
2. Alphabet Scrapbook
If you have a hodgepodge of photographs or memorabilia, consider making an alphabet scrapbook.
Each letter of the alphabet stands for a different theme, event, person, etc.
You could also make an acrostic scrapbook for a person spelling out his or her name.
A holiday scrapbook with the name of the holiday as an acrostic is another option.
In this alphabet scrapbook I have pages for places we visited, performances my kids were in, fun things around the house, and lot of other things.
3. Vacation Scrapbook
Most of my scrapbooks are vacation scrapbooks.
I make a scrapbook of our whole vacation and put photos, menus, ticket stubs, sand, receipts, plus other things inside it.
If you have lots of picture and mementos from vacation, this is a great way to preserve the memories.
You can write about your travel adventures in your scrapbook to help you remember the fun you had.
4. Biographical Scrapbook
This is a scrapbook you make of someone’s life.
The ones I have made start at infancy and go to the present time.
This type of scrapbook makes for a great gift.
You could make this kind of scrapbook about any person or a pet.
5. Annual Scrapbook
Make a scrapbook of each year with all the photos from the year in one book.
I have made quite a few annual scrapbooks.
These scrapbooks usually include holidays, special events, birthdays, special trips like amusement parks or zoos, summer activities, etc.
If you want to save different memories from your year, this is a great scrapbook to create.
6. Card Scrapbook
I have a scrapbook that is nothing but cards that I have received from showers, my wedding, birthdays, Christmas, and much more.
This is a very easy scrapbook to make, and it’s great for preserving cards that you want to keep.
You can use a glue stick or sticky tabs to attach the backs of the cards to the pages.
7. Scrapbook About Yourself
You can learn things about yourself (or let others learn about you) by making a scrapbook about yourself.
You can talk about things you like, your relationships with others and God, things you want to do, etc.
This scrapbook can be as personal as you want to be. You could include pictures of yourself, journal entries, things you’ve written like poems, lists of your favorite things, etc.
A scrapbook like this is great for discovering more about yourself, and it is a great thing for your family to have to remember you by.
8. Place Scrapbook
One of my favorite scrapbooks is a book about a place I worked.
In the summers while I was in college, I worked on a farm. I have very fond memories of that place.
This scrapbook (which I made long before scrapbooking was popular) has quotes from workers, photos, lists of workers (it changed a lot), plus ways we did different jobs.
It makes it easy to show my kids exactly what I did when I worked there.
9. Friends Scrapbook
At a time in my life when things weren’t going really well, I made a friends scrapbook.
This included friends from my past and the present.
It reminded me of how I wasn’t really alone and how I had been blessed with a lot of friends over the years.
In my scrapbook, I have some friends that take up one to two pages and others that I only have one or two pictures of (like friends from elementary school).
I wrote down how I met these people and memories I have with them.
10. Family History Scrapbook
I have started a family history scrapbook. It isn’t finished yet.
I started with my parents and grandparents branching out to aunts and uncles. It is still a work in progress.
This is a great scrapbook to make to preserve memories about all your different family members.
You can ask other family members to contribute memories as well.
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What kinds of scrapbook ideas do you have?
Comment down below the types of scrapbooks you have made or want to make.
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This is about the best article I’ve read for beginners. I have made albums very much like those you describe. One suggestion: interview grandparents! My grandmother came to be with her brother in the Midwest at age 10 (alone!).
Another idea that gave me great pleasure was using 8 x 8 pages for the albums for each of my four children. There was room for following the scrapbook rules (have a focal point, always include identification of people, places, events, and dates, the rule of thirds, etc.) and I could still work in embellishments without obvious crowding, even with several photos. I prefer 8 1/2 x 11″ pages because I use my computer, printer and cutting/embossing machines.
Thank you for your kind words! I love your suggestion of interviewing grandparents. You can learn so many interesting things you never knew by talking to them. 8 x 8 pages are also a great suggestion, especially if larger albums intimidate you or are just too much work for you.
I bought a huge bundle of stickers that are intended for water bottles, but want to use them as scrapbook stickers. I would love ideas to go with this to utilize my sticker purchase.
Hi Crystal,
What types of stickers are they? Are they random or did you buy ones with a specific theme? Even if they were originally intended for water bottles, you can use them like you would any other sticker.
Make sure the stickers are acid-free before placing them on the same paper as your pictures. If they are not acid-free you will need to place them on separate paper scraps or cardstock to prevent damaging your pictures.
I’m a widow and I’m wanting to do a scrapbook of my late husbands life for a gift for my children . Just not sure of where to start exactly, loooking for ideas.
Hi Kathy,
This is such a wonderful idea, and I’m sure your kids would find it very meaningful. You could do lots of different types of scrapbooks, but here’s a couple ideas:
1. an alphabet scrapbook where each letter of the alphabet describes something about your husband such as a personality trait, an interest, different roles he played such as husband, father, etc.
2. chronological scrapbook where you start with baby pictures and just go in order of when the pictures were taken.
With any type of scrapbook you choose, it will be meaningful to include both pictures and writing. You can talk about favorite memories, things he said a lot, his day to day activities such as what he liked to eat, what he liked to do around the house, etc.
Let me know if you need more ideas. I hope your scrapbook turns out just the way you like. Also, with this type of scrapbook, it may be a slow process as I’m sure that it will be emotional.
-Jessica
I’m going to make a scrapbook for my husband as a Christmas gift. The theme is “Our Family”. All furbabies, past and present. He mentioned wanting one awhile ago so it will be a wonderful and welcome surprise.
Cindy, that is so awesome! What a great gift idea for your husband.
Thanks so much Jessica!!
Thanks for the print out! They will be used for all my Christmas gifts I am making. Memories for each one of my 3 sons and all of my grandchildren!
So happy that you found our post helpful! That is such a great idea for Christmas gifts.
-Jessica
Hi Jessica, thank you for answering me. I bought a ton of random stickers from Amazon. I am working on a sticker/photo album. My granddaughter is enjoying the time we spend together so I guess I can’t go wrong with it.
I’m a newbie to scrapbooking but my plan is to create a scrapbook of my late parent’s home of nearly 65 years. I took pictures of each room after it was emptied out as well as the backyard and front door. I hope to create pages giving tribute to each empty room/area which was once filled with family and happy celebrations. Thankfully I have pictures of many fun times in those areas and will include those pictures along with the “lonely” picture in each layout. Looking forward to this project!
Hi Linda, this sounds like an amazing idea for a scrapbook. That’s so awesome that you have a lot of pictures to showcase your wonderful memories there over the years. We hope it turns out well for you!
i have three adult children in their late 30s and early 40s i have many, many photos for each child and want to make one scrapbook for each of my children.. i want it to be simple but tell their story..i am very overwhelmed at the thought of it and need some ideas i also have school and sports memorabilia i came across your blog and thought you might have some advice.
many thanks,
Robin Nelson
Hi Robin,
Our best idea for you would be to make each kid a scrapbook of pictures in chronological order. From when they were born to 18 years old, you probably have a decent amount of pictures from each year, so you might want to do 1-2 pages per year. After 18, you could combine some of the years together if you don’t want too many pages. One way to get a lot of pictures in one scrapbook is to cut pictures down and fit a bunch on a page. You don’t necessarily need to overlap pictures, but you don’t have to leave a lot of space between pictures. You can also have pages with 1-2 pictures to leave space for you to write about each year.
I would also suggest (if you haven’t already), to look at our blog post called “Simple Scrapbook Page Ideas.” This post has an example of using a collage of pictures on a page. https://nowthatsthrifty.com/simple-scrapbook-page-ideas/
I want to make a scrapbook that documents my life time of reading. I am 77 years old and i started reading when I was six years old and i was handed a Dick and Jane book. That was the first book i read. I have been reading ever since. I want to include my favorite books and how they have influrnced my life.
Hi Judy,
That sounds like a really neat idea! I currently keep a journal every year to document what books I’m reading, but making a scrapbook sounds like a fun idea. You could find pictures of the book covers online and print them off to add to your scrapbook. Since you’ve been reading for so long, you could do separate pages for your favorites over the years.
-Jessica
Hello. I want to start a scrapbook of my grandson who passed away at 14 years old , but have no idea where to start . First scrap book ever thank you
Virginia R.
Hi Virginia,
One idea that is good for albums about people is to do an alphabet scrapbook. You can use pictures from any age on any page, so you don’t have to do chronological order. Think about what stands out most about your grandson’s personality and things he loved. For example, if your grandson loved music, you could do a page or two with pictures and written words about the music he loved or if he played any instruments. For the letter “X” you don’t have to choose a word that starts with an X, you can just do a word like “Excellent.”
Another thing I would say, is to take your time with this scrapbook, and give yourself breaks if you’re having a difficult time. Doing a scrapbook about someone who has passed away can be quite emotional.
We wish you the best! Let us know if you still have questions.
-Jessica & Janie
I am doing a scrapbook with pictures of family members wedding pictures. I have pictures of my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, siblings, aunt and uncles, cousins, close family friends, etc. on their wedding day. Just one or two pictures of each. It has been very fun to make and I add to it as time goes on. I love this book and hope it will bring smiles to others. I intend to take it to family wedding showers.
Patty
That’s a really cool idea Patty! I’ve never thought of doing that. What a fun thing to bring to wedding showers. Thank you for sharing!
I just got my first ever scrapbook along with all the scrapbook items, I want to make my first ever scrapbook, but i dont know were to even start or what to scrap about? I was thinking scrapbooking about myself or about my family. I am only 21 and just starting out. Any ideas?
Hi Destiny, so happy that you’ve decided to start a scrapbook! Doing a scrapbook about yourself could be a lot of fun. Here are a couple ideas: 1) creating a chronological scrapbook for each year in your life so far. For example, you could start with pictures and things about yourself from your birth to your first birthday. Each year could be several pages if you wanted, and you could write down your favorite memories or other people’s favorite memories of you at that age. 2) Another option would be to create a scrapbook of things you like. For example, you could have pages of your favorite vacation spots or your favorite movies. It would basically be a scrapbook of your favorite things.
I want to do a scrapbook in memory of my 30 yr old deceased son. I have a beginner book for his childhood; not very impressive. Any ideas for a beginner? Thank you.
Cheryl R.
Hi Cheryl, I just sent you an email with an idea. Let me know what you think 🙂