Do you have boxes full of photos that you haven't organised? Instead of putting them in a standard photo album why not consider creating a scrapbook.  Scrapbooking isn't just about organising photos, it is a fun and creative way of displaying the photos and preserving other interesting bits and pieces that you have collected, such as magazine articles, concert tickets, newspaper clippings and any other important memorabilia.  Scrapbooking is about capturing and storing a little piece of history about yourself, your life and your family.

There are different types of scrapbooks and you can categorize them according to themes/events such as a marriage scrapbook, a baby scrapbook, a Christmas scrapbook, or team sports scrapbook - just to name a few, it is only limited to your imagination!

Scrapbooking is a unique way of preserving memories and decorating the pages to further emphasise your theme, photos can be embellished or framed, memorabilia can be added and the end result is is a fantastic trip down memory lane which you can share with others.  If you think you're not creative enough, don't worry there are lots of layout ideas available and it's hard not to be inspired when you have some great photos and some fun scrapbooking materials in front of you.  The great news is that you don't have to be an artistic person and there is not right or wrong way - each scrapbook is unique for you and it is your interpretation of the event.

As scrapbooks are so personal they make wonderful gifts and the receiver will see that you have really thought about them and put a lot of time and effort into your gift.  They can be a wonderful keepsake for the receiver. Some special occasions that you can give a scrapbook as a gift are: birth of a first child, weddings, 21st birthdays and anniversaries - just to name a few!

Here are a few simple steps to help you get started with scrapbooking:

1. Gather up your photos and try to organize them into the theme (ie a wedding scrapbook) that you have chosen for your scrapbook and determine the order you want the photos in

2. The next step is laying out the pages. Organise the photos as you would like to see them on the page, it is important to lay out everything before actually gluing anything into place, this way you can easily move photos around.

3. You can prevent your scrapbook from looking cluttered by altering the shape of your photos, simply crop or cut them into various shapes.  This will also make your scrapbook more creative and personalised.  Important note: You will have some older photos that you may not have negatives for, so you may not want to cut these as you won't be able to easily replace them.  Just be sure before you cut your photos!

4. The photos can be accentuated with all sorts of decorative items including ribbons and coloured gift paper.  You can mount photos on top of printed patterns to make each one unique and personalised or embellish the background mount using an ink pad and a stamp of your choose.

5. It is likely that you will find photos that you will want to add to the scrapbook after you have started or even finished your scrapbook, so it is a good idea to purchase a scrapbook that has a binding that will fit additional refill pages, you may also want to consider CD and storage pockets.  To help  protect the scrapbook pages from dirty hands and accidental spillages choose top-loading page protectors.

6. When matting a photo on card stock you can choose the colour that compliments the picture.  It won't take you long before you add your personal flair to each page and before you know it you will soon be designing totally unique layouts.

Scrapbookers can now go one step further in their efforts to preserve their memories. Digital scrapbooking is done on the computer and this technology has dramatically reduced the cost of printing one off bound books. This means you can design and edit your own photographic books using digital pictures, scanned images, captions and text and have it professionally printed and bound at a fraction of the price it would have once cost.  You can edit them any way you want because there are so many varieties of software available for digital scrapbooking. An added bonus is that you can send a digital scrapbook page directly to your friends and family members by email and they too can print it and save it as a keepsake.

Scrapbooking enables you to capture those important moments and precious memories not only by the creation and organising of the scrapbook but it can also be a family project and the time spent together can be alot of fun that everyone can get involved with.

The fun and creativeness of scrapbooking and the enjoyment of putting together a story through photos and memorabilia have many people hooked on scrapbooking, why not give it a try!

P.S - you can even make money from scrapbooking....