For years, our ancestors have used photo albums to display precious memories the family holds dear.  Most were plain and simply doubled as storage for pictures, with no room for journaling to explain the origin of a photo.

The photo album has come a long way.  Now it’s evolved into a scrapbook – a memory holder that not only displays your photos, but does it in a unique way that projects a theme for the reader and tells a story for generations to come.

Scrapbooking can be done in a simple manner, adding a note or two here in conjunction with an image so that those viewing the picture can understand more about it.  Or, it can be elaborate – with stickers, designer paper and specially-cut edges, and entire scrapbooks centered around an individual theme.

Instead of parents putting photos in a box to place neatly into a photo album on a rainy day, scrapbooking devotees have formed exclusive clubs for their obsession – some even hosting overnight parties and entire vacations reserved for nothing but scrapbooking and socializing!

With many old photo albums, the pictures weren’t displayed in any organized manner.  But now, with themed pages, you can decorate your scrapbook in a myriad of ways.  You can have scrapbooks reserved for vacations, sporting events, holidays, individual members of your family, weddings, and more.

Instead of just looking at a page with pictures of the family at the beach, your scrapbook can include memories of that trip, with specifics like where it was taken, when, and any funny or sentimental stories you’d like to add.

How you design your themed pages is totally up to you. You can use pre designed paper to display the photos onto or design one of your own. You can matte the photos to make them stand out if you want or you can just add photo corner tabs to make it a simple design.

Scrapbooking has no limitations. Photo albums are just places to keep your photos in one place without losing them. Scrapbooks are much more than that. They’re memory-making books that provide as much entertainment in making them as you had during the events in the pictures.

You can even take some of your old photo albums and turn them into scrapbooks that look better and are more enjoyable for your visitors to peruse.  Don’t be afraid to tap into your creative side and see what kind of designs you can come up with on your own!