19 Creative Scrapbook Ideas to Preserve Your Family Memories

Travel Memento Scrapbook

Collect your prized travel mementos in a stylish and sophisticated travel scrapbook. Anything from photos and postcards to bistro napkins and sightseeing tickets can be included.

Start by picking up a used, hardcover travel book. Carefully cut the covers off the book with a utility knife and a ruler, being sure to keep about 1/8 inch of the spine completely intact. Discard the spine, and set the covers off to the side.

Next, cut out some of the pages to use as backgrounds for your keepsakes. (If you'd rather not use the book's pages, you can also use store-bought scraps instead. Maps work well here.) We cut a dozen, but this is highly customizable to however much you're planning to insert into your scrapbook.

Attach your photos and other mementos to the pages. Then, lay out half the pages—in this case, six, right side down. Tape the pages together with photo adhesive tape, then back them with the remaining pages using photo adhesive paper. Now, attach the left side of the first page to the right side of the front cover, and stick decorative paper inside of the cover to hide the tape. Repeat these steps for the back cover for a beautiful and elegant travel scrapbook.

School Binder Scrapbook

You can instantly transform simple school binders into a special scrapbook with cloth covers. After covering, we used one of our custom templates to iron on floral-shaped transfers, giving the final result a modern look.

Ring-Bound Scrapbook

Perfect to do with kids on-the-go, all you need for this simple scrapbook idea are looseleaf rings, a hole punch, some blank note cards, and crayons or markers. Pass the time on a long road trip by collecting postcards from each stop, punching a hole, and hanging them on the looseleaf ring. Let your kids have some fun by interspersing some hand-drawn cards throughout the sights they see along the way. 

Envelope Scrapbook

If your keepsakes include things like coins, buttons, or stamps (think: anything that is teeny tiny and can get lost easily), this scrapbook idea is perfect for you.

To make it, collect interesting envelopes (such as classic airmail envelopes) and decorate them with stickers, stamps, or vinyl lettering. Punch a hole in a corner of the envelopes and stack them together on a looseleaf ring. If your envelopes need some extra security, use a paper hole reinforcer or a plain circle sticker on the corner you'll be hole punching.

Now you're ready to start filling your envelopes with your small collections; add more envelopes as needed.

Mini Books Within a Scrapbook

Create small albums for your scrapbook, each with a story to tell—the ones here are devoted to family and summer friends. Stiff covers, paper spines, and corner covers give them a fancy hardcover feel; the book on top has a closure fashioned out of a paper fastener and string.

Collected Memories Scrapbook

Compiling "remember when" moments in an album and presenting them to a friend makes the bonds even stronger. Use our template with the headings "How We Met," "My Favorite Memory," and "Our Biggest Laugh," or make and write your own.

Download the template. Print in multiples, trim to size ,and distribute to other contributors with a deadline and self-addressed stamped envelopes, also requesting photos and friend-related memorabilia. Then, insert the responses into transparent sleeves in a book and present the honoree with what's sure to be a much-cherished trip down memory lane.

Polaroid Scrapbook

A fantastic idea for guests attending a birthday party, this scrapbook makes use of fun Polaroid-style shots that are instantly developed on the spot. At a party or an event, use an instant camera to catch candid shots in action, and set up a table with a laid-out album, tape, and a pen. The rest is up to your guests.

Folding Travel Scrapbook

Who says pop-up books are just for kids? Enlarge photos from a recent adventure and create accordion fold-outs, which can be achieved using a bone folder to make sharp creases. These inserts pasted into an ordinary journal of your choice, add an element of surprise to the story of the trip and convey some of the city's grandeur.

Nature Scrapbook

Pressing dried leaves and flowers is a great way to create unique art for your home. But if you're traveling abroad, or simply don't wish to disturb the natural beauty of your locale, why not try photographing them instead? Take a snapshot with your smartphone, edit accordingly, and print the photos for a scrapbook. You can also include them alongside children's sketches of nature or your own.

Family Photo Scrapbook

Creating a beautiful, personalized scrapbook has never been easier. In collaboration with Mixbook, Martha created her own collection of scrapbooks for you and your family to fill with your most precious memories. See photo book templates here to get started. Choose your favorite and then start designing and uploading photos.

Monogrammed Scrapbook

Here's a way to create a scrapbook that's as special as the photos and other keepsakes it holds. Start with a fabric-covered album and personalize it with decorative touches. We modified this one in two ways: covering the plain pages with patterned papers and adding a metallic monogram to the cover. Instead of using self-adhesive photo corners, cut slits in the decorative papers and slide in your pictures and card stock labels. It's pretty and simple to do.

Sketch Scrapbook

Think of a scrapbook as a traveling companion. When celebrations expert Darcy Miller took a three-week trip to Africa, she brought along a blank book (light enough to carry in her bag) and a craft small kit that included scissors, markers, rubber cement, and a portable watercolor set. "I'd take my book out while the guide was talking about something, a tree or flower, and sketch it," she said in the August 1998 issue of decorvow Living. "By drawing something, you have to really look at it, which forces you to 'see' it." When you return home, you can pair your sketches with photos from your experiences.

Pet Scrapbook

Here's a great gift for someone who's just adopted a new pet: Start a scrapbook to document their life with their new companion. Fill the pages with information about their new family member—their family pedigree if they're a purebred, or adoption papers if they're a rescue; any photos from the breeder or shelter; a first collar; the box top from a favorite treat; and heartfelt memories from your first meeting, whether written or in visual form. You can continue to fill the pages with new memories as time goes on.

School Scrapbook

A scrapbook can help organize and proudly display the steady stream of photographs, artwork, awards, and other keepsakes that accrue during a young person's school years. Here, we taped two pieces of standard notebook paper together, from short end to short end; trim the width if necessary to fit the scrapbook pages. Then, fold the paper up from the bottom, and make pockets in desired depths. Stitch the sides to scrapbook pages with a sewing machine to secure, or simply glue with an archival glue stick.

Ribbon Photo Scrapbook

If you're working with very fragile photos, historical documents, recipe cards, or anything that can easily tear or be tarnished, you'll want to avoid destructive tape and glue. These ribbon mounts allow you to secure items on the scrapbook page without damaging them. Start with a three-inch strip of grosgrain ribbon; fold both ends down at the midpoint to form a triangle, and then iron it out. Repeat the process until you have two or four ribbons for each item. Attach them to the photo by slipping the triangle (with the seams in the rear) over the corners, and use acid-free double-sided photo tape to affix them to album pages.

Map Scrapbooks

Upcycle the maps you used on a journey through foreign lands as the show-stopping features of a new travel scrapbook. The printed papers become colorful and fitting backdrops for vacation memories.

Newborn Baby Memories Scrapbook

Martha herself shared this precious idea back in the December 2011 issue of decorvow Living. Our founder created four printed-and-bound photo stories of special moments in her granddaughter Jude's first months as a newborn. Then, Martha gifted the set to Jude and her own daughter Alexis for Christmas.

Recipe Scrapbook

In lieu of a traditional cookbook, you can use recipe cards for a scrapbook full of passed-down family treats. Collect handwritten recipes from family members, as well as photos of kitchen memories from throughout the years. (You can also pen stories of making Christmas cookies with grandma, or baking bread with dad.) Create silts within the book to hold the cards, and organize by family member or cuisine.

Kids' Memorabilia Scrapbook

Tiny treasures like stickers, buttons, or stamps are easier to enjoy and store when they're glued to folded pages. Measure and mark a long strip of paper or card stock with its short side matching the long side of a small box. Accordion-fold the strip and glue the first page to the inside of the box's lid and the last page to the inside of the box's bottom.