Scrapbook Like a Pro
Ready to get your craft on? Scrapbooking is a great way to organize your most precious memories in a tangible way. Get your glue stick, scissors and stickers out, and let the nostalgia begin!
Here are some simple tips that will revolutionize your scrapbook game:
- Curate. Select only your favorite photos. It’ll save you money in the printing process, and will also help when it comes time to organize and decorate your book. You don’t need 15 photos of you and Dad eating at the Crab Shack on vacation. Try picking, like, one.
- Stick to a theme. Each page and section should have a clear focus. Try adding a title — made with alphabet stickers or hand-drawn bubble letters — to the top of each section. One page may include all the photos from last year’s Disney trip. A few pages might focus on your month-long trip to Southeast Asia. Another section might include random photos that all show images of you and your family. Whatever it may be, attempt consistency!
- Organize your photos beforehand. Make small piles of photos for each planned section. It would really mess up your flow to find that five photos were missing from your already completed first page.
- Protect your nostalgia. The point of scrapbooking is preserving memories, so the last thing you want is for the photos to be susceptible to spilled beer, sunspots and scratches. Add inserts, individual transparent covers, or keep your entire scrapbook in a box to make sure nothing is damaged.
- Write it out. Add captions to individual photos or entire spreads. Little details will be forgotten unless you make a literal mental note. Plus, your handwriting adds a personal touch. Write in the margins about the seemingly small, potentially forgettable stuff: what song was playing when he asked you to be his girlfriend, what the best cocktail was at your best friend’s wedding, what it smelled like when you ran through the forest near your childhood home, the names of your host family members in India… Trust us, you’ll want to cling to these minute pieces of your personal history.
- Don’t be a square — or rectangle. Don’t just paste the 4x6’s and 5x7’s to a plain piece of cardstock. Cut around the faces of your photos. Make shapes. Then, glue the images onto a fun background before gluing them to the entire page background. This adds dimension and color — and it just looks much nicer. The more thoughtful and orchestrated your scrapbook, the more in love with it you’ll be! Bottom line: Dare to get funky. Don’t be boring.
- Be you. This is your scrapbook. Don’t try adapting to styles that don’t feel in line with who you are. Not fan of pinks and flowers? Well, don’t add floral frames and blush glitter to the layout. Similarly, if you were super bored on your 8th grade Washington D.C. trip, say it. Be honest with the words you write, the pictures you show, the decal you frame your photos with.
At Kodak Digitizing, we want to help you preserve your favorite memories. So before you actually get started chopping away with zigzag scissors and plopping googly eyes onto your grandma’s Polaroid portraits, first send your film to us.
We will digitize your photos, converting them into files you can store on a USB or “the cloud.” And once we’re done, we’ll make sure you get your original images back, in the same condition you sent them to us. Digitization allows you a backup. That way, once you’ve drawn a mustache on Uncle Joe’s one-of-a-kind mini Polaroid, you still have an untouched, pre-mustache copy on your computer that can be saved forever!
Scrapbooking echoes our mission: Don’t let your memories be forgotten.
