How to Make Your Scrapbook Look More Polished

How to Make Your Scrapbook Look More Polished

tips to clean up your scrapbook

Last year was a doozy for pretty much everyone, right? I'll get into how things went for me personally in the next blog post but I found myself in need of some serious formatting, in order to finish 2020's family photo album. I thought I would share some of the steps and tips that I utilized in order to keep the album looking crisp and cohesive throughout.

clean lines (and shapes)

Keeping the lines and shapes sharp on your pages will help to eventually bring different spreads together. The smoother the eye's transition from one memory to another, the easier it will all be to digest. This will keep everyones eyes from glazing over half way through your scrapbook.

 

 

Related Post: 2020 Family Photo Album

A great example of when to keep lines and shapes clean is when building a collage. If you cover a page in photos cut into hexagons, it might trick the brain a little to give it a circular header. Keep your shapes consistent so that you (or your reader) don't have to think too much when enjoying your pages.

lots of white space

I'm a big fan of white space pretty much everywhere, so of course I use this trick in my memory keeping. This is just another way to allow the eye to rest.

Letting your photos and journaling speak is a delicate art and white space could be your best friend, if you're able to embrace it. There have been times where I left a space open, and feeling it was just an empty void. A few days later when returning to those spreads, though, that big blob of empty was actually very refreshing, so most of them stay put.

 

 

Easy ways to leave white space:

  • give your photos a white border
  • center your journaling on the journal card
  • super short captions for photos
  • light patterned paper to fill in empty spots

let the photos breathe

Outside of lots of white space, you can also let your photos breathe in other ways. Don't immediately go clipping bits of paper or adding ephemera to your photos. Print the picture off and just slide it into it's pocket. Every photo doesn't need some sort of decor. Contrary to what most shops will tell you (in order to sell more product, I assume) you don't need to use every piece of those wonderfully cohesive kits you have in your stash.

 

 

Try just using one or two elements on each page and see how you like it. Add your little decorative touches in small segmented groups to allow you to take a step back in between each placement.

warm it up

Now, all of this white space and open clear placement could leave your scrapbook looking a little sterile in certain places. This fourth tip is a few fun ways that you can warm the page spreads up a little. Be sure to intentionally use your stickers, washi, and selected colors.

  • use the same alpha stickers throughout the album, not just the spread
  • stick to the same handful of washi for the whole project
  • take one item from a pre-made kit per page or spread

 

cohesive fonts (and elements)

Continuing to re-use the same fonts, ephemera, and styles throughout the entirety of the photo album will make it feel much more cohesive. It'll probably also help you clear out your stash a little, win-win.

 

 

Let me know if you have any other fun ways to pull an entire photo album together below. Or, do you just let each spread or theme stand on its own?

I'll be sharing my own updated 2020 scrapbook here in a blog post very soon, so stay tuned for that. You can subscribe to updates here

*photos are each linked to original posts

Back to blog

4 comments

This is such an inspo! I’ve wanted to do scrapbooks for so long and it’s s hard to start! Thanks for sharing these tips! <3

www.lovemamae.com

Evelyn Rountree

I appreciate posts like these! I’ve been wanting to start scrapbooking for some time now.

Mufidah

Will definitely be giving these tips a try!

Danielle Maartense

This is cool! I haven’t done an album in a long time. Reading this made me miss making an album. Thank you for sharing!

Fransic verso

Leave a comment

hi, i'm v.

ISTJ, Taurus, Type 5

I'm a sticker maker, shop owner, Marine wife and mom. I design and create everything behind LBH in my home studio in Kailua. You can read more about my story here to get to know me better, and read about how the shop came about. 🍋