Scrapbooking is a unique, personal way to highlight your favorite memories. With all the glitter, stickers, and text decorations in the world at your fingertips, a well-curated scrapbook can really give your photos a life of their own.
Since the possibilities are literally endless, starting a scrapbook can feel a little overwhelming. Or, if you’re already a pro scrapbooker, you might feel like you fall into a creative rut every so often. That’s why when it comes to printing cool, creative photos for your book, Lifeprint can help.
We make printing photos for scrapbooking super easy. Our portable instant photo printer prints photos from your smartphone fast. Once you have the photos ready to go, combine them with fresh scrapbooking ideas to create a book that presents your photos in cool, unique ways:
1. Use a Map for a Background
Did you take your Lifeprint portable photo printer on vacation and print lots of photos? Focusing on a location is a great way to help create a theme for a scrapbook page. To make it really unique, add a map from your travels as a background to the page. It creates tons of visual interest and instantly situates your pictures. Don’t have a map? Try placing any printed memories from that location instead. Things like plane tickets, concert tickets, and even brochures from activities in the area help tell a broader story of the location you’re in.
2. Cut Fun Photos into Shapes
Photo: Lisa Dickenson
It can feel pretty repetitive to keep sticking traditional, rectangular photos into your scrapbook. But fear not! Armed with a pair of scissors, you can destroy the monotony of box after box on your scrapbook page, and give some visual interest to anyone who reads it. Cut your photos into circles, hearts, octagons — whatever you want!
If you’re really committed, invest in a set of craft scissors with patterned edges. Then, you can easily give your photos more interesting borders, from waves, to triangles, and more.
3. Ditch the Glue
Let’s face it, gluing your photos into a scrapbook pages is probably the most messy part of the scrapbooking process. Printing photos for scrapbooking with Lifeprint’s portable instant photo printer will eliminate the need for annoying, messy glue.
Your photos will print onto our special photo paper that has an adhesive back. Just peel off the protective layer, and you can stick your photos directly into your scrapbook. Trust us, it’s way easier than gluing. However, if you find yourself with glue as the only option, we recommend products such as ZipDry Paper Glue or even craft glue dots that make sticking a piece of paper super simple and clean.
4. Add an Envelope for Bits and Bobs
Photo: Gathering Beauty
After a travel trip, you may have things like tickets or receipts that you want to save, but you don’t necessarily want to make them the highlight of your scrapbook. The solution is simple (and pretty adorable): Add an envelope to your page layout. You can fold your own envelope using patterned paper or jazz up a regular old envelope however you want.
5. Press Flowers for a Pop of Color
We get that not all of us are great at drawing, and not everyone can be Picasso. With the help of Mother Nature, you can add the most realistic-looking flowers without having to be a master artist. Place a picked flower between two sheets of wax paper, then sandwich it between two heavy books to press it thin. Once the flower is pressed and dried, it’s ready for your scrapbook. It’s a gorgeous way to add color and a touch of nature to a page layout.
6. Two Words: Washi Tape
Washi tape is a quick and easy way to add flair to your scrapbook pages. After printing photos for scrapbooking, you can use patterned washi tape to give each photo a unique border. Washi tape is available in so many patterns and colors that you can easily find the perfect one for each photo. You can buy washi tape that’s printed with flowers, words, puppies, jellyfish, or literally anything. But be warned: Washi tape is addicting. Once you start using, it’s hard to stop.
7. Embroider Your Journey
Photo: A Pair & A Spare
Maps can have lots of uses in scrapbooks. One way to use them is as a literal map of a journey you took. Grab a needle and thread and embroider the path of your last trip right onto the page, using the map as a reference point. Then, when you’re done printing your photos, you can arrange them along your travel route.
8. Use Paint Chips
Head to your local hardware store and pick out some pretty-colored paint chips. You can use hole punches in various shapes (like hearts or stars) to create unique looking chips to enhance a page layout for photos. Paint chips make it easy to work with color gradients, too. Choose paint chips the compliment other colors on a scrapbook page to create a cohesive look.
9. Re-purpose Photo Scraps
If you cut your photos into unique shapes, you’ll be left with a bunch of photo scraps. Waste not, want not as they say. Instead of throwing these scraps away, let your inner artist out and use the scraps to make a unique collage. If you’re printing photos for scrapbooking on Lifeprint’s photo paper, the adhesive backing on the paper will make collaging a breeze. You’ll get to create a totally unique piece of art totally from your own photos!
10. Create a Visual Photo Grid
For a simple, yet different way to display your photos, use the photo grid method. After printing, use a ruler to draw a grid of squares over the photo. Then, cut up the photo into squares. Stick the squares into your scrapbook with a little bit of space in-between each one. The negative space can create a unique, appealing look that doesn’t distract from the photo. This method is great for arranging groups of similar photos or photos that fall in sequence of each other, allowing the viewer to digest a ton of visual information very quickly.
11. Turn Photos Into Text
12. Break Out the Watercolors
Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, watercolors are an easy way to add a splash of color to your scrapbook (pun intended). Abstract washes of color can quickly transform an entire page. If you’re ambitious, you can paint pictures on your pages, too. After printing the photos on your Lifeprint portable instant photo printer, placing them within a burst of color on the page will really help them pop.
13. Don’t Forget the Text
Scrapbooks are made for showing off photos, but don’t limit yourself to only photos. When you spend all that time printing photos for scrapbooking and designing unique layouts, you want to make sure you remember what’s going on in the photos! Use bits of texts to give your photos context, or add a favorite quote to help establish your scrapbook theme. You can add lists, tiny journal entries, or whatever else suits your mood.
14. Use Black and White for Contrast
With the magic of photo filters, your Lifeprint portable instant photo printer can print your photos in black and white. Pair color photos with black and white ones to create visual contrast, or use black and white photos alone to give a page a different emotional feel.
15. Find the Best Angle
Get creative with how you arrange your photos on the page. It can feel very formal to stick every single picture perfectly straight on the page. Shake things up a little bit. After printing photos for scrapbooking, don’t arrange them all at the same angle. Try tilting some to give an off-kilter look, or follow the rule of thirds to divide and arrange your scrapbook pages in a way that adds way more visual interest
16. Add Some Ribbon
To create visual and textural interest, get some lacy or patterned ribbon to add to your pages. You can use a hole punch to “sew” a border, or just glue the ribbon right into the book. You can use the material for accents or to add borders to your photos. Since you can find ribbons in tons of textures, sizes, and colors, it’s a great way to enhance the theme of your scrapbook.
17. Invest in a Stamp Set
Another interesting, easy way to visually enhance your scrapbook is using rubber stamps. You can buy rubber stamps online in sets or as individual stamps. There are even companies that will create custom stamps for you, if you supply the stamp image you want. Stamps have been used for centuries to create unique effects on paper — and the tradition is still going strong.
Start Scrapbooking with Lifeprint
Your next scrapbooking project can be that much more creative if you use Lifeprint’s portable instant photo printer for printing photos for scrapbooking. We offer an easy way to record your memories both digitally and as prints. Plus, with our adhesive-backed photo paper, you can spend less time dealing with sticky glue and more time creating your masterpiece with artistic scrapbook page ideas.
Gather your pens, your paper, your thousands of rolls of washi tape, and get started! But seriously, get yourself a Lifeprint printer first. Then, get started.
