Scrapbook Layouts and Labels

Today’s scrapbook conversation surrounds layouts and labels. Because there have been so many pictures to put in the albums I’m making I’ve leaned towards putting as many pictures tastefully on a page as possible. And today’s layouts reflect that. Labeling pictures with who is in the picture, when it was taken, and maybe even where it was taken has been forefront on my mine too. I have a few suggestions to approach that.

April Status

April’s scrapbook goal was to finish an album of my growing up years. If you’ve been following along, I spent March finishing up each of my brothers’ albums by making scrapbook page kits to help move things along. I had started my album earlier in the year, but came across dozens of pictures I needed to re-work into by brothers’ albums, and I also found more pictures for my album. April was spent finalizing my album.

Let’s take a look at a couple of layouts I used, and feel free to use these in your own scrapping journey.

Photo Layouts

1 – The 5×7 and 4×6 combination layout

This layout includes 2 5×7’s and 2 4×6’s. Although when you see my layout you’ll notice they’re not really 4×6’s…..oh, but they are. J On a 12×12 page, the 5×7 pictures each anchor a corner — one in the upper left, the other in the lower right. The 4×6’s then sit above or below those to essentially square off the page.

You’ll notice in this picture I used two wallet sized photos to make up one of the 4×6’s and used a small envelope that contains a locket of hair to comprise the other 4×6. If I would have had 4×6 photos though, they would have gone here.

Think about that when you see a layout you like but may not have the right number of pictures – improvise!

2 – The 7 photo layout

This layout uses 7 square photos. It is essentially a 9-photo layout I mentioned in this post {link}, without 2 of the photos. In place of those two photos could be a quote, journaling, or other creative embellishments. Again, improvising!

This one has a framed vellum saying that takes up most of the 2-photo space.

You can also turn it and try it at a different angle, like this:

Now we’ll move on to the label ideas.

Some days I wish I could go back in life. Not to change anything, but to feel a few things twice. — Unknown

Page Labels

1 – The circle punch

The circle punch in this layout is 1”-1 ¼” wide. It’s just a bit bigger than a quarter. Using coordinating paper, circles are punched out and used to add the year, the description of the picture, or any other short piece of information. It could be an exclamation like “Wow!” or “A+” or really anything you want it to be. I’ve even used it to indicate that the school class picture listing everyone, or the team roster is behind the page. I have found the circles are easy enough to put multiples on a page without overpowering it.

2 – The ripped strip

The ripped strip can be in any size you need or width. I’ve used very narrow ones (barely the width of the scrapbooking tape) or very wide. I find the torn texture gives just a bit more character to the page.

If there is a neat streak that runs in your blood, feel free to get out a scissors, or might I suggest a decorative scissors, to cut a straighter edge.

3 – Good ol’ writing directly on the background page

This one is a tried and true one that goes back to the basics. If the background page is mostly subdued, meaning it isn’t too dark or too busy with a design, sometimes I’ll write right on it, as you can see here.

I don’t want to lose the information of the photo and this ends up being a quick and easy “cheat” for getting a page completed. I don’t do this on EVERY page, but will mix it up with some circle punch pages and some ripped strip pages.