Do you ever wish that you had a magic formula for a great scrapbook page? Look through your favorite idea book or magazine and you’ll probably see a fairly consistent formula for layouts. You’ll have to look beyond the color schemes, the product choices, and the subject matter…but it’s there. And the good news is that it’s not magic! It’s a simple formula that contains three elements that are key to creating great pages…

Photo(s) +Title + Journaling = One Great Page!

See? I told you it was simple. Let’s take a look at each of the elements, and how they work together to build a great page:

Photo(s)
I often begin with a stack of photos that I want to scrapbook. Before digital photography, I loved getting an envelope of photos back from the developer and flipping through them to see what images had emerged. Now, I simply click through my photo organizer and choose which photos to print. The beauty of digital is that I can easily manipulate photo sizes before starting to scrapbook.

Don’t limit yourself to “event” photos when you are planning out your page. Think about detail photos. Think about portraits. Every photo tells a story…and scrapbooking gives you the perfect means to tell it.

For this layout, I chose three “non-traditional” photos. In order to print the photos in a variety of sizes that would work well together, I created an 8.5 x 11 canvas in Adobe Photoshop Elements. By dragging all three photos onto the canvas, I was able to print a single photo sheet.

Title
A title really sets the tone for a layout. When deciding on a title, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. Lyrics and quotes can offer great inspiration for titles. Titles can be short or long, but they should really capture what the layout is about. Sound complicated? It isn’t! In this layout, I wanted to emphasize the number 3…three photos about three things…so I choose to simply title the layout “three.” Rub-on alphabets, chipboard letters, and stickers are all great products for adding a title to your scrapbook page.

For this layout, I choose to spell out my title with rub-on letters, and then to add a chipboard number for emphasis.

Journaling
This is what separates a scrapbook album from a photo album – the stories! Journaling tells the story…whether it’s the details of an event, or simply random thoughts that capture a moment in time. Journaling can be long or short, serious or funny, handwritten or typed…it’s really up to you! Song lyrics, quotes, letters, and emails can all be excellent inspiration for journaling.

Journaling on this layout tells about three things that are important in my life. It might seem silly to scrapbook about objects, but it’s really a great way to capture a snapshot of your daily life. Years from now, these objects may become obsolete! It will be fun to look back at how important they were to my everyday life.

Journaling reads….

The magic combination for me….these three things: my coffee, my camera, my computer. With the power of these 3, I can conquer the world…alright, maybe not the world, but certainly my day. Each morning starts out with coffee…at least 2 cups, brewed strong. I might even stop for another cup on my way to work (I really should own stock in Starbucks). My camera is always with me…we’ve been getting to know each other this year, and so far it’s going well. And last, but certainly not least…my computer. I start and end my day online…it’s my connection to friends, family, and a web full of exciting ideas (and good shopping, too!). Good things come in threes!

Using this simple formula will make creating great scrapbook layouts as easy as 1-2-3!