Scrapbooking at its essence is really about storytelling, but with a visual and tactile, rather than oral, focus. Scrapbooking is also a method for preserving a legacy or history in the form of photographs, printed media, and memorabillia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks. The tremendous growth of the Internet has resulted in more creative scrapbook approaches as well as online scrapbooks. The digital photography revolutions has been accompanied by an explosion in creative scrapbook ideas.

Ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, and other forms of memorabilia can add that something special to your scrapbook. Alongside pictures, memorabilia acts as an embellishment, but also helps tell the story of the pictures on the scrapbook page. Memorabilia, unfortunately, is not always safe to use around your photographs because of their high acidity. Don't count these items out completely; there are now many items on the market that can help you include memorabilia while protecting your photographs from harm.

An easy but expensive way to safely add memorabilia to your pages is to purchase an agent that will equalize the acidity of the item. These come in the form of aerosol sprays and work well, but one can of the neutralizer might cost fifty dollars or more, so this is not a cheap option if you have lots of memorabilia to add to your scrapbook. Also, some products are made of better quality than others, but you will not be able to tell if your equalizer is made to last or not until many years down the road. By that time, a low-quality product will have ruined your photographs.

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Remember:

There is no wrong way to scrapbook. Typically, the more creative and resourceful the person, the better the page. The main focus of each page should be the picture, letter or other momento, whatever is the most important to the creator. If you are interested in starting to digital scrapbook, or incorporate digital techniques with traditional scrapbooking, there are a myriad of Web resources available.

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A more effective way to add memorabilia to your pages is to use photo safe plastic pouches. These acid free pockets are clear and can be mounted to your page to hold items while creating a barrier between your photographs and items with high acidity levels. Pouches are extremely convenient to use with items such as locks of hair, which are otherwise virtually impossible to mount to a page. However, it can be difficult to stick the plastic to the page, and you might find that the results are undesirable when the plastic of the pouch clings to the plastic page protector.

Another option that can be used with some forms of memorabilia is to photocopy your ticket stubs, playbill covers, etc onto scrapbooking paper. This is a sure-fire way to protect your photographs from the acid in the original items. Using photocopies can lose some of the effect and memories brought by the original piece, but it's a good option if you want to quickly and safely add some details.

The best and most effective way to add memorabilia to your scrapbook is to create two-page layouts. Keep your pictures on one side and add memorabilia and other embellishments that are not photo safe to the other side of the layout. The plastic protector will save your pictures from yellowing. With this option, always keep in mind that page protectors are double-sided, so put two memorabilia pages back to back to keep the layout behind the first memorabilia page safe. Of course, with this option, you do not get rid of the acid in the item, so your pieces of memorabilia will most likely fade and discolor over time.

The most important thing when choosing a way to add memorabilia to your album is to keep your pictures safe. By protecting your photographs by one of these methods, you can keep your album looking like new for many years, but still include memorabilia to help remember events.