Standard photo albums are great keepsakes, but the plain features of such albums rob the photographs of their personalities. Modern scrapbooks are increasingly popular because they preserve more than just the facts of the memories, but the feelings.

Many want to get into scrapbooking but are intimidated by the immense possibilities before them.

They maintain the desire but lack the guidance to get started. The first thing to remember is that when one is just getting started with scrapbooking, it is far better to do a simple project well than to attempt something complicated and fail. It does not have to be difficult, nor does it require incredible creativity. The artistry is not nearly as important as preserving the feelings.

Ugly scrapbooks that preserve feelings mean much more to people than fancy ones that miss the entire sentiment of the memories. With some basic tools and some introductory training, anybody can create an emotional scrapbook. The point is not to impress your friends, but to capture what the camera misses about the most important events of your life.

First, go to your local craft or scrapbooking store and pick up cardstock, or a patterned paper of your choice. The size of such materials is completely up to you. Get a few pairs of scissors with interesting patterns.

Collect a group of pictures for your first project. You can have the film redeveloped if you are worried about permanently damaging anything valuable. Working with copies is much more forgiving and will alleviate stress as you work. Browse for stickers too since they are so inexpensive, but avoid the temptation to get carried away and buy a lot.

Markers are a must. Pens just will not suffice, so get a wide variety. Finally, you will need something to hold the pictures on the pages, so a glue runner or double-sided tape would be best. A simple glue stick will work but tends to get messy and does not always hold the pictures on the pages as well.

Whichever you choose, it must be acid-free to protect your photographs. Here is a simple step-by-step on how to use your new supplies. First, coordinate your background paper with your photographs. Plan a few layouts to use multiple photographs, but save the very best pictures for their own pages. Use the cardstock to create the mats for your pictures.

This is done by cutting the shape of the pictures out of the cardstock slightly larger than the pictures themselves, and by slightly I mean about a quarter of an inch. Go ahead and glue or otherwise adhere the pictures to their mats so you can get a clear preview of your scrapbook page. Cut a strip of paper and write an interesting title with your new set of markers.

Move things around until they look the way you want them, but do not glue anything to the background until you have included your stickers in the layout. Once you have all of the elements planned, lay down the stickers and glue the title and photo mats to the background.

The page is finished, and now you can repeat the same process for the other pictures you chose for your scrapbook. Do an entire scrapbook the same way so there is continuity between the pages. As you experiment with other pages, you will discover what you like and do not like so you can go to the scrapbook store better prepared when you need more supplies.