Scrapbooking is a lot of fun! But sometimes your pages start to look alike if you find yourself using the same layout designs over and over. To some people it might not bother them to see the same style pages over and over again with the only difference being the paper and the pictures. Personally I like my albums to be full of variety. I like pages that show off different scrapbooking skills, techniques, styles and of course showcase my precious photos and memorabilia.
Scrapbooking layouts can vary by style and size. You could make a layout with one photo on a page or multiple photos on a page. There are one page layouts and two page layouts with sizes varying from standard 8″x8″, 8 ½” x 11″ or 12″x12″. However, layouts can come in other sizes as well. There are a lot of places you can look for inspiration.
Magazines and cards are a great source for scrapbooking layout ideas. There are some really great scrapbooking, card and paper crafting magazines out there that give you a variety of layout designs in each issue. You can make pages that are exactly like the ones you see in the magazine or put your own twist on the designs you see. Some of my favorite magazines are: Scrapbooks Etc, Creating Keepsakes and Paper Crafts.
Online scrapbook supply stores often have photo galleries where customers who buy their products can post photos of the layouts they made using them. These are great sources for layout ideas. Some of the best photo galleries are on Scrapbook.com and A Cherry On Top.
Scrapbook Etc has an awesome website that has sketches that you can print. I like to keep my layout ideas in a three ring binder for easy reference. Their print magazine also has sketches that you call pull out of the magazine and keep in a binder.
I had received a Scrapbook Pagemap (book one) as a gift. It was a really cool book that I would definitely recommend. It has 60 layout sketches or page maps that are not shown on the Page Maps website. The cool thing about this book is that it contains cards with the sketches on them that you can punch out and make a stack of cards out of them. The stack slides into a little box that you can simply slip into your scrapbooking tote bag or rolling case. That way you can have them with you on the go and not have to tote around the whole book. There is also a second book out now that has 90 sketches with pop out cards. These cards are a little different as they have pre-drilled holes so that you can put them on binder rings. If you like this idea more for the pop out cards you can always use a hole punch (I would recommend using a Crop-a-dile punch) for the cards in book one and put them on a binder ring as well.
