What Are Scrapbooks and What Are The Different Types?

Learn about scrapbooking and how to use this creative tool to preserve memories and tell a story

“Life is all memory, except for the present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.” The words of American playwright Tennessee Williams perhaps explain why scrapbooking, the art of creating scrapbooks, has become so popular. But what exactly is a scrapbook? Discover below.

The simple answer is that a scrapbook is a book or album filled with photos, illustrations, stamps, text, etc. It’s a unique tool whose presentation and purpose are determined solely by its creator.

For Nuria Mel (@nuriamelworkshop), who teaches the course Creating an Illustrated Scrapbook, "the scrapbook methodology is based on preserving memories." According to Nuria, this activity has two objectives:

1. To preserve memories.
2. To tell a story.

History

Although the exact origin of scrapbooking is unknown, an important milestone in the evolution of this craft is a book by English clergyman James Granger, Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution, which was published in 1769. At the end of the book, readers could personalize a series of blank pages by adding prints and portraits.

At the beginning of the 19th century, with the arrival of the printing press, printed materials became increasingly available: brochures, illustrations, and illustrated cards. The modern scrapbook was born out of a need to organize and store the materials that people had started collecting.

Another significant influence was the emergence and surging popularity of photography, with people, still in the 19th century, collecting photographs of well-known individuals. Then, in the 20th century, photography became increasingly popular. Long before the arrival of social media and the cloud, photo albums became a way to preserve family history for future generations. The creation of these albums involved elements of scrapbooking.

Today, documenting is still a popular activity, but the creative side has become more important.

Scrapbooks record the passage of time while giving it a new look. They vary greatly: some scrapbooks have a lot of text; others have next to none. Some are so organized their pages look like they’ve been prepared in InDesign; others prioritize intuition and freedom. There are scrapbooks with colorful pages and monochromatic pages, scrapbooks with endless pages, and others with very few. What unites them is what Nuria Mel has already highlighted: they tell stories. And, as the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano said, “we are made of stories.”

If you’re looking to get your creative juices flowing, we recommend the course, Creating an Illustrated Scrapbook. You’ll learn to understand and use scrapbooking as a tool in your illustration projects that will help you craft stories.

English version by @eloise_edgington.

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