Diary scrapbook ideas for daily and weekly pages
Give each day a dated line or two and one flat thing you kept, or give each week a spread. Drop the day's item in an envelope and do the cutting and sticking once a week.
Choose a daily page or a weekly spread before collecting. Keep the amount of paper small enough for the binding and the time you want to spend on it.
Most days leave something flat behind: a receipt, a wrapper, a bus ticket, a leaf. The diary puts a date and a line beside it.
Make a digital scrapbook
Add your photos and keepsakes in tbf scrapbook, then arrange them on the pages.
Page ideas and entry patterns for a diary scrapbook
Daily page ideas
- Receipt of the day
- What I ate, in wrappers
- Overheard today
- Weather and one leaf
- The day's route, sketched
- Three things on the table
- Who I spoke to
Weekly spread ideas
- Week [number], [month] [year]
- Seven tickets, seven lines
- Best and worst of the week
- The week in receipts
- Plans against what happened
- Monday to Sunday in photos
Factual fields to record
- Date and place
- Item and where it came from
- People present
- Receipt amount and currency
- Date range for a gap
A page a day or a spread a week
A daily page suits a short dated record and one item. If blank days bother you, date only the pages you use rather than reserving one page for every calendar day.
A weekly spread is more forgiving. Write a line a day in a list, keep the week's items in one envelope and lay the spread out on Sunday.
Things to pick up each day
Choose one, not all of them. A day with six items turns into a sorting job.
- The receipt from the day's one purchase.
- A ticket, wristband or cinema stub.
- One phone photo, printed small or noted for printing later.
- Packaging with a place or date on it, such as a coffee sleeve or sugar packet.
- A photo or sketch of a leaf, flower or outdoor object, instead of damp or loose material.
- A note someone left you, or a list in your own hand.
- A quick drawing of something you could not keep.
Copy the receipt before it fades
Till receipts are usually printed on thermal paper. The National Archives notes that such paper can darken and its printing fade, and suggests copying any that matter.
Photograph or photocopy a receipt on the day, and write the line that matters, such as the shop and the date, into the diary in pen.
Entries you can still read in ten years
Write the full date, year included, at the top of every entry. The year is the detail you will not be able to work out later.
One line about what happened, who was there or what you heard is enough. Leave out what the item already shows.
After a gap
List the missed days with one item or one line each and carry on from today. Writing each missed day in full turns one catch-up into a whole evening.
If the gap was a week or more, a single page headed with the dates is enough to show the diary did not simply stop.
When the envelope is full, choose a few items before collecting more. Photograph the rest as one dated group if you want a record; the notebook need not absorb every scrap.
Steps
The receipt day
A copy of the receipt with the shop, date and amount recorded beside it. Cover card details before scanning or sharing the page.
A week on one spread
Seven narrow strips across two pages, one per day, each holding one item and a line. Sunday's strip also takes the week's photo.
The day nothing happened
No item. Draw the view from the window or list what was on the desk, and date it like any other entry.
End of the month
A pocket page for the month's leftovers, with a short list of what is inside and the date each piece came from.
Questions
What do you put in a diary scrapbook?
A short dated entry and one flat thing from the day: a ticket, receipt, wrapper, leaf or small photo. Photograph bulky items instead of sticking them in.
How do I keep up a scrapbook diary every day?
Make the daily task small: the date, one line, one item into an envelope. Do the cutting and sticking once a week.
What size notebook suits a diary scrapbook?
A5 takes a page a day with room for a ticket; A6 fits a pocket but holds less. Pick a binding that copes with extra thickness, such as rings or a notebook with an elastic band.