Scrapbook ideas for couples making a yearly book together
Make a couples' scrapbook for a year you both want to record. Combine your photo collections, choose the pages together and leave separate space for each person's writing.
Choose a calendar year or the period since a move. Agree the dates before combining your photographs.
Keep a room photograph or a picture from a regular meal beside the trips and celebrations. These show ordinary days during the year.
Make a book from these memories
Add your photos and keepsakes, then put the book together in your browser.
Choose the period and the readers
Agree the start date, end date and whether anyone else will see the book. Keep private correspondence outside it unless both people want it included.
Decide who gathers the images and who makes the first arrangement. Allow time for both people to review it.
Group familiar places and changes
Use places you returned to as chapter subjects. Put before-and-after pictures together for a move or shared project.
Keep all the material from a major occasion together. Give a regular routine its own smaller area rather than mixing the two.
Leave room for two accounts
Where you both remember an occasion, give each account its own area. Check factual details together without forcing the same wording.
Check that both people appear in the selection. If one took most of the photos, include a project or object they chose as well.
Pages to make
The place at the start of the year
Show the home, regular meeting place or neighbourhood at the start. Put a small map or room detail beside it.
An ordinary routine
Pair two dated photographs of a repeated activity. Include an object from the routine and keep the changes between dates visible.
Something that changed
Use a before-and-after sequence for a project or move. Give the practical details and each person's own account separate space.
The end of the period
Use a photograph and keepsake from the closing month. Review the final selection together before arranging extra pages.
Questions
Does a couples' scrapbook need to be a gift?
No. You can make it together as a record of a selected period. Agree the pages and audience before collecting more material.
How do we choose between similar photos?
Keep the photo that adds the clearest detail about the event. Use both only when the two perspectives show something different.
Can we include private messages?
Agree that with everyone involved before including them. A photograph or object from the same occasion may be enough without reproducing a private exchange.