What is scrapbooking? Junk journals and collage compared
Scrapbooking is arranging photos, keepsakes and words about a memory on decorated pages. A junk journal is a book made from found paper. Collage is art made by gluing pieces into one picture.
Start with 40 pages free. No card needed.
All three use the same things: stickers, scrap paper, prints and tickets. What separates them is what the finished work is for.
Plenty of people mix them in one book, and then every name fits.
See also: junk journal vs scrapbook, what a junk journal is, what ephemera is, a commonplace book, photo collage pages, how to start a scrapbook.
Try a scrapbook page
Put photos, stickers and paper on a page in the tbf scrapbook studio, then add more pages as you go. Make a scrapbook online.
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| Craft | Built around | Usually made on | Ends up as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scrapbooking | A memory, event or person, told with photos | Album pages, often 12 by 12 inches or A4 | A record of what happened, to show people |
| Junk journaling | Found paper, and the book itself | A handmade book of envelopes, tags and old pages | A book you keep adding to and writing in |
| Collage art | The picture made from the pieces | Card, board or canvas | One finished picture, framed or kept flat |
| Art journaling | Paint, drawing and how you feel | A sketchbook or mixed media journal | Pages of art, often with writing |
| Smash book | Quick sticking with no planning | A ready-bound book with printed prompts | A loose record of ordinary days |
| Commonplace book | What you read and want to find again | A notebook with an index | Quotes and notes kept by subject |
Where scrapbooking came from
Commonplace books of 15th century England collected cuttings and notes. Scrapbooking as a hobby began in the UK in the 19th century, and Mark Twain invented supplies for it.
Where collage came from
The word comes from the French coller, to glue. Braque and Picasso brought pasted paper into painting early in the 20th century, so collage starts as art and only sometimes keeps a memory.
If you do all three at once
The materials do not decide the name; the purpose does. Photos telling what happened make a scrapbook. A book made of the found paper is a junk journal. One picture on card is a collage.
Steps
Decide what it is for
A memory to show people, a book to keep adding to, or a single picture to hang.
Pick the surface
Album pages for a scrapbook, a handmade book for a junk journal, card or board for collage.
Gather the paper
Keep tickets, wrappers, prints and offcuts in one box so they are there when you start.
Add words or leave them out
Scrapbooks usually name who, when and where. A collage can carry no words at all.
Questions
Is junk journaling the same as scrapbooking?
No, though they overlap. A scrapbook arranges photos round a memory. A junk journal is a book made from found paper, with space to write and keep adding.
Is scrapbooking a type of collage?
A scrapbook page uses collage methods, gluing pieces down in layers. Collage art is one finished picture, while a scrapbook page records something that happened.
What is digital scrapbooking?
The same pages made on a phone or computer, with photos, digital paper and stickers. The pages can be printed as a book or kept on screen.