There are times when the most creative of croppers, surrounded by the most personal pictures, and the most inspiring implements, simply don’t know what to do. While the basics always apply, (you will need a topic, background and decorations), it’s not always easy to decide what the specifics will be. If your well has run dry, here are a few scrapbooking page ideas to bring back your muse.

Location, Location, Location

If the event your photos cover is even remotely location specific, (vacation, visiting family, trip to a museum), this offers you an easy theme to utilize in your design scheme. Simply choose a background paper, use a 2 to 3 inch tall rectangular accent the width of the page, and layer an oval over that. By writing the location name in the oval, Grandma’s House, Connecticut, or Cherry Street Elementary, you have created a center design for your page. Quotes about the place like, “Grandma’s House is filled with love,” or “School Daze” written down the side or around a photograph often add a nice touch.

How Cute!

Here are some great ideas for working with children or pets. Leaf through an expressions book for a theme like, “Puppy Love”, “Spring fever” or “Wild Thing!” Use stickers to spell out the expression down one side of the page. Then use circular cutters to round pictures, and to make slight larger paper borders for the photos. You then leave the borders blank, or use them to label the individual shot. This is also a fun place to use bubble quotes to indicate the puppy or child saying some cute expression like, “Mommy needs a nap!”

Time of Your Life

You have already figured out that having a theme will make creating your page an easier task. Teachers use this method when planning lessons for elementary students because it helps to bring the different elements of a task together.

Focusing your scrapbooking page on a time period, or season, also works well. For instance, your may call your page “The Wonder Years” with pictures of wide eyed toddlers, “Before Kids”, or “Winter Wonderland.”

Borders are a fun technique for these themes. For instance, it would be easy to locate a snowflake themed kit. You could then create a snowflake border, interspersed with small round face cutouts among the falling snowflakes.

When in Doubt Cut It Out

If you are really feeling stuck, remember that simpler is best. Some of the most elegant pages created have little more than background paper, a few lines of meaningful explanation, and a border.

Try this single picture technique. Choose a vertical picture to display. After selecting three papers that compliment your photo, cut one into a circle with the diameter the same as the width of your photo. Use the first sheet as your main background color, the second as a three-inch wide, vertical, rectangular border on the outer edge of your page. Place the circle so that it’s sticking out from behind the upper and outer corner of your photograph. Finally, use a marker, or letter stickers to label the event. Again, keep it simple, “Sunset”, “Sisters”, or “Home again.”

When trying to come up with your scrapbooking page ideas, just keep in mind that you will need a theme, a background and the embellishments. Simply trying out some ideas on your page is likely to get the creative juices flowing again.