Scrapbooking: How to Create Five Minute Pages

One of my favorite things to do is scrapbook. I've been at it for nearly a decade and before kids  I would spend up to an hour on one single page, just making it look as perfect as possible.  Now, things are a bit different. I try to set aside one afternoon each month to get caught up on pictures, so I only have a few hours to get a lot done.

Today I thought I'd share some pages and tips for making the most of the time you have to scrapbook too!

I take most of my pictures with my phone now, which is a big difference from even when Grant was born. I'd have to upload pictures, edit, then go pick up from the store. That alone was a process! Now, I can edit on my phone and I've been ordering though the Shutterfly app and having them sent to the house.  One thing I like about Shutterfly is that they print 4x4 prints, and so many pictures I take are square, so it's perfect! They also run a lot of promos for free prints on the app, so I often just spend a few bucks on shipping.

After Hannah was born I bought a number of things from this Hello Baby collection. I waited for Hobby Lobby to have 50% off and loaded up. I find that my pages come together a whole lot easier and more quickly when my supplies coordinate.  I also made sure to load up on ribbon, stickers, and adhesive. I really should buy stock in adhesive at the pace I tend to use it!

Once I have my pictures and supplies I go though photos and group them together by theme, i.e. "pictures with Grandma," "sleepy baby," "lots of smiles," "family pictures." Before anything else I need to think about the number of pictures to put on the page that go together.

Now that this is done, I can get to scraping!

On this page below I knew I was simply showcasing one picture. I was having such a good time at my shower I didn't think about pictures, so I only have this one a friend shared on social media. I look at the colors in the picture, than build the page around that. The pink stuck out, so I wanted to focus on that. I like plain colored card stock pages for my background and got a light pink. Then I found this fun striped paper from the Hello Baby collection and cut it to size. The great thing about the paper pack is that it also has words, phrases and pictures you can cut out and use. This makes the pages really easy! I cut some pictures and words that fit and then added some journaling and the polka dot ribbon to finish off the page.



I really like how this next page came out too, even though I look totally exhausted and puffy. I started with pink card stock and added this fun polka dot paper. The Hello Baby collection paper pack had this fun "love" banner too. 3D stickers are also great and I loved these from Hobby Lobby. I found  the gold banner that I wrote Hannah's name in at Hobby Lobby too. The fun gold ribbon adds some fun interest to the page too!



One thing that I like to do when I end up with small strips of paper is to layer them like I did below. It adds fun texture, but takes no time. After using paper from the Hello Baby collection, I added some fun stickers and the note from Grant too!



I have created a lot of pages that are a version of this one below, squares within a square. Once again I used paper from the Hello Baby collection on top of a corresponding card stock and some pictures from the paper pack. I added ribbon for texture an a sticker for the middle of my square of pictures too.



Sometimes I like to highlight one picture on a page. I focused on the pink and brown from Hannah's outfit and built the page around that. Once again I used paper from the Hello Baby collection on top of card stock. I also used this fun banner pieces from Hobby Lobby, and finished it off with a few puffy stickers for dimension.



All in all, I can get ten or so pages done in less than two hours, which is perfect! I know this is something the kids will appreciate when they get older, and it's so fun for me to make too!