You began with 1000 photos. You chose a theme and picked out 100 photos to put into your scrapbook. You chose an album and bought some supplies to create your pages.

Now what? Now its time to put it all together, and begin creating your layouts. If youre like me, just looking at the supplies and knowing the choices can be overwhelming.

Ive found the easiest way to work on a scrapbook is to work on just one page at a time, or a two page layout (side by side), not really thinking about the finished product.

Although many of my scrapbooks appear to be complete, I know that I might find another picture that I want to add, so I never really consider my scrapbooks done. In addition, over the years folks have mailed me pictures. For example, some friends were going through their own photos and found a really cute photo of my daughter taken when she was 5 (she is now 16). They mailed it to me. I really wanted to add it to her scrapbook. So I added a new page to an existing album.

When you create your scrapbook one page at a time, you spend more time enjoying the page you are working on and less time stressing over a finished project.

Step one is choosing the photos for just the two pages in front of you. Dont think about the proceeding pages, and dont think about the future pages. Just look at the photos that will be on the two pages you are working with.

Choose a background. I choose background paper based on either theme or color. For example when I created some pages with photos of my dogs, I used a lot of background paper with animals on it. When I created pages of my daughters trip to Europe I used sheets of paper with maps and European objects on them. Other times I choose two sheets of paper that color coordinate with one another. Once I have the paper chosen, I put the photos on the paper and see if I like how they look. I move them around, crop them etc, until Im happy with how they look. Sometimes I add a frame to the photos and sometimes I affix the photos directly to the background paper. If I use a frame, Ill cut the frame and then again, lay it out before I actually affix the photo to the frame. I also consider any embellishments, stickers or diecuts I may want to use on the page.

I take the photos and all other items, place them all on the page and then decide if I like the look. If I do, I begin attaching everything. If I dont quite like it, I make the changes, then begin attaching everything. Again, I only work on the two pages in front of me.

Often, after the photos are on the page, Ill look at adding stickers over the frames, or putting a border at the bottom of the page. I use the same process. I lay it down and see if I like the look. If I do, then I attach the items.

Once these two pages are done, I flip the page and start the process all over, again, not thinking of the pages I just created and not thinking forward, but thinking of only the two pages in front of me and the photos for those pages. If you are making an album of a child ages 5 through 10, one page might be at the beach, while another page might be school field trip, meaning your layouts from page to page will be completely different.

I really do believe scrapbooks can be works in progress. If I buy a new product and think it will look great on an existing page, Ill go back and add it, weeks or even months later.

Once your scrapbook is complete, its time to start a new scrapbook and start all over again with page one.