There are two types of gifts I’m always thrilled to get: those that are handmade and those that incorporate family memories. Heritage scrapbooks embrace both of these concepts, resulting in a gift your family will always treasure. It takes just a little planning and mindfulness to make your family moments last a lifetime, and beyond.

Here are a few resources to help you get started with archival materials for your scrapbook:

• Scrapbook Preservation Society: The SPS mission is to collect, review, organize, and distribute science-based preservation information to the scrapbook community through the publication of preservation guidelines, informational articles, and technical papers, and through the presentation of educational programs. Check out their FAQ for a great overview on archival materials.
• How to Find Your Roots has a great page on heritage scrapbooking, including resources for paper, discussions on choosing an album size and even a section on scrapbooking with kids.
• If you are looking for a quick method to start on a heritage scrapbook, check out this kit on the Home Shopping Network’s site.
• And finally, visit the Heritage Scrap Gallery for beautiful ready-made art to fit your design.

When you’ve selected the best tools for the job, then the fun begins. Putting the scrapbook together as a family makes it a lot more fun and takes some of the pressure off of you. Katie Scott of Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking produces regular live video chats and actively blogs about the process of putting together scrapbooks, telling stories. She’s down-to-earth and a crafty scrapbook designer to boot!

The granddaddy list of heritage scrapbooking links can be found over at Cyndi’s List. From gathering supplies to distribution in varying formats, Cyndi has it all!

If you need inspiration for scrapbooking ideas, such as layouts and ways to present photo captions, try the galleries at the Creative Memories website. Additionally, there are several ready-made heritage scrapbook kits at My Perfect Scrapbook and  The Vintage Workshop has some wonderful embellishments.

If you are having trouble getting started with telling your “story,” then the We Are Storytellers site has tons of useful information, though it appears to no longer be updated.

Here’s a downloadable storyboard for helping you sketch out the narrative for your scrapbook:

View the Storyboard Template on Scribd.

Teaser photo by Valerie Reneé on Flickr

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Archive note — September 2026: Many of the commercial scrapbooking sites linked in this 2010 resource list have disappeared, so several links now point to archived copies. The preservation principle is more durable than the shopping list: family photographs and documents benefit from stable, archival-quality materials, good labeling and enough contextual information for someone else to understand what they are looking at. For current guidance, the Library of Congress maintains practical resources on preserving family photographs, papers and other personal collections.

Current Library of Congress guidance for preserving family collections