The first stage in creating a scrapbooking layout is to select your photographs or pictures that you want to use. You do not necessarily have to use a photograph in a scrapbooking layout but it is becoming the common starting point for most people. The idea when planning a scrapbooking layout is to remember that every page should relate a part of a story but the photographs that one person feels perfectly captures an event may well be very different to the choice of others. However, this is all part of the joy of designing your own scrapbooking layout because it is always going to be original, because of the actual pictures or other elements that you use.

The next stage in creating a scrapbooking layout is to decide how many photographs to use on a page. There may be a particularly special photograph that deserves its own page. Other types of scrapbooking layout involve using a double page spread to cover the theme. If this is a type of scrapbooking layout that you are considering then it is important to remember that the overall look and feel of both pages needs to be the same. A lot of people tend to be a little overenthusiastic with their first scrapbooking layout project and feel that they need to cram as many photographs onto the one page as possible. It is important to always be happy with your own style of scrapbooking layout but it might be worth playing with having a few less photographs and leaving more room for journaling comments and descriptions.

The intended audience for a scrapbooking layout is also an essential point to bear in mind. If you are going to give the album as a memento of a child's birthday then it needs to be considerably different to that of a friend's wedding, for example. There are so many ideas for scrapbooking styles and themes available that it is worth investigating a few to get some ideas. The type of paper that is used for your scrapbooking layout will be a major starting point. Computer generated layouts and backgrounds are often the simplest and most economical choice to enable you to amend and adjust as necessary without wasting a lot of paper. Do not use overly ornate backgrounds for your scrapbooking layout if you are using a lot of photographs as this will distract from the pictures themselves.