Perhaps the most rewarding type of scrapbook you can make is one that you intend to give as a gift. Scrapbooks make special gifts for almost every occasion, because there handmade touches show that you care about the person. When someone receives your scrapbook as a gift, he or she may be inspired to create a scrapbook as well, and in this way you can spread the scrapbooking bug to friends and family members.

There are many different types of scrapbooks you can make for the recipient. One of my favorite types of themes makes a good gift for a graduate or someone moving away-use pictures from throughout the years of the person growing up and end with a recent picture and some blank pages so the album an be continued. Pages made as a continuation make good future gifts as well. This is also a good idea for couples celebrating their wedding or anniversary. Instead of just having a traditional wedding album, include pictures of both people from before they met and then create pages of their life together.

Gathering pictures for these albums might call for you to be a bit sneaky. Talk to friends and family members. Remember, never scrapbook using a person's original photographs without asking first. Instead, make high-quality color copies at your local photocopy center. If you use the machine correctly, you shouldn't be able to tell the different between the originals and the copies. By careful to replace the photographs exactly as you found them, not only to prevent the recipient from finding out the surprise, but also as a common courtesy. Even some people who do not do scrapbooking have very precise systems for keeping their photographs in order.

If you don't have access to photographs or want to give a gift to someone who likes to do the scrapbooking on their own, try making a layout album for the person. This is an empty album of sorts-you do all the page designing and let the person crop and add their own photographs. They can use the album as given or remove the pages in groups or singularly to add to an album they are currently creating. Perhaps your best bet for an avid scrapbooker is not an album, however, but a box full of supplies or a gift certificate to a local craft supply store. You can still personalize this gift by choosing papers to coincide with specific events in a person's life-for example, buy beach-themed paper for someone who recently bought a beach house, or buy letter stamps that spell out specific names. With a little creativity, you can use your love of the craft to give a perfect gift to anyone.