30 "All About Me" Scrapbook Topics

Submitted by: Scrapbook.com

Article courtesy Scrapjazz.com; by Patter Cross

Planning Your AlbumDo you have an ‘All About Me' album? How many pictures do you have of yourself? Will your children know your favorite color, your daily routine, what your favorite board games were, etc.? If you do not have an album or have just started one, this article will give you 30 page topics to make that album nice and full!

Before you begin your album, you will want to determine what type of album you are going to do. Is it going to be an ABC album? That would definitely affect the titles and topics you choose. Or is it going to be a "past, present, future" type of album? Or just an album with topics about you? Let's look at some topic ideas.

30 Topics and Titles

1. 10 Things about Me
2. The Chef in Me (love it or hate it)
3. Circle of Friends
4. Crafts & Hobbies
5. A Day in the Life
6. Faith & Me
7. Favorites
• Activities
• Clothes
• Games
• Movies
• Music
• Books
8. Favorite Foods
• Restaurants
• Drinks
• Snacks
• Desserts
9. Favorite Job
10. Fears
11. Growing Up
• Where I was born
• Where I lived
• How many houses I lived in
12. Hairstyles through the Years
13. High School Years
14. Hopes and Dreams
15. Housework & Me
16. I am Blessed
17. I am Grateful
18. The Last 10 Years (how I have changed over the years)
19. Making My House a Home
20. Man of My Dreams
21. Mom & Me
• What we do together
• What our similarities are
• What our differences are
22. My Emotions
• What makes me happy/sad
• What makes me laugh/cry
• What makes me angry
• What makes me nervous
23. People That Inspire Me
24. Pieces of Me
25. Self Portrait (a personal photo and journaling about the photo)
26. Uniquely Me (things that make me unique)
27. Vacation Favorites
28. My names (maiden, married, nicknames)
29. My Purse
• Favorite purse
• What's in it
30. My quirks

Make sure you visit the image category, "Book of Me," in the Scrapjazz.com layout gallery. You might find a lot more ideas to get you going. Have fun!

My first Photo Album Scrapbook

Today is the last day of school and the summer is about to start (even if the weather isn't cooperating).  I thought I would take a break from my 28 Days of Sketches class (I'm still trying to catch up) and share my first Photo Album Scrapbook (PAS).

The first time I had ever seen a PAS was while I was reading the second volume of my Scrapbooking Bible, "Photo Freedom" by Stacy Julian.  She had used a standard 2-up photo album for a trip she had taken to London, England.  I remember reading the first page of the section and thinking, "I could never do that.  Especially, not for a trip to London.  My trips to Ireland and Italy required three 12x12 albums each."  

Then I turned the page and saw some examples of her London PAS.  It blew my mind.

This is not what I was expecting to see.  This was fun and creative and really easy and pretty.  I read on to learn what this amazing concept was all about.  Stacy said,  

"For some reason, most of us have the idea that using a photo album to store and share photos is a cop out, like it's a lesser form of scrapbooking because it doesn't require as much time or creativity as making layouts.  Wrong!  Not only are photo albums OK to use, they can become your best friend.  If you let them, photo albums can relieve you of the burden of hundreds of pictures that you really don't want to use on layouts - and they can help you easily document your memories during times when life is especially demanding.  If you're feeling burdened by hundreds of baby pictures of your now 12-year-old, compile them into a photo album scrapbook, and enjoy the wonderful feeling of losing that baby weight!"

Isn't she wonderful!!  I was one of those people.  Not any more!!  I decided right then that I was going to embrace this idea of Photo Album Scrapbooking and I was going to try one.  I searched out more information and examples and found a wonderful entry on Stacy's blog.

I chose to use our vacation to Lexington, MI as my first PAS.  I was nervous but excited to start this new creative challenge.

I headed to Target to first purchase my album which I figured would help determine the color scheme for the book.

After finding awonderful green album with it's striking blue elastic closure it was time to gather my patterned paper, cardstock and embellishments.  One of the most awesome parts about this is that I was able to shop my own supplies.  All total with the cost of having the photos printed,  the album itself and some adhesive I think the whole project cost around $15.00.

Obviously most of my supplies were lake themed.  Lots of blue, green, white, yellow and water.

I quickly learned that it was okay to cut photos and use patterned paper as embellishments.

Dealing with vertical photos was interesting but I realized that it was okay to split them.  It looked pretty cool actually.

Sometimes it was just as effective and cool looking if a divider only had paper in it.

I loved working on this PAS.  It was so much fun and easy and freeing!!  I'll admit I was skeptical and when I started it was extremely challenging to literally change the way I feel and design my scrapbooks but this was amazing.  I plan on doing more albums in this style.

I have hundreds of photos from a trip to California a couple of years ago and I plan on doing a PAS only in 12x12 format using divided page protectors.  Can't wait to start that project!

28 Days of Sketches: Days 9-11

Here are the next 3 sketches I've finished.

Sketch 9 holds 16 photos. This is definitely a story-telling layout – one where the journaling and the photos tell the whole story. You could also choose to swap out the photos for paper or embellishments and place your journaling and photo in the center.

I chose to picture the people that I listed in my Mile Dedication list during the Half Marathon.  These are the people that are important to me and I just love this page.

Sketch 10 is such a simple layout, perfect for highlighting one photo.

I decided to turn it and use a vertical 4x6 photo instead of a horizontal photo.

I used this sketch along with Sketch #12 to create a double page spread.

Sketch 11 is two-page sketch holds nine photos. If you don’t want to use small photos, you could combine some of them into larger photos. You could even convert this to a 12” x 12” and make the photos relatively larger.

I went the 12x12 route and made the photos larger.  I also used an embellishment for the title.

28 Days of Sketches: Days 6-8

Moving right along.  Here are sketches 6-8.

Sketch 6 works great with photos that are progressive.  Action shots or instructional shots.  By placing them off center and on top of each other you have a line to follow with your eye.

I chose photos of Bug-A-Boo crying and then recovering after seeing me run through the castle at the Half-Marathon.  It was heartbreaking.  I ran through the castle, ran over to her, gave her a kiss and hug and then had to keep going.  She started to cry and yell, "momma, don't go."  Prince Charming captured the sadness and recovery.

Sketch 7 can easily be adapted to fit more than one photo.  You can increase the size of the box in the middle and add a couple photos.  For a 12x12 you could increase the photo to a 4x6 and add a larger frame.

I went the 12 x 12 route.

Sketch 8 is a pretty basic sketch.   

I chose to use two photos instead of just one...a 5x7 and a 4x4.

28 Days of Sketches: Days 3-5

I'm starting to catch up with my 28 Days of Sketches assignments.  This is such a great way to work on my Disney Princess Half Marathon theme album.  I'm really getting a lot done using these amazing sketches from Lisa Day at Big Picture Classes.

Sketch 3 is a really simple design.  The white space can be left empty or filled with patterened paper.

I chose to fill the white space with patterned paper.  I also decided to go to my storage binders for a photo to scrap instead of using my Half-Marathon photos.  I love the photo that I chose.  It is one of my favorites.  I really like the way this page turned out.  I love the colors and the patterned paper.

Sketch 4 was originally an 8-1/2 x 11 double page spread.  I made it a 12 x 12 double page spread by making the photos larger.

I also flipped the pages and used a map instead of photos on the one page.

Sketch 5 is a very simple sketch with a lot of white space, putting the emphasis on the photo and story.

I loved the white space in this layout.  The only thing different is that I flipped the design.

28 Days of Sketches - Day 2

I know it has actually been several days since my class started (we are actually on day 13) but this is the first chance I've gotten to sit down and actually scrap in about a week.  I'm hoping to catch up over the rest of the week and this weekend.


This was a great sketch.  It is a grid based sketch. According to Lisa Day, "The nice thing about this sketch is that it’s easy to make it work with 6 photos as designed or you can alter it to work for more or less photos. You can use fewer photos by combining some of the 2” x 2” spots to place a bigger photo or add more by splitting a 4” x 4” spot to add smaller photos."   To enlarge this sketch to 12” x 12”, add another column. Put more 2” x 2” or 4” x 4” photos in the first two rows and then move the title over to the right.

For my 12x12 adaptation I used a 4x6, 3-4x4 and 1-2x2 along with a 2x2 embellishment.  I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

28 Days of Sketches

I recently signed up for another awesome class at Big Picture Classes!  My latest adventure is a class called 28 Days of Sketches by Lisa Day.  This class is going to be great.  I love working from a sketch and since I haven't actually done a page in a while this is the perfect opportunity.

Today's sketch is a really great one.  It utilizes several photos and is easily adaptable to a double page spread.

I changed the sketch in my page a little in order to fit my particular photos.  I also added some embellishments and made it a double page spread.

I love this simple sketch/layout.   I will definitely be using it as a base again.

Day Four-Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Today is the real reason I put myself through that Half-Marathon.  Today I get to spend 3-1/2 hours at the spa getting a facial and massage.

Before the afternoon at the spa though we are going to breakfast at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.

This is one of the most popular Character Dining experiences and I can't wait to see how Bug-a-Boo reacts to Mickey and Friends.

She did great but she was still really shy with the characters.  It was funny because just like with the Cinderella meal she would get really excited as they were coming to the table and then really excited when they left the table.

When we got back to the hotel I went to the spa and it was amazing.  I met Prince Charming and Bug-a-Boo at the pool and we went up to the room to get cleaned up.  Waiting in the room was a package.

My wonderful husband had bought me the Dooney & Bourke letter bag that I had wanted as a Congratulations gift.  I love him so much!!

Tonight we'll head over to Downtown Disney one last time and then tomorrow morning we are off for home.

What a weekend!!

Day Three-Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, pt. 4

We were back to the hotel by 10am and I promptly showered and went to bed.  Prince Charming and Bug-a-Boo rested in the living room area of our room and watched a movie and checked out animals from our balcony.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back.  Once I woke up we decided to head down to the pool to relax.  We had lunch first and poor little Bug-a-Boo was so tired she couldn't even stay awake to eat.

Once we got to the pool though she had a great time and was a little Sun-bathing Beauty.

We went back to the room to start getting ready for dinner.  We were going to be eating at The Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge.  I was pretty excited because I remembered it being a fun restaurant and having really good BBQ and I was hungry and thirsty.

We saw a lot more animals outside our room before leaving and Bug-a-Boo was pretty jazzed about it.

We got ready and I added my new charm that I bought myself to my Tiffany & Co. charm bracelet and we headed to the resort.

When we got to the restaurant I asked the waiter to bring me a really big water.  He did not disappoint.

I ordered the all you could eat Skillet-O-Meat and enjoyed every bite.  It was so good!

Bug-a-Boo started getting a little fussy, from being so tired, so we got our dessert to go and headed back to the room to go to bed.

It felt as if we had been up forever and I couldn't believe that I had run 13.1 miles that morning.  But I did and all the pain and sleeplessness were totally worth it.

Now I get to look forward to 3 hours at the spa tomorrow.