How to create a digital scrapbook with OneNote

What is digital scrapbooking?

Digital scrapbooking is like physical scrapbooking, but instead of using tangible materials to create your artwork, you use various graphic elements. It’s a relatively new form of scrapbooking, and it can be done on a computer, tablet, phone, or other electronic device. Upload or select images or graphics from your computer and arrange them on the page as you would with a regular scrapbook, and you’ve created a digital scrapbook.

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Digital scrapbooking with OneNote

OneNote is a digital note-taking app that helps you organize and share all your thoughts in one place. Elevate your OneNote content into a digital scrapbook by adding mixed media and turning your regular note pages into art. If you’re constantly being badgered by relatives for family photos, creating a shareable, digital scrapbook is the perfect way to appease them. OneNote makes digital scrapbooking and sharing with family members easy. Get started with these tips for creating the perfect digital scrapbook on OneNote.

Pick a project

If you’re new to scrapbooking, seasoned scrapbookers recommend starting with a small and manageable project, like scrapbooking one recent event. Within OneNote, you can organize your spreads into three categories: notebooks, sections, and pages. If you think about this in scrapbooking terms, the notebook is the scrapbook, the section could be “birthdays” or “holidays,” and the page is the specific event. Try starting small by creating one page and then organizing or tagging it as you would with a physical scrapbook.

Choose your pictures

Choosing your images is one of them most important parts of making a digital scrapbook. If you’re choosing to scrapbook about a recent event, the images should be easy to find in your camera roll. If not, you may have to do a little digging in your phone and anywhere else you’ve stored photos, like the cloud.

Once you’ve gathered your images, upload them online and start organizing them so they’re easily accessible the next time you need them. For example, if you find a selection of images from a past anniversary, save them in an appropriately named folder so you can find them if you want to scrapbook about anniversaries in the future.

After you’ve selected the images for your first page, upload them to OneNote so you can get started on your layout.

Get creative

Start scrapbooking and letting your creativity guide you. Take advantage of the various features in OneNote that can help bring your ideal design to life.

Layer pictures on top of swaths of color or pattered backgrounds to create a framing effect, and add additional elements, clip art, or doodles for a personalized touch. Add text to your layout by typing, writing, or drawing with a stylus or your finger. You can frame your pictures, highlight important messages, and create unique shapes using whatever colors you want. Don’t worry if you suffer from shaky hands—OneNote will intuitively make your shapes cleaner.

If you’re not sure where to start, OneNote has a variety of templates designed to make your life easier. Choose between decorative backgrounds, planners, lists, and more and customize them to fit your scrapbook.

Add embedded media

It’s easy to embed media into OneNote. In addition to images, you can add videos, audio notes, transcripts, YouTube video links, pdfs, and more. Using OneNote’s Web Clipper, save content from anywhere on the web with a single click. That makes saving digital invitations and registries to your scrapbook a breeze.

Share with your loved ones

Once you’ve made a scrapbook layout that you’re proud of, share your hard work with your friends and family via email. If they like what they see, you could invite them to collaborate on the next one.

If you still love the feeling of a physical scrapbook, you can print out your OneNote spread and paste it into a scrapbook for a mixed-media masterpiece.