• To protect your photos, make sure all your supplies are acid-free.feminine flower frame image by robert mobley from Fotolia.com
  
  Many people count family photos among their most important possessions. One of the best ways to preserve and display your favorite family photos is in a scrapbook. With all of the beautiful scrapbooking supplies available, a few techniques and your own originality, you can craft pages worthy of holding your most treasured memories.
  
  

Family Quilt Layout

• Make a quilt scrapbook layout to easily display a collage of different photos. Select card stock in a background color that you like. On each 12-by-12 inch quilt, you can fit nine squares measuring three and a half inches each. Choose several different coordinating colors or patterns, much like you would use different fabrics if piecing together a quilt. Affix photos to some squares and use other squares to affix die cuts for journaling. Arrange them on the card stock, spacing them all out evenly. You can draw "stitch" marks with a marker along the patches, or actually use your sewing machine and thread to create stitches. Use a title in one of the squares, such as, "A family is like a quilt, stitched together by love." You can do a several page layout in the same style.
  
  

Family Tree

• Record your family tree in your scrapbook. There are many family tree kits in scrapbooking shops and supply stores, but you can also create your own with a large tree trunk die cut and a medium leaf-shaped paper punch. Affix the tree to the center of the page of your choice, and write the names of your family members on the leaves. Attach the leaves of the oldest married couple that started this family tree to the trunk. Attach leaves with the names of their children and spouses on the base of the branches. Continue with their children, working out towards the tips of the branches where the youngest generation will go. Include some photos around the tree, or create a several page long scrapbook layout, each subsequent page dedicated to one "branch" of the tree in more detail. In addition to pictures, add letters, cards and other memorabilia.
  
  

Family Recipe Scrapbook

• Family gatherings and traditions are often closely tied to food. A pretty family scrapbook can double as a recipe book, and makes a lovely gift for all members of the family to treasure. Alongside photos of your holidays and celebrations, include the recipes of everyone's favorite traditional meals: your grandmother's Thanksgiving stuffing, your aunt's Christmas cookie recipes or the homemade mint chocolate chip muffins made for every birthday. Print the recipes out on three-by-five inch decorative cards. If a particular recipe is tied to a specific person, put a small photo of the person on the card, or instead decorate the cards with clip art that suit the occasion. Laminate each card to protect them. Instead of permanently affixing them to the page, include envelopes on each page to hold the recipe cards so they can be taken out and used. Be sure to journal the stories that go with the photos and the food for posterity.