faq
General Questions
What is a scrapbook?
What does photo safe, acid free, and lignin free mean?
How many photos fit on a page?
Why can’t I keep my photos in my old photo album?
What is a scrapbook?
The official Merriam-Webster definition is “a blank book in which various items (as newspaper clippings or pictures) are collected and preserved”. To me, a scrapbook is an album filled with pictures and stories. It’s more than a photo album. I remember looking through my parents’ photo albums when I was younger, the black paper albums with pictures attached with photo corners. They were filled with wonderful black and white photos, but no words, no stories. I would often ask who was in the pictures, but many times they didn’t remember. When my grandchildren and great-grandchildren look at my albums, I want them to know who is in the pictures and what their stories are.
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What does photo safe, acid free, and lignin free mean?
Photo safe – material that is both acid and lignin free
Acid free – products with a pH of 7 or higher. Acid left in the materials or album could react with the photos and cause them to deteriorate quicker. Why do many photos from the 70s have a yellow/orange cast to them? They have been stored in acidic environments, this acid is slowing deteriorating the pictures.
Lignin free – Lignin is a bonding material that holds wood fibers together. If the lignin is not removed from the paper, the paper will turn yellow and brittle over time. Have you saved a newspaper article? How does it look now? Most likely it’s yellowed.
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How many photos fit on a page?
12 x 12 – up to 5 photos
8-1/2 x 11 – up to 3 photos
8 x 8 – up to 2 photos
6 x 6 – 1 photo
The number of photos per page can also depend on the size of the photos as well as if they can be cropped or resized.
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Why can’t I keep my photos in my old photo album?
Older photo albums, especially the “magnetic albums” contain acid. Over time this acid eats away at your pictures, changing their color, fading them.
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