Senior Scrapbooking Ideas and Tips
By Ainsley Benbow
I’ve been thinking about starting a scrapbook for the past 18 years of my life, but have never really gotten around to it. Sure, I’ve tried to write in my diary every once in a while, but it’s never really stuck. And yet, I’m always thinking about how I’m going to remember all my moments from high school when all my photos are crammed in one big pile in my camera roll.
Then, right before I started Year 12 in October 2025, I kept seeing ‘Senior Year Scrapbooks’ on my Tik Tok For You page and got inspired.
“How hard can it be,” I thought to myself. Oh, how naive I was.
Scrapbooking has to be one of the most relaxing and, similarly, atressful activities someone can do - in my opinion, of course.
Over the past year, I have experimented, cried, smiled, stressed, and stayed up late doing and even thinking about my scrapbook. It is truly the bane of my existence, in the best way possible. However, I am so grateful that I started one, especially for my last year of high school. Even though I haven’t even finished it yet, and there are still a number of blank pages and unfinished spreads, I already find myself looking through the pages I’ve made - some of which were events from a few weeks or months ago. These pages were filled with photos I would have never glanced twice at if I had simply flickered through my overwhelming camera roll of over 40,721 photos (I know, I have a photo problem, but that’s for another time to figure out and discuss).
I have always felt very sentimental about senior year and the idea of the end of an era. This scrapbook became a way for me to relax throughout the stress and chaos of Year 12, while also making my future self proud that I had created something to remember this last year by. Not as a photo book (although those are still adorable and I’ll probably make one with all the photos I didn’t end up using) and not simply locked away in my camera roll, but as a physical, memorable and colourful book filled with treasured memories and a hint of my creativity.
I truly started this scrapbook with Kmart, Pinterest and a dream, which, in actual fact, got me here today. However, doing a little more research beforehand would’ve been much more helpful and insightful. So, through this article and ‘guide’, I hope you are able to learn from my mistakes, gain some insight into what I’ve learnt along the way, and find some advice, supply recommendations and page ideas that might help you create your own little book of memories and life.
However, before you rush off the see my tips and tricks, please know there is no singular, linear way to scrapbooking and everyone has their own processes and supplies.
Biggest Pieces of Advice and Tips
Do it Throughout the Year
I know it must seem daunting and as you go through Year 12 it feels like you have no time to do anything but study or work, but scrapbooking becomes harder and harder as the time goes by.
Even if you save and organise photos to save for each page you want to do, there is still so much time that you have to do afterwards and honestly, you save time by doing pages as you experience them. Sure it is fine to do after graduation or the HSC, but it is also so worthwhile as a fun hobby and activity to do during your last year of high school.
Album Organisation
There is nothing worse than going to Kmart to print photos and having absolutely no idea what to print and instead just rummaging through your camera roll to find pictures that sort of look nice – THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO GO! Trust me, I’ve done that time and time again and it never goes well. You end up finding photos later on that you would’ve loved to use, printed a photo that wasn’t as good as another photo and then you end up printing 100 photos instead of 10.
For me, I have a massive overarching folder in my camera roll called ‘Scrapbook’ and within it I have sub-folders dedicated to each page I have planned so then when I go to Kmart to print them, I can just select a whole album like ‘Athletics Carnival’ or ‘Winter Academy’.
Preplan Pages
This ties into what I was just talking about with album organisation, but it really is something to stress upon. The amount of excess photos I have or even the added time I have spent re-going through photos I’ve printed but don’t need is actually insane. Especially doing this in Year 12, it should be a fun activity to do in your free time, not to take up ALL of your time.
Planning pages or at least the photos is one of the most important features of scrapbooking when it comes to time management and balance with schoolwork.
Printing and Photo Sizes
Printing photos can be very time consuming and tedious at times, however I’ve found that rather than regular printing at your home or school printer, the printers at Kmart are exceptional! Your local Kmart usually have printing stations at the back and corner or the stores where you can select ‘Mini Prints’ to print here are printing stations set of 2, set of 4 (5x7cm) or set of 9 - I recommend the set of 4 as then the photos aren’t too big or small or thereby are the perfect ‘Goldilocks’ of printing.
These photos are professional-level quality, where you can select either a glossy or satin finish where depending on how many you printed, only takes a few minutes on the printer and are only 15cents per sheet of paper. Keep in mind that they are not pre-cut so depending on the amount of photos you print, the longer you’ll have to be cutting them apart later.
It’s also important to note that you have to select the exact amount of photos to fit e.g. if you choose sets of 4 and try to select 15 photos, you have to add another photo or get rid of 3 to be a multiple of 4 as for Kmart printing you are unable to leave spaces blank.
Box with All Stickers, Photos, Paper, etc.
As you start scrapbooking, you start to realise how much you actually need. I know at first it might not seem like a lot, but as the time goes on, you collect more fun stickers that you see in stores, random pieces of paper that are too big to throw away but too small to use at the moment, pens, scissors, and more than overall accumulate to be quite the sum of products needed to make one big, memorable masterpiece.
Whether it is a plastic tub like mine, a cardboard box or even a bag, it’s best to keep all your supplies in the same place so then it is easy to pack away into one spot and also find anything you might need when you do some pages.
Cutting Down Photos
Depending on the event or page you have planned, you could have a range between 5 to 200 photos and as always, cutting photos down as not easy. Even though I’ve been scrapbooking for a little under a year now, I still struggle with this and somehow still print way more photos that I need for a page.
When you first get your desired scrapbook, you can see the dimensions and around about how many photos can fit on each page. For my square scrapbook, it’s around 10 photos per page however once you cut some to only be cut outs of people, and layer others on top of one another, you can always fit way more.
I think that while it is important to cut down photos, it is really hard at times to choose so if you end up printing more photos than needed
Own Creative Vision
Having your own creative vision and ideas for pages, designs and especially with regards to using stickers and things like that, this is what scrapbooking ultimately is. Don’t feel pressured to make a page a certain colour or design if you saw it on Pinterest or someone told you what they thought you should do. Sure it is nice to see examples and gain inspiration from Pinterest (PLEASE DO!), but at the end of the day, it is your scrapbook and something that you will look back on in years to come. So, make sure the pages suit you, showcase you and reflect the life you want to reminisce about in the future.
Must Haves
Scrapbook
The actual sizing, dimensions and colouring of your scrapbook do not, in actual fact, matter as it is all up to person preference. I personally just have a brown square one from Kmart which has been amazing, however any book or folder is perfect.
Double Sided Roll-On Tape or ‘Glue Tape’
If there is anything that you take away from this article, it is THIS!!! Double sided tape is the biggest life saver when gluing in paper and photos. Especially with being rolled on, it’s so easy to use and much quicker than having to fold sticky tape.
Here are some examples that I highly recommend:
Different Sized Black Felt Tip Pens
These are the biggest life saved for writing and decorating. Even though it may not seem like a big difference, different sized pens go a long way in scrapbooking, especially being felt tip, this is a MUST since you want everything to be pristine and beautiful, without having dents and lines from when your regular pen was being stubborn. However, make sure you test them out first to make sure they don’t smudge, or if they do, make sure you are extra careful when writing.
White POSCA Pen
This is not the most essential in the wholeeeee ‘kit’ for starting scrapbooking, however, a small white POSCA pen is really useful in making little highlights and details especially on any piece of coloured paper.
Of course you can get different sizes (honestly if I had the money I would because they’re such good quality and so fun to work with), however if you had to get one, the Ultra Fine Tip Paint Marker is the way to go (in my opinion).
Different Coloured Sheets of Paper
I only started using different coloured paper as the background for my pages after Trials when I spent a weekend at my grandmas and she had some spare, thicker, paper at her house and let me tell you, as soon as I started using it, my life completely changed! It really does change the whole aesthetic of a scrapbook and makes the pages seem more cohesive as you can have themed pages of different colour profiles and combinations. This also makes it a lot easier to organise photos, rather than just filing them all on top of each other to fit everything and cover the backing on the book (in my case, cardboard brown).
Especially for the backgrounds, really any type of paper can word, regular or thicker, however I recommend thicker paper as it is sturdier and is then easier to work with when cutting around photos or letters since it isn’t as flimsy.
It’s also so fun if you get packs with a variety of colours, so then each page becomes themed - try to get some with sparkles as well, they completely change the game!
Scissors
I mean like duhhh, you should technically already have scissors for school or lying around the house but I thought I’d put this in the list JUST IN CASE. Scissors, if you didn’t already know, are very very helpful for, not only cutting pages to size for the background or cutting photos, but for cutting letters and making cool edges on photos and paper such as swiggles and spikes.
Page Ideas - (Chronologically Based on Year 12 Events)
First Last Day of Year 12
Year 12/Senior Year Bucket List
Senior Soundtrack
Quotes → Favourite quotes from songs, movies, teachers, etc.
Senior Subjects and Timetable
Halloween
12 Days of Christmas
Gingerbread Competitions (in Kuring-Gai we have one against other Tutor Groups every year)
Christmas Concert
Sports → One page for each sport e.g. Water Polo, Rugby, Swimming, Basketball, etc.
Christmas Liturgy
Awards Ceremony
Swimming Carnival
Fusion
Summer Holidays
Hanging out with Friends
Your Birthday
Other Peoples Birthdays and Parties
Music Festival
Term 1 Holidays
Boarder vs. Day Girl Benchball
Teacher vs. Student Soccer Game
Jerseys
Last Photo Day
Past Few Months (or a page for every month)
Loreto Day
Open Day
June Long Weekend
Last Day of Term 2
Term 2 Holidays
Winter Academy
Trials
Mother Daughter Lunch
Movies and Events
HSC Showcase
Athletics Carnival
R U OK Day
Teacher vs. Student Benchball
Senior Sunrise
Last Dancing in the Quad
Last Tutor Group Gathering as Long Recess
Dove Ceremony and Throwing of the Petals
Year 12 Eucharist with Candles
Year 12 Dinner and Disco
Year 12 Awards Ceremony
Extracurricular Activities e.g. The Mary Word, Photography Club, Orchestra, etc.
Term 3 Holidays (studying for HSC so not sure how many photos you’re going to get here)
Formal
Schoolies Trip
Spring Fair
Photos from Each Class
Pages for Teachers and Friends to Write In ⇒ I saved 6 pages however I recommend more as some teachers and friends have a lot to say and most also write reasonably big
Letter to Yourself in 10 Years
Example Pages from My Senior Scrapbook
