Scrapbook ideas for your boyfriend or girlfriend: 25 page ideas, from the cover to the last page

A scrapbook is one of the few gifts that gets more valuable every year. It doesn't need to be perfect or artistic: it needs to be yours. Here are 25 page ideas, in the order they work best, so you can plan the whole book before you open the glue (or the editor).

Before you start: plan the book in chapters

• Choose the length: 15–20 pages for a first anniversary or a birthday, 30–40 for a big milestone.
• Collect 20–40 photos and sort them by chapter: how you met, firsts, trips, ordinary life.
• Pick a style and stick to it: an editorial look (cream paper, black and white, one accent color) or a playful one (colors, stickers, doodles).
• Write the captions on your phone first, then copy them in: it's faster and the words come out better.

The opening pages

1. A cover with your own title: “The Art of Loving”, “How Lucky Are We”, your nicknames or the date you met.
2. A letter on the first page, signed by you: why you made the book and what they mean to you.
3. “You + me”: two polaroids side by side, one of each of you, from before you met.
4. The day you met: where, when, what you were wearing, the first thing they said.
5. A map or the name of the city where it all started.

Photo pages

1. A grid of 9–12 small photos: “A glimpse of us”.
2. One full-page photo you both love, with a single line under it.
3. A photo strip from a photo booth (or four photos in a row taken the same day).
4. Black and white photos of ordinary moments: cooking, sleeping on the couch, the car.
5. A photo inside a heart, or on a playing card: the queen of hearts with their face.
6. The first trip together: three photos and the funniest thing that went wrong.
7. “Through our lens”: photos you took of each other without asking.

Pages with words

1. The story of us, written by hand (or in a handwriting font): one paragraph per chapter.
2. Your quote, big, on a colored page: a line from a song, a film or something they once said.
3. Six reasons I love you, each with a small photo.
4. A torn note: a short message on ripped paper, like one left on the fridge.
5. Milestones: first date, first “I love you”, first home, with dates.
6. Our songs, drawn as vinyl records or a playlist, with a line about each one.

Fun pages

1. Love coupons they can use: breakfast in bed, a movie of their choice, a massage, a day with no chores.
2. A word search with your words: your nicknames, your city, your dog.
3. Love bingo or tic-tac-toe with your photos.
4. “What's on our menu?”: your favorite dishes, the restaurant of your first date, the takeaway you always order.
5. A last page that looks forward: the next trip, the next year, “to be continued”.

Paper or digital?

A paper scrapbook is something to hold, but it takes days of printing, cutting and gluing, and it lives in one place. A digital scrapbook takes an evening, opens on any phone and can be sent across the world in a message, which is ideal for long-distance couples or last-minute gifts.

The Love Book is a digital scrapbook made this way: the pages are already designed (cover, letter, polaroids, photo grids, your story, songs as vinyl records, coupons, games), you add your photos and words, and its pages turn like paper. There are two styles, an editorial magazine of 21 pages and a playful 40-page scrapbook. You can flip through an example before you start.