Best Gifts For Scrapbookers
Scrapbookers are one of the easier crafters to shop for, right up until you buy paper.
Patterned paper comes in collections, and the sheet you pick almost never matches the layout already sitting half finished on their table. The gifts that land are the layer underneath: the tools, the storage, and the supplies they use up and keep meaning to reorder.
Everything below is in stock with a seller holding the buy box, and rated at least 4.2 stars across 500 or more reviews. They are grouped by who you are shopping for, because a beginner and someone eight albums deep want nothing alike.
Quick picks
For the beginner setting up a first kit
1. Fiskars SureCut Deluxe Paper Cutter
Cutting a photo square by eye is where most first layouts go wrong.
This trimmer has a wire guide that shows the cut line before the blade touches anything, so a 4 by 6 photo comes out square on the first try.
The 12 inch bed handles a full sheet of scrapbook paper, which the little desktop trimmers cannot do.
Check the Fiskars SureCut Deluxe Paper Cutter on Amazon
2. AdTech Permanent Glue Runner, 3 Pack
Adhesive is the supply scrapbookers run out of and keep forgetting to reorder.
A runner lays a dry strip of glue that grabs right away, so photos do not slide while the page dries and the paper never ripples.
Three dispensers is enough to leave one in the craft room and one in the travel bag. If they prefer a bottle, our guide to the best glues for scrapbooking covers those.
Check the AdTech Permanent Glue Runner, 3 Pack on Amazon
3. Astrodesigns 12×12 Cardstock Starter Kit
Patterned paper is a gamble because you cannot know which collection they already own.
Solid cardstock is not. Every layout needs a background and a few mats, and this pack covers eighteen colors at the standard 12 by 12 size.
It is a safe gift for someone who is still working out what they like.
Check the Astrodesigns 12×12 Cardstock Starter Kit on Amazon
4. MCS Expandable 12×12 Scrapbook Album
A beginner needs somewhere for the pages to go, and a cheap album is the fastest way to make finished work look unfinished.
The post bound spine on this one expands, so they can keep adding pages instead of starting a second book halfway through a trip.
If they have never made a page before, pair it with our guide to starting scrapbooking.
Check the MCS Expandable 12×12 Scrapbook Album on Amazon
For the one who is really keeping memories
5. Sakura Pigma Micron Fineliner Set
The words on a scrapbook page outlive the photos, and regular gel pen ink browns and bleeds through in a few years.
Micron ink is archival and pigment based, so captions written today still look black in a decade.
The assorted set gives them a hairline nib for dates and a thicker one for titles.
Check the Sakura Pigma Micron Fineliner Set on Amazon
6. Dunwell 12×12 Page Protectors
Every scrapbooker eventually finds a fingerprint on a page they spent three hours on.
Page protectors are the boring supply nobody buys themselves and everybody needs, and these are heavyweight enough not to curl at the corners.
Check which album they use first. Post bound and three ring take different sleeves.
Check the Dunwell 12×12 Page Protectors on Amazon
7. QIQQIKIN 3-in-1 Corner Rounder Punch
Rounded corners are the small change that makes a homemade page look finished.
This punch does three different radii, so photos, journaling cards and tags can each get their own.
It is also the cheapest way to make a stack of plain photos look styled.
Check the QIQQIKIN 3-in-1 Corner Rounder Punch on Amazon
For the scrapbooker who has run out of room
8. IRIS USA 12×12 Scrapbook Cases, 6 Pack
Loose 12 by 12 paper has nowhere to go, so it ends up in a leaning stack that bends at the corners.
These cases latch shut and stack, and six of them is enough to sort a real paper stash by color or collection.
They are the gift that gets used the same afternoon it arrives.
Check the IRIS USA 12×12 Scrapbook Cases, 6 Pack on Amazon
9. SYKIARIOL Rolling Craft Cart
Most scrapbookers work at a kitchen table and have to clear it before dinner.
A rolling cart means the whole project rolls away half finished instead of getting packed into bags every night.
This is the splurge on the list, and it is the one that actually buys them time at the table.
Check the SYKIARIOL Rolling Craft Cart on Amazon
For the one ready to try something new
10. Sizzix Sidekick Starter Kit
Die cutting is the jump from flat pages to layered ones, and the full size machines are heavy and expensive.
The Sidekick is small enough to sit on a table corner and comes with dies and an embossing folder, so there is nothing else to buy before the first cut.
It handles cardstock, thin chipboard and vellum.
Check the Sizzix Sidekick Starter Kit on Amazon
11. Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pads, 4 Pack
Oxide ink reacts with water and turns chalky, which is how scrapbookers get those soft blended backgrounds that look nothing like a stamp pad.
Inking the edge of a photo mat with one of these takes about ten seconds and hides the fact that the cut was slightly off.
Four coordinating colors is a real starting set rather than a sampler.
Check the Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pads, 4 Pack on Amazon
12. LitEnergy A4 LED Light Pad
Hand lettered titles are the thing most scrapbookers want to do and quietly avoid, because a wobbly first attempt ruins the paper.
A light pad lets them trace the title from a printout onto the actual cardstock, so the version that ships is the clean one.
It is thin enough to store upright next to the paper.
Check the LitEnergy A4 LED Light Pad on Amazon
Stocking stuffers and small things
13. Tim Holtz 5-Inch Mini Snips
Cutting a tiny printed flower out of patterned paper with kitchen scissors is miserable.
These have a micro serrated edge that grips the paper instead of pushing it, and the short blade turns inside a curve.
Small, cheap, and the pair they will reach for every session.
Check the Tim Holtz 5-Inch Mini Snips on Amazon
14. Mr. Pen Washi Tape Set, 21 Rolls
Washi is the one embellishment that never sits in a drawer, because it tears by hand and lifts back off without wrecking the paper.
Twenty one rolls in mixed widths covers borders, tabs and taping photos down without adhesive.
There are more uses than page borders in our list of washi tape uses.
Check the Mr. Pen Washi Tape Set, 21 Rolls on Amazon
15. VENCINK Genuine Bone Folder
A real bone folder creases card without cracking the coating, which a fingernail or a ruler will not do.
It also burnishes an adhesive strip flat and lifts a misplaced photo before the glue sets.
Anyone who makes pockets, flaps or interactive pages will use it constantly. Card makers want one too, which is why it turns up alongside our card making glue picks.
Check the VENCINK Genuine Bone Folder on Amazon
What to skip
A few things look like obvious scrapbooking gifts and are not.
- Patterned paper collections, unless you have seen their stash. Half a collection is worse than none.
- Novelty scissors with decorative edges. They were everywhere in the 2000s and the results date a page instantly.
- Photo corner stickers sold as a bulk pack. Most scrapbookers switched to runners years ago and the corners sit in the drawer.
- A full size die cutting machine, unless you know they want one. It is a large object to give someone who has no room for it.
If none of the picks above fit, a stack of good photo prints of your own is the one gift nobody else will think to give them.
Related questions
What do you buy a scrapbooker who already has everything?
Buy the consumables they burn through rather than another tool. Adhesive refills, solid cardstock and page protectors get used up every month and almost nobody buys them for themselves. The rolling cart is the other safe answer, because storage is the thing experienced scrapbookers run out of long before they run out of supplies.
Is patterned paper a good gift for a scrapbooker?
It is the riskiest thing on the shelf. Patterned paper comes in collections, and someone building a page from a collection they half own ends up with paper they cannot use. Solid cardstock, washi tape and ink are the safer versions of the same idea because they work with whatever they already have.
What size scrapbook supplies should I buy?
12 by 12 inches is the standard, and it is what most albums, page protectors and paper storage are built around. 8.5 by 11 is the common second size. If you do not know which one they use, look at a photo of a finished page or buy something size neutral like pens, ink or scissors.
Do scrapbooking supplies need to be acid free?
For anything touching a photo, yes. Acidic paper and adhesive turn brittle and yellow, and they will stain the photo underneath over a few years. Adhesive, cardstock and page protectors are the three places it matters most, and reputable brands print it on the packaging.
