A great strategy before you start a scrapbook is to sketch out the layout. This is often the most basic step for any scrapbooker. Pay attention to the theme you plan, gather your pictures, and on a legal pad, sketch out the placement of most of the items. Don’t worry, you can always change things later. The most important part is to get the feel for laying out things. When a beginner first starts out on scrapbooking, the largest fear is getting the sense of design. You see, designing the layout on a scrapbook is no different than a highly paid Madison Avenue art designer. You must know what comes natural in placement of items to make a pleasing arrangement.

1) Draw the rectangles or other shapes of where you want to place the photos on the legal pad.

2) Draw rough shapes of the decorative items or letters you want in and around the pictures.

3) Draw the outline of the pages and additional design patterns that you want around the whole page

A good example of a scrapbook planning sketch can be found here.

In the example shown on that link, the theme is a father and son theme.