A hobby of scrapbooking has taken polish off largely due to multi-level marketing enterprises such as Creative Memories. These are okay, the multi-billion dollar industry by using the heavy total of corporations creating scrapbooking products. This hobby has surpassed golf game game inside popularity: a single around quatern family has individual swimming golf; of these inside 3 has mortal included around scrapbooking.

Modern scrapbooking is done largely in 12"×12" or even 8½×11" pages. More recently smaller albums have become very popular. The most common new formats are 6"×6" or 8"×8".

Various accessories, referred to as "embellishments," are used to decorate scrapbook pages. Embellishments include stickers, die cuts, fancy lettering and trinkets to decorate and personalize each page.

As an industry, it is young, with many new players entering the market to serve various niches. There are several scrapbooking magazines, and even entire shows and infomercials dedicated to selling products related to the hobby.

Originally, it was hard to find scrapbooking supplies, but now most major discount stores and almost all major craft supply stores stock them. Local scrapbook stores (LSSs) are considered the heart and soul of the hobby of scrapbooking by some enthusiasts. It is at LSSs where one can attend classes and find out where the best "crops" are. Supplies can also be ordered online. Scrapbooking is not only a hobby to create a place for one's keepsakes, but also has become a popular way to make gifts for weddings and other special occasions.

Scrapbooking materials

The most important scrapbooking supply is the album itself, which can be permanently bound, or allow for insertion of pages. There are other formats, such as mini albums and accordian-style fold-out albums. Some of these are adhered to various containers, such as matchbooks, CD cases, or other small holders. Basic materials include background papers, photo corner mounts, scissors, stickers, die cut templates, rub-on letters, rubber stamps, craft punches, art pens, vellum, decorative eyelets and brads, ribbons, tags, glitter, various embellishments such as chalk and ribbon, and mounting glues. Creativity in materials is encouraged, so many common craft supplies can be and are used for scrapbooking.

One of the key components of modern scrapbooking is the archival quality of the supplies. Designed to preserve photographs and journaling in their original state, materials encouraged by most serious scrapbookers are of a higher quality than those of many typical photo albums commercially available. Scrappers insist on acid-free, lignin-free papers, stamp ink, and embossing powder, and pigment based inks, which are fade resistant, colorfast, and often waterproof. Older "charismatic" albums were not acid-free and thus caused damage to the photos and memorabilia included in them.

Digital scrapbooking

Many scrapbookers no longer cut and paste clippings or photos direcly into books because scanners, desktop publishing, page layout programs, and advanced printing options make it relatively easy to create professional-looking layouts in digital form. The internet allows scrapbookers to self-publish their work, even if it is just for a readership of one. Scrapbooks that exist completely in digital image form are referred to as "digital scrapbooks," or "computer scrapbooks." While some people prefer the physicality of the actual artifacts they paste onto the pages of books, the digital scrapbooking hobby has grown in popularity in recent years.

Furthermore, digital scrapbooking is not limited to digital storage and display. Many digital scrappers print their finished layouts to be stored in scrapbook albums. Others have books professionally printed in hard bound books to be saved as keepsakes.