What do you need to create a scrapbook of your family's history? You start with photos, memorabilia and research, of course. Then you turn those memories into a scrapbook using paper, pens, adhesives, stamps and photo corners. But now some scrapbookers are trading their papers and punches for scanners and software. They're embracing the recent trend of e-scrapbooking — designing memory albums digitally rather than on paper.

E-scrapbooking presents family historians with a whole new realm of possibilities for preserving and displaying their heritage. When you see the beautiful results of e-scrapbooking endeavors it's easy to understand why so many designers are going digital. Jenna Robertson of Henderson, Nev., is one who switched: She'd been a traditional scrapper for years. One day, she decided to try laying out her pages on her computer. “I liked the computer layouts so much that I have never gone back to paper scrapping,” she says. Robertson's current project is a heritage album for her in-laws — she has 5×7-inch photos made of her pages and places them in albums for gift-giving.