20 scrapbook doodles: borders, arrows, frames and labels

Scrapbook doodles are the small drawn extras that tie photos to a page: borders, arrows, frames, label shapes, drawn tape and little fillers. Here are 20 to draw around printed photos, or right on a photo for a digital scrapbook.

Borders

1. Stitch line A dashed line just inside the page edge, like sewing. Keep the dashes the same length and the gaps the same size.
2. Scallops A row of small half circles along one edge, with a dot inside each.
3. Vine A wavy line with a small leaf at every crest, and a flower in the corner where two vines meet.
4. Bunting A line that dips between two points with triangle flags hanging from it. Alternate solid and striped flags.
5. Zigzag trim A tight zigzag along the bottom of the page, with a second, smaller zigzag just under it.

Arrows

1. Loop arrow A line with one loop in the middle before the head. Use it to point from a doodle to a photo.
2. Dashed path A dashed curve that wanders across the page and ends in an arrowhead, like a route on a map.
3. Fat striped arrow Draw the outline of a wide arrow, then fill it with diagonal stripes.
4. Corner arrow An arrow that bends at a right angle around the corner of a photo, pointing at the next one.

Frames

1. Instant-photo frame A rectangle with a much thicker bottom edge, drawn around a photo or a small sketch.
2. Wobbly double frame Two rectangles, the inner one slightly crooked, so it looks hand-cut.
3. Cloud frame A bumpy cloud outline around a photo, a little bigger than the photo itself.
4. Photo corners Draw only the four corners as small triangles, like the paper corners that held prints in old albums.

Labels and tape

1. Ribbon banner A long rectangle with each end folded back and cut into a V notch.
2. Gift tag A rectangle with two corners cut off, a circle hole and a loop of string.
3. Drawn tape A rectangle with zigzag ends, set at an angle over a photo’s corner, with a few diagonal stripes.
4. Labels without words A speech bubble or a tag with a small drawing inside instead of text: a heart, a star, a sun.

Fillers

1. Star cluster Three stars in three sizes, five-point and four-point mixed, in the emptiest corner.
2. Little flowers Five-petal flowers in groups of three, one bigger and two small.
3. Dots and a sparkle A trail of dots that gets smaller as it leaves a photo, ending in a sparkle.

On a paper page or on the photo

On a paper page, draw around the prints and let a few doodles run onto the edge of a photo so they look connected. For a digital scrapbook or a photo dump, draw right on the photo. Draw in Tada, an iPhone app, does that, and the doodles move.

1. Open Tada, tap Draw and pick a photo.
2. Draw a frame, an arrow or a few stars with your finger.
3. Choose My lines to keep your lines exactly as drawn, wiggling like a hand-drawn cartoon, for free. Or choose Make it cute to have AI turn them into a cute doodle that moves, for 1 AI tada.
4. Tap Save. It goes to Photos as a Live Photo.

A picture-book page: Bunny Buddy

For a page that looks like it came out of a picture book, the AI look Bunny Buddy adds a big, soft, sleepy bunny peeking from behind your subject’s shoulder, with flowers, painted in picture-book gouache. Your photo stays exactly as it is and the bunny moves. Open Add effects, pick the look and tap Make it. More in this style: storybook illustration.

It uses 1 AI tada (you get 3 free) and takes about a minute. To make it, your photo is sent to Tada’s AI partners; Tada asks before your first one. See privacy.

Questions

More you can do

• Aesthetic doodles
• Doodle art
• Photo dump ideas
• Doodle ideas that move
• All guides