In the early 1800s some beautiful albums of high quality were produced having elaborately tooled leather covers, engraved clasps and brass locks.Some contained printed pages embossed with birds and flowers to give people ideas for choosing a theme for their collection. 
 The high quality of paper used was for the mounting of prints and lithographs or
 thicker paper was provided for drawings and water colours. Others had decorations printed onto their pages perhaps with blank spaces in the shape of circles, ovals or squares where small scraps or prints
would be pasted into. Early scrap books were looked upon as an extension of the diary and likewise used for the recording of personal momentoes and thoughts. 

These specially produced prints often appeared in albums of the 1830s-60s.

Scraps,stamped embossed reliefs,chromos or die cuts are small paper images printed by the process of chromo-lithography and embossed. 
After printing of the scrap the
    sheets were coated with a gelatin and gum layer which gave the finished sheets a glossy surface, embossing came next giving the scrap their three-dimensional look.
 The final production process was to pass them through a punching / stamping press to cut away the unrequired areas of paper from the design leaving the individual images connected by small ladders, often bearing the name or initials of the maker.

The elaborate use of stamping can often be seen in uncut scrap sheets. Optimum use of space, required minimal cutting and lead to the intricate and ingenious design of the cutting die.
 Early publishers of scraps produced simple uncut sheets, unembossed and matt-surfaced. A beautiful example of The Juvenile Scrap sheet as sold by A.N.Myers & Co was printed in Germany and came in envelopes containing various comic scenes.