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Have you considered using corner adhesives?
http://www.amazon.ca/3M-Scotch-Photo-Corners-Adhesive/dp/B000ELL2A2

I haven't used them, but it seems to me that there's glue only on the corners (that you can adhere to the photo sleeve), so they hold the photos without any glue.

You can find some at the dollar store to experiment before you commit to this method.

Hope it helps, good luck, and congratulations! :)

Have you looked into K&Company Smash books? It's a notebook filled with a variety of pages that you can mount pictures onto. They also sell kits that have everything you need to start your scrapbook except for adhesive. They have a lot of different themes and they're very fun to craft with.

A simple adhesive to use is Scotch Doubled Sided Scrapbooking Tape. I like to use double sided tape for simple projects just because it's so easy to use and so versatile.

Craft stores also sell scrapbook kits which come with an album, page protectors, paper and stickers. Perhaps you could stop in to one and take a look at their kits?

Another thing to consider is doing a Project Life scrapbook. All of the cards are already cut to size and all you need to do is slip in the photos you want. You are restricted as far as layouts go by the types of page protectors you buy, but you can mix and match the cards and come up with some neat and creative layouts.

As for using envelopes, I like to seal and then slice open the top of an envelope and mount it to the page. This creates a pocket to tuck card stock photo mats, ticket stubs, postcards or brochures into. I personally don't like using page protectors on my pages because I like my pages to be as interactive as possible. But if you do want to use a plastic page protector, I've seen people on Pintrest use a sharp knife to cut a slit in the plastic page protector so that the envelope/interactive element can be accessed.