Scrapbooking

The best thing about scrapbooking is that although there are a plethora of scrapbooking supplies available on the market, you really don't need a lot to make your very first scrapbook. Basically, all you need to scrapbook is an album, some glue, a pair of scissors, and some photographs or newspaper clippings. Any fabric, ribbon, or bits of leftovers from other projects can be used to embellish your scrapbook.

As you get more acquainted with scrapbooking, you will find products that save you time and frustration. Many of these products are well worth the extra cost. At the top of this list is an exacto knife. This strong and versatile blade allows you to cut almost anything into any shape. When the blade is dull, the end is simply broken off to reveal another sharp tip. Just be sure to place the object you plan to cut onto a mat or wad or newspaper before using the exacto knife. Otherwise, the knife will cut right through your picture and into your scrapbook page or dining room table.

The next best tool is a pair of tweezers. Trying to pick up and place small gluey pieces is a hassle. Tweezers, though not very high tech, allow you to move pieces without touching them.

Speaking of gluey pieces, various glues and affixing options are available. These quick and less messy options include glue dots, two-sided tape, Xyron, acid free photo tabs, and polypropylene corners.

To increase the preservation of your scrapbook and your treasures, look for albums with acid free, lignin free pages. Both acid and lignin accelerate photo fading and general deterioration. Lignin is a chemical found naturally in the cell walls of plants. If the lignin is not removed in the paper manufacturing process, the chemical will cause the paper product to gradually yellow and crumble. Lignin and acid free products come in virtually any color and texture.

The theme of your scrapbook can be simple or complex. Your theme could be a special event such as a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding, Christmas, or Halloween. Themes can also be personalized to the scrapbook recipient's special interests. Special interests themes include favorite colors, sports, favorite television programs, music, the outdoors, or cultural influences.

What is the overall purpose for your scrapbook?
Who is the scrapbook for?
Who is the scrapbook about?

The answers to these three questions are all factors in selecting an appropriate theme. For instance, the scrapbook you are giving your nephew as he graduates from medical school is probably completely different than the grandparent book you send your mother. Your nephew will probably appreciate a scrapbook with photographs, poems, journals, and more masculine embellishments. Perhaps, the theme of the scrapbook could be medicine. You could create embellishments that looked like scalpels and tweezers around various pictures of your nephew during his college years.

Your mother, on the other hand, will love a multitude of baby pictures fancifully embellished with flowers, ribbon, and baby fingerprints. The theme of this book will probably be your baby. Photographs could include baby and grandma with the baby. A nice journal about your baby's day could also add a nice touch

Don't forget to create a title for your scrapbook page. Though adding a title might seem to be obvious or unimportant, a title defines the whole basis of your scrapbook. The title instantly tells the viewer what your page is all about. In one word or one short phrase, the title tells the reader the theme and purpose of your scrapbook.

Titles can be as basic as the date of an event, the name of an individual, or a specific event.

Titles can also be more interesting and exciting. These can include quotes, sayings, fillers, or simple phrases. The best places to look for title inspiration are in greeting cards, advertisements, and commercials.

Color coordination and contrast will highlight and accent your scrapbook. A well thought out color scheme can help define the theme of a page, attract attention to specific items, or detract away from mistakes. Poorly chosen color schemes, on the other hand, can cause your scrapbook page to look gaudy or mismatched.

Background colors can either be matched, coordinated, or contrasted with the colors in your photographs, mementos, or embellishments. Matching colors add to the continuity of the color scheme. Coordinated colors add depth to scrapbook pages. Contrasted colors focus the eye. In this way, color can be used to create the effect you desire.

A great way to see how colors look together is to collect and compare color wheels from your local paint or hardware store. Paint wheels are usually available free for the taking in nearly any paint department.

Most scrapbooks will contain photographs. Even the most disinterested reader of your scrapbook will glance at the photographs. Pictures really are worth a thousand words. Therefore, it is important to choose photographs that are of good quality and clearly illustrate your scrapbook theme.

Any photograph can be used in a scrapbook. Even instant photographs can be used in scrapbooking. Just be careful that the chemicals within the photograph do not spill out on the rest of your scrapbook. Digital pictures can easily be printed right onto lignin-free and acid -free paper.

Always keep in mind that scrapbooking is permanent. Therefore, it is probably preferable to use copies of your only picture of Great Grandma rather than risk ruining the photograph forever. Simply scan the picture on your computer scanner and print the image on lignin free and acid free paper.

Often photographs aren't quite the right shape and size or the photographic image is improperly centered. Having oversized or off centered photographs creates an air of unprofessionalism. Carefully cropped and sized photographs, on the other hand, enhances the overall look and feel of your scrapbook.

There are two ways to solve these problems. The low tech way to solve these problems are to manually crop and shape the photograph using a pair of scissors or an exacto knife. If you are manually cropping and cutting pictures, make sure that you mark the outline you want with chalk (or eye shadow if you don't have chalk) before you cut. Remember the old saying, measure twice and cut once.

To manually change a distracting or cluttered background simply cut out the background and replace it with a with a new paper background. This allows the eye to focus on the people instead of the clutter behind them.

The high tech solution to your photograph woes is to use modern computer programs such as Photo Editor. Using these programs, photographs can be magically darkened, brightened, sharpened, enlarged, and cropped without ruining your original photograph. Some programs even allow you to change the background of the photograph.

There are no specific rules stating that all photographs or mementos must be placed in chronological order. Therefore, it is completely up you the order you wish to place your items and embellishments. You can place your items in a formal chronological order. You can also group items into formal or informal categories such as similar colors, events, activities, individuals, or families. Items can also be placed into random, abstract, or collages.

Each order has its own place in scrapbooking. For instance, chronological order might be useful for an anniversary scrapbook. Pictures and mementos of the couple's years together could be placed from the first day they met through the wedding day to the present day with each time period on a different page. This presents a feel of as time goes by.

However, a scrapbook for a parent might just have a collage of pictures and drawings. In this case, a collage lends to a feeling of overwhelmingly being loved.

You may or may not want to add text to your scrapbook page. You may want to just write captions below the pictures. You may want to add your own stories or poems. You may want to add journals describing the day to day life of your baby or your child's accomplishments. Text can be used as either a focal point or simply as a supporting piece.

Text may be hand written. Alternately, computer fonts, letters, text, or three-dimensional images can also be printed or cut and pasted onto the page. In this way, various styles, colors, textures, and visual text effects are possible.

Tags are a little added touch of professionalism that adds to the overall well thought out look to your scrapbook. Tags can be used for accents, captions, and thought bubbles as well as dedications. The design of your tags will depend entirely on your personal needs and desires.

Thus, tags can be big or small, square or specially shaped, white or colored, plain or textured.

Furthermore, tags need not be made of paper. Some of the most interesting tags are made from fabric, wood, and furniture odds and ends found around the house. Be creative.

Pre-made tags are available at most craft or office supply stores.

Your own unique embellishments add a special personal touch to your scrapbook pages. Embellishments can be used as the main focus of your page, to highlight items, or as borders. Embellishments can range from simple items such as stickers and ribbon to more complex techniques such as adding faux beads and silver accenting. Use your imagination and creativity.

Embellishments need not be expensive. Odds and ends that you have from other craft projects work just fine. Be on the lookout for sales on fabric, plastic flowers, lace, beads, and whatever else takes your fancy. These items will no doubt come in handy on your next scrapbook project. Also keep a sharp eye out for deals in second hand stores and garage sales. Often used items can be ripped apart and the pieces reused literally for only pennies.

How can you arrange your scrapbook page to best show off your mementos and embellishments? You can place everything in the center of your page, place a single focus item in the center, or divide the page into sections adding items to each section. You may also choose to lay the items out in a standard recipe or calendar layout.

Shapes also make interesting placement patterns. Common shapes include circles, squares, hearts, and stars. However, you can also place items in object patterns such as mountains, trains, or Christmas trees.

The shape you choose for your scrapbook will depend entirely on your theme. For instance, a logical shape for a wedding or Valentines Day scrapbook is a heart. A nice shape for a Christmas scrapbook is a Christmas tree. You might make a cake pattern for you niece the pastry cook. Let your imagination and creativity be your guide.

Various ready made patterning templates are available on the market.

Spacing is a difficult matter. There is a fine line between having a balanced scrapbook page and a gaudy mess. If items are too closely spaced your reader will feel overwhelmed. If your items are spaced to far apart your viewer will feel short changed.

Look at your page.
Close your eyes.
Open them again.
Does your page look cluttered?
Does your page have more photographs than background?
Are your embellishments drawing the focus away from your mementos?

Then, you need to simplify your page a bit and increase the spacing between objects. Remember you can always add more pages.

Is your page bare?
Is your page uninteresting and colorless?

Then, think about adding some more mementos and colorful embellishments. In this way, you can decrease the spacing between objects making your page more energetic.

Once your scrapbooking page is laid out to your liking you can begin attaching and gluing your various mementos, text, and titles. Never glue as you go! Not only will glue end up all over the place but you will no doubt find out too late that the title doesn't go well with the photograph or that the spacing is too tight.

There are several ways to attach items to your scrapbook page. Some of the best sanity savers include glue dots, glue pens, Xyron adhesives, and two-sided tape. Glue dots and glue are fairly mess free and stick to almost anything made of paper or fiber. Mini glue dots are great for those very small items. Xyron adhesives and two-sided tape works for those larger jobs and work on almost any item type.

No matter how careful you are, you will undoubtedly find a mistake, mark, or mess on your finished scrapbook page. If you find a mistake, mark, or glue bits on your scrapbook page, just rub it off using a soft white eraser.

Alternately, make the mark into an interesting squiggle or doodle.

For mistakes in journal text, cover the mistake with a sticker the same color as the journal page. Then, just write over the sticker. White out can also be used for white pages.

Fingerprint smudges on your photographs can be removed by rubbing the fingerprints with a piece of flannel or a dry baby wipe.

Excess powder or glitter can be brushed away. This is time consuming and frustrating. The best solution is to reduce static electricity before you add the powder or glitter. Just place a dryer sheet on top of the page before you work.

You put a great deal of time, thought, and effort into your scrapbook pages. Therefore, you should try to protect and preserve your work.

The most important way to protect your pages is by using lignin free and acid free products. Lignin free and acid free protects will reduce yellowing and crumbling. Also, use colored paper or ink that is resistant to fading due to age, exposure to light, heat, and other unfavorable conditions.

To protect your page from the outside world, use Mylar or page protectors. Special page protectors for three-dimensional pages are also available at most craft stores. These protection pages not only protect your objects but also reduce indentations caused by three-dimensional objects.

The great thing about modern technology is that you can make copies of your baby announces, recipes, and calendars without a great deal of hassle. This reduces time and money. Furthermore, the ability to copy scrapbook pages allows more scrapbooking uses.

Simply scan and print pictures onto paper or vellum. Then, paste your pictures onto cardstock and add a ribbon or other embellishment. Quickly and easily you have another copy of your baby announcement, recipe, or calendar.

A popular addition to scrapbook pages is newspaper clippings. Newspaper clippings of birth announcements, team photographs, or favorite celebrities add a personal touch to scrapbook pages.

Newspaper contains about 4% lignin. Therefore, yellowing and brittleness of the newspaper paper will eventually occur. However, since the percentage of lignin is low, newspaper will preserve for many years before this deterioration process begins to occur. To further slow this process, use Mylar or page protectors to protect the newspaper from the outside elements.

Various graphics and clip art are available on the Internet. Many of these items can be downloaded or printed for free. Downloading and printing images is a good way to find pictures or photographs of your child's favorite television character or band for a unique personalized touch. Print these graphics or clipart directly onto lignin-free and acid-free paper.

Kids bring home the greatest creations of macaroni, glitter, and finger paint. Unfortunately, the macaroni bits and glitter is soon all over the floor or eaten by the dog.

To save these creations, without the macaroni and glitter mess, simply scan and print your child's creations for use in your next scrapbook.

Kid's art is great for use for kid's rooms, grandparent scrapbooks, and kid's scrapbooks. These pictures can be used as backgrounds, as focus items, or as embellishments.

For more dramatic results from your photographs, trying weaving two copies of the same photograph together. This technique creates a three-dimensional artist look. This technique would look great on a scrapbook for a graduating art student or a scrapbook for a friend who is quite artist and creative. This technique might also look good on a child's scrapbook with a kid's art background giving the whole page an abstract look.

To achieve this technique, first you need two copies of the same photo. On one photograph, draw evenly spaced vertical lines on the back of the picture. Cut along these lines with scissors or an exacto knife. On the other photograph draw and cut along evenly spaced horizontal lines.

Next, using alternate strips, from photograph one and then photograph two, weave the pieces together. To preserve the rectangular shape of the photographs, start your weaving in the center of the piece and work outwards.

Collages are congregations of photographs or news clippings. These items can be placed in any order or pattern. Collages can have a theme such as a single individual or an entire family group combined.

Collages create great funky scrapbook pages. This method is especially useful for surprise scrapbooks meant to overwhelm the reader either with all of their accomplishments or all those that care for them.

In addition to photographs and news clippings, collages can also contain blocks of text or embellishment. These additions can be used to increase the busyness and overwhelming nature of the collage or reduce the effect slightly by distracting the focus away from the collage.

To reduce shifting of the photographs as you select an appropriate collage design, place temporary tape on each photograph or newspaper clipping. Once the display is set, start permanently attaching the collage to the background.

An attractive technique for placing photographs into scrapbooks is the photograph mosaic. Mosaics stretch photographs into an artistic rendition of the original photograph. Maps can also be stretched in this way. This method might be employed to create a funky look for a friend scrapbook or as a background for someone who likes computers, GIS, or geography.

A basic cropping technique is used to create a photographic mosaic. Simply cut a photograph into evenly spaced squares. Then, glue the squares onto the background leaving an equal space between each square.

A white background or a background matching the background color of the photograph will add to the effect. A background of a contrasting color will reduce the spaced out effect of the photograph.

A marker is a seeming obvious tool for writing and embellishing on scrapbook pages. Markers are easy to draw with and can be used to color in portions of lettering, in borders, or to create accents. Unfortunately, regular markers tend to smudge and bleed through scrapbook pages.

Nonetheless, there are a few brands of markers (Markers Pigma and Color Workshop Blo Pens) available in craft and office supply stores that do not smudge or bleed. These markers are also acid free, fade resistant, waterproof, and available in a variety of colors.

Another important writing implement for scrapbooking is a wax pencil. Wax pencils are soft pencils designed to write on glass, plastic and photographs. These pencils are easy to draw with and can be used to color in portions of lettering, in borders, or to create accents.

The unique thing about wax pencils is that if they are used on the front of a photograph, the ink will rub off. However, when used on the back of a photograph, the ink will become permanent. Wax pencil ink is acid free and available in a variety of colors.

Stickers are fun and easy to stick to scrapbook pages. Stickers can be used for captions, thought bubbles, to hide mistakes, or as embellishments. Stickers of your child's favorite cartoon or television program can add a personal accent to your scrapbook page.

However, not all stickers are suitable for scrapbooking. Check to see if the stickers are lignin free and acid free. Furthermore, be careful that the sticker adhesive does not dry out or seep around the edges. Never place a sticker on a photograph as the adhesive may cause irreversible damage to the photograph.

Rubber stamps dipped in acid free ink can be used to create various embellishments. Rubber stamps can be used to create cute images for children's and grandparents scrapbooks. They can also be simple flowers or leaves to create elegant looks for gift scrapbooks.

Furthermore, these embellishments can be used to focus on a certain photograph or memento. Alternately, these embellishments can be used to soften the look of a busy or sharp image.

One low cost alternative to the rubber stamp is a cotton ball. This creates a shadowy effect.

Another alternative is to buy the pads and attach them to furniture castors. The thick caster allows you to position the stamp in exactly the right place. Moreover, attaching the stamp to a wider base allows you to press more evenly on the stamp. This creates a complete and evenly balanced stamp every time.

A good way to make your own personal seals is with Crayola Model Magic. Simply, roll out a small ball of the clay. Then, imprint this ball with a small rubber stamp or a brass seal. In this way, you can create whatever stamp impressions you can imagine.

As the word suggests, tearing is the ripping of paper or tissue paper into various shapes or abstract forms. Tearing creates an artist look to backgrounds, borders, and embellishments.

Be aware however, because tearing does not comply well with all themes. In some more formal themes tearing appears unprofessional.

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