Scrapbooking

Why scrapbook? Are there any benefits in doing it? Isn't it just a waste of time? Isn't it just the same as compiling pictures into a photo album? It is expensive, is my money worth it? I don't have the creativity, how will I do it? These are just a few questions people ask on their first encounter with scrapbooking. There are people not really a fan of it and will never accept the answers, while others are interested and needs clear answers to these questions.

Well, first of all, scrapbooking is a hobby one already knows or is willing to learn. It is a creative outlet for your suppressed feelings and imagination. What you can't express in words can be expressed in your scrapbook pages. It is one way on how you can show others how you feel in a certain situation. May it be a picture of you when you had your first taste of wine, a cinema ticket of you and your dad for your first movie experience, a receipt of a restaurant where you had dinner with a special friend, pictures of milestones of your son or daughter, a reunion well spent and everybody in the family were present, and a lot more events in your life that you would want to treasure forever.

It's not simply putting them in a photo album. It's putting love while reminiscing what really happened with that piece you are holding. It's a special way of telling stories to people who were not there to experience those memories.

You may not have the time to do it, but hey! We all have 24 hours to get all things done. It's just a matter of time management. A 30 min in the morning or before going to bed is enough to create a scrapbook page that will give a smile in your face whenever you catch a sight of it. It doesn't have to be perfect. So what if you don't cut straight or draw your lines straight, it'll still surely look nice by just adding some colorful embellishments and you're good to go. It's expensive, yes. But it is up to you if you will make your page expensive or not.

There are embellishments available right in front of you, it may be a magazine you will be throwing tomorrow, a ribbon used to wrap the box of cake in yesterday's birthday party, a flower in your daughter's broken clip, just look around and you'll see. If you are working on your computer whole day, why not give just 30 minutes of your time and make a layout from your downloaded digital scrapbook kits? It's no mess, no physical cutting, but still it is scrapbooking.

No matter what your status in life is, single or married, for sure you have lots of memories worth keeping. The benefits of scrapbooking go far beyond your finished layout.

Starting paper scrapbooking is pretty simple. It requires few materials to get you started.

First thing to remember when you go to a scrapbook store is to concentrate only on what you would want to use in your first layout. Make a detailed list of them. Why did I say this? It is because once you stepped into any of those stores, you'll surely get overwhelmed because everything you see seems so nice and so good to put on your page. The colors and designs are just too cute to resist. Sticking into what you think will suit your first scrapbook will make you more organized and will not hinder you from starting on it.

First most important thing to put on your list is the album. There are various styles and sizes of albums available. If you are first trying a single event to scrapbook and you only have a few photos to include, I would suggest picking a smaller one, 4x5 is the smallest followed by 6x8, 5x7, 8x10 and 12x12. You can either choose a post bound style, strap-hinge style or a three-ring binder style.

Next to consider are the refill pages for your chosen album. You may find it hard to look for the refill later of the same manufacturer and size if you don't get the refills the same time with the album.

Scissors with very fine tips or those that give rickrack designs is a must. This will give a different style on the edges of your photos and papers. Adhesives come in different forms and styles too. For your first project, it is advisable that you use an acid-free adhesive that will work well on both photos and cardstock. Then you choose the stationery for your project. Cardstock and patterned papers is what you will use to build up a theme for your album or for each scrapbook page. These can be used as backgrounds and frames to accentuate your photos.

Since journaling is one important part of scrapbooking, good journal pens that are acid-free, permanent and with fine tips for writing are what you will need to give story. And last but not the least, the embellishments that will give life to your pages. Choose those 3-D designs or anything that will beautify your project.

These are the essential tools to help you in making your first ever paper scrapbook album. However, these few materials multiply over time as once you started scrapbooking, you will not want to stop and will be wanting for more albums, more embellishments and more of everything the market offers for scrapbookers.

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From Anna Griffin Designs, this 12" X 12" cardstock pad includes 24 double-sided mat pages of decorative designs and specialty finishes. They are perfect for craft projects and scrapbooking. Acid and lignin free. 

Anna Griffin Cecile 12" X 12" Designer Scrapbook Cardstock Pack

From Anna Griffin Designs, this 12" X 12" cardstock pad includes 24 double-sided mat pages of decorative designs, specialty finishes and a diecut alphabet. They are perfect for craft projects and scrapbooking. Acid and lignin free.

Anna Griffin Isabelle 12" X 12" Designer Scrapbook Cardstock Pack

  From Anna Griffin Designs, this package includes 4 designer 12" X 12" scrapbook diecut sheets. There are 2 designs, each in 2 different colors. these They are perfect for craft projects and scrapbooking. Acid and lignin free.

Anna Griffin Peyton 12" X 12" Designer Scrapbook Diecut Sheets

From Anna Griffin Designs, this 12" X 12" cardstock pad includes 23 double-sided mat pages of decorative designs. There are 18 double-sided sheets, 4 double-sided specialty sheets, and 1 diecut alphabet sheet. They are perfect for craft projects and scrapbooking. Acid and lignin

Anna Griffin Peyton 12" X 12" Designer Scrapbook Cardstock Pack

 From Anna Griffin Designs, this pack includes 4 designer scrapbook 12" X 12" diecut sheets. There are 2 designs, each in 2 different colors: floral and elephants. They are perfect for craft projects and scrapbooking. Acid and lignon free

Anna Griffin Riley 12" X 12" Designer Scrapbook Diecut Sheets

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Scrapbooking they say is divided into two camps. One is the traditional and the other is digital. Differences between the two are quite contentious, as some traditional scrapbookers don't count digital as a 'real scrapbooking'. This is for the reason that traditional scrapbooking are tactile and physically dimensional unlike digital where everything is done in the computer and manipulated by photo editing programs.

Let us first clarify what each genre is all about.

Traditional Scrapbooking is the paper scrapbooking where everything is tangible. All the elements needed like photos, maps, ticket stubs and any other memorabilia and embellishments like ribbons, paper flowers, buttons, etc. are gathered and assembled in a pleasing and attractive way. Hand written or cutout letters are formed into words and attached to the scrapbook page to give story. This is called journaling. All these are made and crafted by bare hands.

Traditional scrapbookers use different tools and equipments to achieve the effects they want. While scrapbooking is a therapeutic hobby, it can't also be denied that this hobby is quite expensive. Investing into acid-free and lignin-free supplies is very important. You don't want to waste your time and effort as well as your keepsakes to be ruined in a couple of years. It is always recommended to choose supplies that are safe and give quality finish. There are; however, other scrappers who feel that following these recommendations limit their creativity and therefore do alternative ways to satisfy their fancy. These are by saving the pictures on their computers once printed and taking photos of the final page just in case the original fades or is damaged in the future.

Digital scrapbooking on the other hand, is all done on one place, your computer. Different programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Serif PhotoPlus and many others are used to manipulate and combine digital elements and beautifully created embellishments into one scrapbook page. Memorabilia like pictures taken by digital cameras are uploaded to the computer, while those already printed are scanned and used in digital scrapbooking. With the use of the photo editing programs, photos can be manipulated to become embellishments and can even be transformed into different colors and styles.

Sharing your finished scrapbook pages is easy when digitally done. With the use of websites such as Flickr, Google's Picasa and social networking sites like Facebook, you can easily spread and share them with your friends no matter where they are in the world. Printing them is also possible. They can be printed into different sizes and compiled in an album just like the traditional scrapbook pages or frame them as a house decoration.

Basically, both are done for one reason and that is to preserve memorabilia in a nice and beautiful manner and share to everyone.

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Torn papers are accents that give scrapbook pages a hot look. It is a fantastic and can be said as the simplest scrapbooking technique. Since paper is made from wood fibers, the effect of the torn paper is based on how fine the wood fibers are. The finer the wood fibers, the smoother and more compact the paper will be and vice versa.

There's much difference between paper cutting and paper tearing as those soft-textured and rough-textured edges aren't revealed when cutting process is done. Showing those textures is what tearing paper is all about. This technique is very simple, but there are ways on how to achieve the fantastic finish.

Try experimenting in tearing different kinds of papers. Plain, dyed, printed, patterned, double sided, etc. If you are right-handed, the tendency is that your right hand pulls the paper towards you, while your left hand pulls away. The same goes if you are left-handed. Your dominant hand is the hand you are using to pull the paper towards you and this will lead the direction of the tear.

When you tear, you can get two different looks of your torn paper: one is with a white edge and the other one with a clean tear. Both halves are equally useful but create different looks in your page. The white edge will act as a mat that gives a bit of visual space between the paper you're tearing and the paper you're placing the torn piece onto.

You can achieve different variations when tearing a paper. One is the controlled and jagged edge. You can achieve this by laying the paper flat on a table or floor then hold down the paper with your non-dominant hand and tear slowly and make some small tears towards the thumb and index finger of your dominant hand.

Another style you can achieve is the soft and fuzzy edge. This is done by folding the paper to form a good crease and using your fingertip, apply a trickle of water down the crease to slightly wet it and then tear away along the wet crease. This will give you a fuzzier and softer edge. One more style is the wide torn edge. By holding the paper with your fingertips, start tearing with your both hands in opposite directions.

Explore and play. Imagine yourself doing it while you were still young, just tearing here and there. It's so much fun.

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From Provo Craft, this font is beautiful and classic, and the creative features allow you to use it in unexpected ways. You can make a puzzle and put the pieces together. Plus you can use the school course names and corresponding graphics. This is great for the classroom or scrapping. This cartridge includes: Puzzle, Instructions, Tile, Notebook, Shadow, and Shadow/Blackout creative features. Every letter and shape can be cut in 11 sizes. Use with Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter. Measurement capabilities are 1" to 5 1/2"

Cricut Classmate Cartridge Cursive 101

From Provo Craft, sweet memories of youth will be a pleasure to document with flair using this whimsical cartridge. This cartridge includes: Monogram, Icon, Card, Tag, Font, and Shadow creative features. Use with all Cricut machines. Measurement capabilities are 1" to 5 1/2" (Cricut); 1/4" to 11 1/2" (Cricut Create) and 1/4" to 23 1/2" (Cricut Expression); one keyboard overlay; one instruction booklet and a storage box: 7 1/2" X 4 1/2" 

Cricut Shapes Cartridge A Child's Year

From Provo Craft, ™s time to embrace the prehistoric! This shape cartridge is filled with dinosaur themed images with layers and shadow, fossil icons, cards, tags, and an uppercase alphabet with shadows. With so many iconic dinosaurs images, you’re sure to find something to delight any dinosaur fan! This cartridge includes: Layer, Tag, Fossil, Letter, Card, and Shadow creative features. Use with all Cricut machines. Measurement capabilities are 1" to 5 1/2" (Cricut); 1/4" to 11 1/2" (Cricut Create) and 1/4" to 23 1/2" (Cricut Expression); one keyboard overlay; one instruction booklet and a storage box: 7 1/2" X 4 1/2".

Cricut Shapes Cartridge Dinosaur Tracks

 

Baby scrapbooking is the easiest to scrap of all. You no longer need to search for inspirations to make your scrapbook done. Everything that you need to scrap is already right in front of you. Everyday, every little move your child does is a memory. Babies' physical developments are visible until they reach toddlerhood and it is very important that you document these changes. They grow so fast and all you can do to stop it even for just awhile is to capture every moment. They may grow up, but the moments they left behind were there for all of you to recall.

You can start your scrapbook on the very moment the baby arrives. If you are allowed to take pictures while giving birth, at least a single picture of him in the delivery room is enough to include in your scrapbook. Pictures in the hospital always count. The details such as doctor's name, time of birth, birth certificate and facts about the baby, such as height, weight, hair color, and eye color are important to get a record of. Also, things that the baby used while still in the hospital like hospital bracelet, birth certificate, congratulation cards and pressed flowers.

Including journaling in your every scrapbook page does not only add beauty, but also elaborates the message the page wants to communicate. Quotes about babies also count as journaling. You can scrap about the name of the baby, how and why you picked it and the meaning of the name. A short note about how you feel beside each memorabilia or anything that happened behind such things makes the page more interesting and easier to understand.

Of course, all the 'Firsts' are very important for parents to record and for some busy parents, these are the moments in their child's life that they regret not witnessing. Developments such as first smile, bath, crawl and steps, events like first professional photo shoot experience, Christmas, New Year, Easter and other holidays, hair from the first hair cut, nails, foot prints and many more firsts until the baby reaches first birthday.

However, all these can be recorded even when parents are not around. Instruct the child carer to record all these milestones for you. Sometimes parents feel guilty when a milestone in their child's life happens and they were not physically there to see it, but by scrapbooking, parents still share in that special moment. The effort you give in making those memories live forever will surely make your child feel that he is loved and cared for during those moments when he still knows nothing.

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 Make a scrapbook all about your life. Use the tools, tips and techniques included to creatively preserve your photographs and personal paraphernalia. Your scrapbook is sprial-bound with 24 pages and a picture frame cover. Pages are 8 3/4 in. x 8 3/4 in. You also get 10 sheets of patterned paper including embossed and diamond dust designs, over 50 vellum stickers, easy-to-use photo cropping stencil, scallop edged scissors, 2 tiny treasure envelopes, journal pen, photo safe glue stick, instruction/idea sheet, plus a free mini keychain scrapbook. All contents are acid free and photo safe.  

Creativity For Kids It's My Life Scrapbook Kit scrapbook kit

 Using Instant Memories Family Ready-to-Use Scrapbook Pages, anyone can finish a beautiful layout in minutes. The top designers in the field have done all the work for you by creating stunning scrapbook pages featuring rare, vintage images - simply add your photos and you're done Tear the perforated pages directly from the book, photocopy them, or print them from the enclosed CD. Instant Memories Family Ready-to-Use Scrapbook Pages includes: A CD containing hundreds of high-quality color images in a variety of scrapbook layouts that can be downloaded onto both PC and Macintosh computers. The designer layouts are also reproduced on 8 in. x 8 in. perforated, east to remove pages ready to use. An illustrated gallery of great project ideas. In this CD-ROM and book you'll find siblings, sleigh rides, a father and son, and other heart-warming designs that you can use to create your own unique projects. PC Configuration: Windows 98 or later with 128 MB Ram or greater. At least 100 MB of free hard disk space. Dual speed or faster CD-ROM drive, and a 24-bit color monitor. Macintosh Configuration: MAC OS 9 or later with 128 MB Ram or greater. At least 100 MB of free hard disk space. Dual speed or faster CD-ROM drive, and a 24-bit color monitor. Book specifications: paperback, 128 pgs., 8 1/4 in. x 8 in. Publisher: Sterling, 2005. 

Sterling Instant Memories Family Ready-to-Use Scrapbook Pages: CD-ROM and Book Instant Memories Family Ready-to-Use Scrapbook Pages: CD-ROM and Book ISBN: 140

 

Making Memories Albums are solidly constructed and allow your pages to lay flat for easy viewing. These albums are designed to be like portable museums of your favorite art when they are finished. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. So whether you create an album filled with your favorite photos or a memory book to last a life time protect it with a Making Memories Album. 12"x 12" Leather Window Pink- Each album has a window that is approximately 3 5/8"x 3 5/8" that is just perfect for that one really special photo. Includes 10 sheet protectors and non-rusting album post.   

Making Memories Albums 12"x 12" Leather Window Pink

 

 EK Disney Albums each have an enchanting cover that is just the beginning of your treasured memories. These albums are perfect for creating scrapbooks and memory albums that will keep your memories fresh and vivid for years to come. Personalize your albums with coordinating dimensional stickers. Each album includes 10 page protectors that are acid-free, archival, clear and non-glare, 10 spine spacers that are acid-free and lignin-free, 2 post extenders and 1 extended spine cover. 8"x 8" Tinker Bell- This album has a Lavender background. The front cover has a Pink, Lavender and White, floral and dot design. The left 1/4 of the front cover is solid Lavender with a picture of Tinker Bell. It includes 10 side loading page protectors that are acid-free, archival, clear and non-glare, 11 spine spacers that are acid and lignin free, 2 post extenders and 1 extended spine cover. This album will hold up to 20 page protectors.

EK Disney Album 8"x 8" Tinker Bell

 

 Making Memories Albums are solidly constructed and allow your pages to lay flat for easy viewing. These albums are designed to be like portable museums of your favorite art when they are finished. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. So whether you creat an album filled with your favorite photos or a memory book to last a life time protect it with a Making Memories Album. 12"x 12" Leather Window Meadow- Each album has a window that is approximately 3 5/8"x 3 5/8" that is just perfect for that one really special photo. Includes 10 sheet protectors and non-rusting album post.   

Making Memories Albums 12"x 12" Leather Window Meadow

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