Lapbooking Supplies

One of the easiest ways to jazz up your lapbooks is to have a large selection of file folders. It's good to have some basic manila ones on hands, but it's also fun to have colors. I like using different colors to represent the type of lapbook it is. Such as: Red or green is good for Christmas. Pastels look pretty for spring or Easter. Orange is awesome for Halloween. Well, I'm sure you get the point. A hint, if you get file folders that have the company logo inside once, try to cover it with a mini book, but if it has the logo all over, you may try covering the whole inside with either card stock or pattern scrapbook paper.

Adhesives are a very important part of your lapbook. My first preference is a scrapbook tape runner or a Xyron product. These can get kinda expensive if used all the time. For a lesser expensive adhesive, I have started using Elmer's blue gel glue stick. So far, I haven't had trouble with it. It seems to stick well and doesn't wrinkle the paper bad. It is also very easy to use for a small child. I like to use a Xyron sticker maker sometimes to make stickers for my little one so he can do stuff like match things or decorate the lapbook himself. Another thing you could do is, have a tape runner on hands for things that need a more "heavy duty" stick and use a Elmer's glue stick for the "lighter duty" stuff.

A paper trimmer is a good addition to your lapbook supplies. I would choose a good one that will hold up for awhile. There are 3 basic types: the guillotine, the rotary blade and a slide blade. I prefer the rotary blade for several reasons. It tends to be safer than the guillotine and my rotary blade cuts better and straighter than my slide blade. It is also easier to line up than my slide blade. I also made sure that I got a rotary blade that has fancy cuts which adds some interest. I would not choose a guillotine style paper cutter if you have small children and because I have always had a small child, I don't own one, so I can't tell much about it. The biggest advantage to the guillotine style is you can cut a lot more at once. The slide blade style tends to be the least expensive, so if you on a tight budget, it's not a bad choice.

I like to have a selection on yarn, string and twine on hands for stuff like binding minibooks, making closures, and attaching stuff to the lapbook.

Colored brads are good to have on hands for wheel books and fan books. The colored ones adds a lot of interest to the page.

It's always good idea to have an assortment of writing and drawing materials. The basics are crayons, markers and colored pencils, but I have discovered some others that I also like such as gel pens and paints. Having a good supply of these help get your child in the mood to be creative.

It's a good idea to keep all of your lapbook supplies together. Scrapbooking organizers are a great place to start. There are so many to choose from and they come in all shapes and sizes. Look for something that has lots of compartments. Keep in mind though over time your lapbooking supplies will probably increase so you will need to either buy a little bigger now or add another organizer later.

Die cuts are a really fun way to add to lapbooks. While they are not exactly necessary, having some basic letter fonts is not a bad idea. I actually have 3 die cut machines, so I will explain the basics of each. The ones I own are the Cuttlebug, the Cuttlekids and the Cricut. I could not tell you what is my favorite, because they all have there purposes. The Cuttlekids is the least expensive and it is an awesome value if you are on a tight budget. The machine itself if very inexpensive (for a die cut machine) and the dies are inexpensive also making it easy to own a letter font (less than $20.00 for the letters. The dies that you can get for it are cute and many of them are made with children in mind which is perfect for children's lapbooks. The biggest draw back is so far it is very limited compared to the others how many dies it has. In fact, at this time it only has 3 font with one of them being a little larger and more expensive. This machine is best for someone who just wants a font or two and maybe a few designs and doesn't want to pay a lot of money for it. The Cuttlebug is similar to the Cuttlekids but larger and sturdier. It has a lot more dies that can be bought for it, but they are a little more expensive. Both the Cuttlekids and the Cuttlebug are very simple to use. The Cricut is a little different. Instead of being a simple machine that just pushes the die through there for cutting the paper, it is computerized with cartridges. The best part about the Cricut is many designs come on one cartridge instead of buying separate dies for each design. The other cool thing is you can cut out any size of design from 1/2 inch up to 5 inches. There are many different cartridges for this and more are coming out all the time. Some of the cartridges that I own are one that has the states of the USA. This cartridge has not only the outline of each state, but also the state bird, state flower and flag of each state. Another cartridge I have is called My World and it has stuff like the Great Wall of China, King Tut, airplanes, ships, all kinds of things from history and present day.

Dinah Zike has written a lot of books that show how to make the mini books in a lapbook. She does not call them lapbooks, but a lot of the principles are the same. Her subject books (math, social studies, and science) also give ideas on how to use the mini books and each book has LOTS of pictures.

1. Clipart- Its good idea to have a good source of clip. Not only is it great for lapbooking, but it can be used in other homeschool projects too.
2. Stickers
3. Scrapbook Paper
4. Mini Books
5. Die Cuts
6. Coloring Pages
7. Games
8. Puzzles
9. Drawings

My name is Lynn (aka Lynn W, eclecticeducation, and lynnhsmomof2) and I am a Christian mother who homeschools her two boys. I am also a Work at Home Mom (WAHM) who does freelance writing (at Squidoo, eHow and Bukisa), affiliate marketing and designs products at Zazzle. When I'm not busy with my family, homeschooling or working online, I love to read, especially fantasy and sci-fi, watch tv and movies, and scrapbook. Some of my favorite movies are Star Wars, Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Spiderman. Some of the television shows that I watch are Heroes, NCIS, Psych, Monk and Royal Pains.

Twitter ID: lynnhsmomof2
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