Creative Scrapbooking for the Noob

There is no right formula to scrap booking except the skill to use papers, scissors, glue or pastes, and the heart to do the hobby. Yes, it is a hobby. Assuming you lived in an isolated coast without any influence, do you know how a scrapbook looks like? From the word scrap, a scrapbook is a collective book size pages containing memories of collaged images. A sophisticated scrapbook can be bought at bookshops, where you can get them hardbound ready for filling up. Actually, it is nothing but empty pages. If you are fond of laborious details, you could create collective empty pages, bind it in a fashionable way, then that's it---you got yourself a scrapbook! Anybody in intermediate years had done scrapbooks without ever remembering when they started them. For beginners, the knack is when you have a good concept to start with. Usually scrapbooks are motivated by good memories with peers. When two people combine ideas, work hand in hand in putting up personal scrapbooks, then the outcome is priceless. Scrapbooks do not need to be perfect. Most of the time, they are random combination of pictures with cut outs from magazines to give relevance to the expression and mood related to the picture being collaged. Without too much dwelling on the result, there is the tendency to create very informal compositions. The creator has no one to blame, after all if it is a personal scrapbook. Nowadays, because of the advent of digital printing, pictures to be used for scrapbooks need not be original developed photos from film. Original photos could be copied, scanned and printed digitally. This will save important photos from being accidentally ruined, in case something goes wrong with the pasting and cutting. If you are a beginner, how will you start doing your own scrapbook? It could start with a definite theme coming from grouped sets of pictures. You can do it your own or invite companions to come along to help you. If the pictures contain many people who are close to you, it is best to recopy the pictures to have the freedom of cropping each photo at your own discretion. The over all color scheme of your concept can enhance harmony in composing each page. A sunny beach party could make use of bright earth colors to blend with the overall theme. Think that you are recycling and making use of old magazines instead of just throwing them away. Sometimes, there are images that can make your composition richer than you expect them to be. Once you feel accomplished with your compilation, you can include it as your personal memorabilia. Keep it away from dusts just like the way you take care of your photo albums. Scrapbooks are livelier to look at than just photos in a cold album. When shown to friends, scrapbooks are more entertaining. For beginners, it is important to consider the use of creativity by making use of what is available at home. It does not have to be expensive, unless you really want to use special materials relevant to what you want to accomplish. Remember the most important ingredient in doing scrapbooks. The sentiment and heart for it comes first. Then you will realize how fun and productive it will turn out to be.

The Gift that Keeps Giving

Gift giving can be a very tedious process. It can be very difficult to figure out what type of present is appropriate and useful enough to endure and convey the entirety of your intent. For instance, when giving a gift for our children or our friends' children, it can be very difficult to think of something that boasts both of novelty and usefulness. Sometimes because of this, we either sell out and give the most generic item or end up not getting our loved one anything at all when faced with the challenge of gift giving. Luckily, there is a gift item that is very personal, novel and ideal for babies-a scrapbook! Scrapbooking is a novel way of maintaining lasting memories while creatively recounting the stories and the wealth of emotion behind each snapshot. Anyone can scrapbook. All one needs are the regular scrapbooking materials and one's creativity will unleash itself. This way, a scrapbook makes the perfect gift it's personal, handmade and relevant. The best thing about it is that when you give a scrapbook as a gift, the person who received it can continue the scrapbook project on his or her own. For instance, you can give your friend who is a new mom a baby scrapbook. You can enlist the help of your other friends to collect snapshots dating as far back as the wedding up until the time she gives birth. You can make a chronicle that will make your friend happy every time she goes through the baby scrapbook because it tells a very wonderful and precious part of her life and she can recount and recall it every time she looks through the baby scrapbook. What's more is that other people will enjoy this particular baby scrapbooking project of yours as well. You see, a baby scrapbook is something to be enjoyed by the whole family. The parents of the child will surely appreciate the wonderful baby scrapbook as a gift and eventually, the grown up child will be delighted to see her own baby scrapbook. In fact, this baby scrapbook may spawn the family to continue to the storytelling and expand the scrapbook onto the different stages of one's life. While a personally made baby scrapbook is a wonderful present to a friend who has just given birth or for a godchild that can finally appreciate seeing his or her story told by a wonderful baby scrapbook, or even for an expecting mother, don't forget that your own children will benefit from a baby scrapbooking endeavor. Even if your child or children have long grown up, it is never too late to begin a baby scrapbooking project that you can give to them as a present. They are sure to enjoy the present of their very own baby scrapbook at whatever cognitive age they may be at. It would probably be an even better idea to give this present to your child when he or she is expecting to have his or her own child. This way, the recipient of your baby scrapbooking project will be able to reminisce about his or her own infancy as they expect their own baby to be born. The story from the baby scrapbook then becomes even deeper and makes sort of a closed loop that will perhaps encourage them to embark on their own baby scrapbooking project for their own child. This is something that they will enjoy making, which, will be eventually enjoyed by their child when he or she grows up.

What you need to know about album scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is definitely one of the most enjoyable, rewarding and relaxing activities a person can get into. Aside from bringing out the creativity and resourcefulness in every person, it also helps people to organize memories and keepsakes in one place. Through the years, most people collect photos and mementos from their friends, family members, and loved ones. In order to organize these, more and more people are getting into scrapbooking. ON ALBUM SCRAPBOOKING One of the most common themes used in scrapbooking is album scrapbooking. This kind of theme usually involves the use of photos just like in several photo albums. In creating album scrapbooks, the first consideration should be the album itself. In the market today, there are two standard sizes of albumsthe 8.5x11 and 12x12. If you are planning to create a family scrapbook, most scrappers will suggest that you use a 12x12 album because you will need larger space to accommodate all the photos and captions of your family members. But if you are creating an album scrapbook for personal use or a scrapbook that you will give as a gift for a loved one, you can use smaller albums such as the 5x7 album because you can create a very specific theme. Other specifications of scrapbook albums include the post-bound albums that come with black or white cardstock pages and are covered by sheet protectors. The pages of which are bound into the album using three posts that enables it to be easily taken out so you can add or remove pages. This kind of album makes it easy for the scrapper to move pages around by pulling the cardstock out of the sheet protector or by sliding in a page where patterned papers are used. Strap-hinge albums, on the other hand, are those albums that have flexible plastic straps in the cover that run through wire loops embedded in each page and expandable while the 3-ring binders or D-ring binders are those albums that are bound using rings that allow you to add or switch around pages quickly and easily. A 3-ring binder allows you to fit a lot of pages while a D-ring allows the pages I your scrapbook to lie flat. Aside from the album itself, other major considerations in album scrapbooking is the space or room and the supplies you'll be needing such as stickers that come in various themes, designs, colors, and sizes which are great but inexpensive and very fun and easy to use; tags that can be used as major decorations; cut-outs and punch-outs which are usually tags, alphabet letters, and laser lace borders that are used to decorate the page, paper embellishments which are usually perforated so you can use them anywhere in the scrapbook. There should also be punches which are tools used to punch shapes out of paper that come in shapes of all sizes; embellishments such as buttons, fibers or fancy yarns and threads, metal accents, beads, craft wire and fabric ribbon roses that are safely be used on any scrapbook page; chalk or decorative chalks that come in a set with various colors and applicators perfect for shading and highlighting an album page; eyelets which are great for attaching vellum to paper, for decorating a photo mat or for making a border and which also come in different sizes, colors and shapes. Rubber stamps are also used. Very versatile, these stamps can be used for different purposes such as in card making; die-cuts which are paper shapes made from that come in all sorts of colors and themes; embossed paper charms; and templates which are ideal for unique embellishments that will make your album scrapbook great.