The next step in making a successful scrapbook is to find a clean table to work on. Two of the most popular places in your home to use as a workspace is the kitchen table or a handy folding table that you can open up in the dining room or basement. There are many people who have a "hobby" table, one where they make crafts, models, or just generally "fix" things.

Wherever you choose as your workplace, make sure you get a table covering for the whole table or at least a used old placemat to put on top of it as you are going to be working with glue, paint, and other chemicals when assembling your masterpiece. Also, make sure it has good ventilation. You don’t want to get caught up in some overpowering smells! The last thing is to make sure you have great lighting on top of the table. A desk lamp is also a good choice. There will be a time when you need to look closely at your project and have to carefully work with small detail work. The desk lamp sure comes in handy.

As mentioned in the last post on scrapbook material organizers, you can bring out these containers to the table where are going to work. Don’t forget your legal pad and pen too! With the table, scrapbook material containers, and legal pad, you are ready to go!

When starting out in scrapbooking, it is wise to plan three main important things.

1)    What is the purpose of the scrapbook?

2)    What materials are going to be used?

3)    What is my budget?

These are quite often the most important things we should think about before even starting a project.

The purpose of the scrapbook, of course, is to preserve the memories of the object presented. It could be for family, for a once in a lifetime event, or celebrating a holiday. Soon, we will be adding a part of this blog to scrapbookers of all kinds. We will have a spot where you can add your own pictures of your masterpiece!

Regarding materials, sky is the limit! Photographs is the first on the list, for sure. From there anything goes from; coins, stickers, string, toothpicks, yarn, refrigerator magnets, stamps, buttons, colored paper, hair pins, paper clips, wire, pipe cleaners, scrap paper, screws, caps, match sticks, just to name a few. Besides photographs as the most important material, the scrapbook or booklet comes to mind. There are as many different kinds of scrap related books to hold everything as there are materials to put into them.

Budget? Well we could easily say "sky is the limit," again! But really folks, a good starting budget for a modest scrapbook is in the $70 to $150 range. In the posts to follow, we will go over the scrapbooks made with different budgets. We will show the low economy type to the "no holds barred" gaudy scrapbooks!

When starting out, we suggest starting as a group. Even if you start with you and a friend, it will be just as much fun to make when you can share the experience with others.