We are proud to present our first scrapbook submission from an avid reader of our scrapbook classroom blog. June from Arizona has two wonderful grandchildren and has dedicated her scrapbook for them. We have a great scrapbook page submitted which features the children during the Christmas holidays.
As you can see, these pages are very effective at conveying the mood and the cuteness of the holiday! There is great use of space and color. Care was made to glue down the photo so that there were no "lumps" so that the picture set on the "frame" would be perfectly flat. The picture was cropped perfectly and the "journal" caption was a great touch!
Feel free to submit your favorite scrapbook page and we will gladly post them here!
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At this time of year, May, it is the season of spring and graduation comencements and graduation parties. In keeping with the exciting spirit of this once in a lifetime event, many people are making graduation themed scrapbooks. Now is the time to buy your supplies.
Several things you should buy now are; graduation themed binder or the capability to theme in graduation theme, graduation themed photo matts, a lot of colored construction paper, graduation related 3-D hats-miniature diplomas, stencils, plenty of graphics such as pencils-school desks-school house-apples; just about anything related to a school theme.
When you buy all your supplies in advance, plan out your layout and also plan on how many pictures you are going to take at the graduation ceremony. You may think of taking as many as you can so you have the lattitude to crop some of them and make different shapes of them. Remember about the high quality of adhesives you will use that will not discolor or turn brittle. You want a glue that will not make ripples under your photos.
Don’t forget to write out as many journaling pieces that you can. The rest of your journaling will come from describing your experiences at the ceremony. Have fun with this theme…after all, this a memory you want to relive for many years, a time to be very proud!
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Next to making sure the photos you choose for your scrapbook will enhance the whole book, matting certainly comes in a solid second in the most important aspect of scrapbook design.
Once you have lined up all the pictures in your scrapbook theme, you should concern yourself with the type of matting that will be used to surround your pictures. Matting for years was used in painting, especially oil paintings, to fashionably "frame" the picture to give it more added value to the viewer. Some of the mattes were very ornate, others were simple and understated. Some blended in so well with the painting, that you didn’t even notice the matte was even there!
A good rule of thumb for matting your photos is to make sure the color of the matte, complements the picture and not over-powers it. In other words, say you are displaying pictures of a lake or body of water, a nice matte color could be a nice neutral blue color. Don’t forget to pay attention to scrapbook mattes that have a pattern in them. The pattern should complement the pictures as well. Use your good judgement on the color and pattern of your matte.
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There are literally thousands of resources online for the scrapper, whether beginner or experienced. One great link to go to is at: http://www.scrapbookpageideas.com/
For those of you who are very "right brained" creative, you will not have any problems coming up with many different ideas for your pages and themes. However, the best way to get your "juices" flowing is to see what others have done with their scrapbooks.
Other very good resources for other scrapbooking ideas can be found below:
http://www.shelleysscrapbooklayouts.com/
http://www.allscrapbookingideas.com/scrapbooking-ideas.html
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectList?channelid=8
http://genealogy.about.com/od/heritage_scrapbooking/
http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/inspiration/index.ihtml
These are just several of hundreds of resources online that can help give you ideas when starting out on your next scrapbook. If you have any great resources with helping you "jumpstart" your perfect idea or theme, please post it in our comments here.
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Besides coming up with a sketch of your layout, you should jot down a collection of "ideas" for scrapbooks. In other words, as we mentioned in a previous post, the reason why we scrapbook is for preserving the memories of family, friends, activities, special moments in our lives, and celebrations, to name a few. Whatever idea or ideas you come up with, make sure you jot it down now. It may be that you never start a scrapbook with a particular them you made in your notebook, but it can jar your creativity to make a new idea for your next scrapbook. Sometimes we get inspired to make a scrapbook just for the fun of it.
The tools you need for your idea notebook should be a vinyl folder notepad that can hold a pen and a legal pad of paper. The next thing you should have is a collection of magazine articles, newspaper articles, or even interesting online articles that you print out from what other scrappers are doing. You know, just about every scrapbook idea has been tried and used, but you can put your own "twist" on it.
Along with keeping your ideas in one organized place, make sure you have enough pictures and other archived items to fill out this new scrapbook.
When you start your sketch sheet from an idea you have chosen from your idea notebook, make sure you take the time to choose a binder that reflects the "mood" of your theme. If you are in a "black and white" mood for a topic, make sure you have black and white photographs and lay it out in a binder that is black and white or gray in color.
A scrapbook comes alive when it aligns with your particular "mood" you are in while planning and starting to put together the scrapbook. The number of ideas in your scrapbook notebook is only limited by your imagination.
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A great strategy before you start a scrapbook is to sketch out the layout. This is often the most basic step for any scrapbooker. Pay attention to the theme you plan, gather your pictures, and on a legal pad, sketch out the placement of most of the items. Don’t worry, you can always change things later. The most important part is to get the feel for laying out things. When a beginner first starts out on scrapbooking, the largest fear is getting the sense of design. You see, designing the layout on a scrapbook is no different than a highly paid Madison Avenue art designer. You must know what comes natural in placement of items to make a pleasing arrangement.
1) Draw the rectangles or other shapes of where you want to place the photos on the legal pad.
2) Draw rough shapes of the decorative items or letters you want in and around the pictures.
3) Draw the outline of the pages and additional design patterns that you want around the whole page
A good example of a scrapbook planning sketch can be found here.
In the example shown on that link, the theme is a father and son theme.
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