For more pizazz, you might want to add more of a 3-D effect to your scrapbook.
If you want to create pages that pop up, consider creating your own pages with 3-D embellishments. Collect the items that you will need to create your embellishments. You will want to have plenty of scraps of fabric and felt, as well as wire, felt flowers, small wooden rods, fiber, yarn, die cuts, cotton, and anything else you can think of to create with. Start by thinking of the color scheme you wish to use to create your item. Then think about the page it is going to be displayed on, and choose an item to create that is in line with the page theme.
Start with a die cut and build your embellishment around it. If you are using a die cut of an animal or person, consider adding googgly eyes to it to start the process. Use fabric to add texture and bounce to the design. Be as creative as you possibly can! And do not forget about foam squares to add layers to your creation.
One of the easiest ways to create texture and depth in your scrapbook is to add fibers to the pages. Purchase fun and lively fibers for your pages. One cute idea is to use the fibers to create a look where the pictures look like they are actually in frames and hanging from the wall. The fibers create the string that the picture is "hanging from" and the background paper creates the frame. Use a brad as the "nail."
As you are designing your 3-D pages, keep in mind the safety of your pictures. You want to make sure that there is nothing that will poke or fold your photos, and you don’t want photos rubbing too hard against the facing page. Store your scrapbooks upright, as you don’t want to put too much pressure on the contents. After all, you did so much work to create those 3D embellishments that it would be a shame to squash them flat!
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The latest trend to hit the scrapbook world is digital scrapbooking. With the arrival of the photo editing software programs such as: Photoshop Elements, MicroSoft Publisher, JASC Photo/Paint, and Corel Paint Shop, there is the capability to now work with digital photos that you have on your hard drive of your computer. With these programs, you simply insert a photo into a premade scrapbook page template. Although you can get a very slick looking image, by making "virtual" scrapbook pages, I prefer the "real live" look of a binder that you can actually hold in your hands and share sitting with loved ones and flipping the pages together.
In my opinion, the digital scrapbooks are more for computer and photo editing literate people. There is nothing like laying everything out on the dining room table and going over the photos taken out of the family momento box and "dreaming" of how you are going to assemble all the elements of the binder or album!
For more information on beginning with digital scrapbooking, go to:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/digitalscrapbooking/ss/beginnerintro.htm
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I am pleased to announce our very first book on scrapbooking will be released on the first of October. It will have many start up tips and tricks as well as some advanced information on how to begin scrapbooking. It seems we have been getting a lot of email with questions on how much to spend, what embellishments to get, what size scrapbook is goo to start with, and so many more. So, what we decided is to write our first ever scrapbook guide.
Some of the things you will find in this booklet are: tools to use, how to pick photos, how to pick a place in your home to scrapbook, kinds of scrapbook binders, theme ideas, and so much more.
Unfortunately, right now, we are only publishing the book in english but soon to have it translated into many languages.
Come back and visit our site as we are going to go over new scrapbooking themes.
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As mentioned in the previous post. scrapbooking is growing by leaps and bounds as the hobbie to do around the world. There is yet another trend that is developing in the world of scrapbooking…the business of scrapbooking. There are 4 ways you can make money on your favorite hobbie.
- Scrapbook consultant - This is where you represent selling products for a scrapbook store or wholesaler to the public at large.
- Scrapbook teacher - This is probably the most popular. With the skills you already have as a scrapper, you can set up classes either online or in a home and sign up students who would like to learn, from scratch, how to make their own scrapbooks
- Create scrapbooks for others - Here is where you cash in on someone who needs a scrapbook in a short amount of time but has no previous skills in how to make one.
- Online scrapbooking store - This may be a little more involved, but not impossible! This involves lining up suppliers and wholesalers and setting up your own website to sell everything scrapbooking. You could work as an affiliate for other materials manufacturers or suppliers.
So hone your scrapbooking skils and you may soon discover that you can make a decent supplemental income from your love of bringing memories alive!
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The most devestating thing that happens to photos with age is fading and deterioation. You know what I mean…the old photos turn yellow, get brittle, even stick in pieces to the sheet protectors they were mounted on.
This can be alleviated by using only acid free paper and sleeves. Use sheet protectors to mount photos. Anything that can shield pictures from oxidation and constant touching by human hands is strongly suggested. Stay away from any "sticky" albums or adhesive to self mount pictures or "magnetic" cellophane. All of these materials can deteriorate pictures immediately.
When you get photo prints from a photo processing company, make sure the photo paper is acid free, lignin free and ph neutral. Believe it or not, some photo processing companies will sometimes give you prints on acid materials without you knowing about it.
If you print out photos on your own ink jet printer, make sure you check that the ink is acid free as well. Keep all images and picture surfaces away from direct sunlight, humidity and liquids.
Lastly, make sure you digitally back up all your photos on a CD of DVD. This precaution can come in handy if you should ever run into damaged photos in your scrapbook for whatever reason.
If you take good care of your scrapbooks, you will enjoy many years of enjoyment of your "prized" scrapbook!
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Welcome to the world of "theme" scrapbooking! With the whole world watching the Olympics from Beijing China, there is no better way to remember this most exciting event with a scrapbook.
Here is what we suggest to do to make an "Olympic" scrapbook.
- Complie pictures from your local newspaper of all Olympic games coverage
- Search the internet for pictures and stories and scores from the Olympic daily stats
- If you are fortunate to actually have tickets or any real momentos from the Olympics experience, save them to put them in a scrapbook page later
- After the Olympic games are over, go to your local bookstore and search for any newly released books that covered the Olympic games in pictures. Remember, you are going to probably cut up many of the pages out of this book, so if you want to save the book, you will have to buy two, so you can keep the other book intact.
- Keep track of any heart warming story or unusual story that is covered by the media and take notes so you can put this in the journalling section of your blog.
- Look at the retail stores for anything "Olympic" themed. Sports stores will be good to visit for this.
Try to reconstruct a "gold," "silver," and "bronze" medal to divide the pages into sections in order of wins from the countries or the countries themselves.
There is literally unlimited amount of ideas that your mind can come up with on this theme.
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There are as much variety of embellishments that you can put into a scrapbbook as your imagination allows! When we talk about embellishments we are talking about any "non photo" materials that make your scrapbook come alive in 3-D. Some items that are embellishments can be:
Stickers, beads, silk flowers, fibers, stamps, clips, shells, chipboards, buttons, charms, chains, coins, newspaper articles, greeting cards, show tickets, locks of hair, ribbons, pinwheels, washers, and braids, just to name a few.
When you insert embellishments, you should be very selective in positioning them as not overuse them and make it balance the overall design of the page.
In the next several posts, we will show some of the uses of embellishments.
People have a natural curiosity about the world, things and people. What better way to discover more about yourself though your family tree! Scrapbooks have become popular with people who want to know where they came from, their culture, and who they may be related to. Although it is a lot of work to research, it can be very rewarding when it is complete, especially when all the information is gathered in one place.
To get you started, of course, the internet is best place to do so. Here are a few links to go to:
- Ancestry (www.ancestry.com.au)
- Family Search (www.familysearch.org)
- Genealogy Database Network (www.genealogy.com)
- World Gen Web Project (www.worldgenweb.org)
- Surname Web (www.surnameweb.org)
- The National Archives and Records Administration (www.nara.gov)
When starting a new scrapbook on this topic, remember to make sure they are acid & lignin free, especially if you chose to use original photos in your work. There will be many older pictures that you are going to put into this binder along with any old news clippings or other items that have discolored with age.
Because you are dealing with past history of people that you may not have actual memorabilia from, it is wise to design illustrations, copy and paste of articles that are gotten from the internet or other sources. If you are lucky enough to trace one of your past relative ties, you may want to request some memorabilia from them.
Even if you did not get any memorabilia from anyone in the family tree, quite often you can recreate past news clippings of that period in which your past relative lived through. Of course, journaling is a must to explain who and where about your past relatives.
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Having scrapbbooks of your children, whether one or many can be of such sentimental value to the family. Children grow up so fast and every single minute, day, month and year has its classic moments that can be captured in photographs, and words.
Start your first scrapbook with your baby. You can start with journal entries during the pregnancy and moving up to the delivery day followed by pictures of the baby arriving at home. You can attach items like, a copy of the birth certificate, foot prints, locks of hair, baby shower invitations, baby greeting cards from family and friends, and pictures of the baby in the crib at home. Pictures of first steps, first words, and many other firsts are the most appropriate for a scrapbook.
Next, you can do a toddler scrapbook. In it, you can include the cute smiles, the way the child shows their one of a kind personality, and socializing with family and friends. During this period, quite often it is when the child is very active and getting into everything they can! You could not keep up with the child in what they are exploring. Take many photos!
The next phase is the elementary school scrapbook where the child experiences many parties, graduations, story telling, achievements and awards in school, and art projects to name a few. We would suggest your child get involved in actual making of this scrapbook since they are very creative and can often enhance it in a very unique way.
Lastly, there is a double value in making a scrapbook when your child attends high school and into college. It is a scrapbook that will serve as a great momento to share experiences and moments for both the parent and the child, and someday for the child’s offspring.
Did you know that there are an unlimited amount of custom fonts that you can download and add to your scrapbook? Yes, there are many free shareware and font sites out there that you can use, from art deco to newspaper style, and many more. Here is a link from the site "about dot com" that has many decorative font styles for you to download for free.
For some ideas, you could print out a journal or phrase and print it out on brightly colored construction paper and cut it and paste it next to a photo or item. Some scrappers have been printing out individual letters and making headlines on pages or scrapbook binder covers.
Another great creative idea is to download and print out the "ding bat" style fonts. Ding bats fonts are smal clip art style shapes that you can use for just about any type of themed scrapbook. They come in many shapes, such as geometric shapes, animals, people, faces, holiday themes, and many more shapes. Of course, your computer can make your ding bat shapes into any point size depending on your need.
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