Scrapbooking Papers

Getting Over With Your Weakness, Learn Scrapbooking Papers Storage Techniques

by EdySutio

If there were one common denominator aside from their passion to scrapbooking, you would immediately know that theirs is the weakness on papers. From patterned and plain papers to unique cardstocks, we normally make use of the logic "buy the paper now and the inspiration will come after". And for the moment, your scrapbooking will lay scrap by scrap or page by page, waiting to be used.

If you don't have a photographic memory (which most of us don't have) it is best that you store you scrapbooking papers in more organized manners. Or else, you might find yourself lost with "out of sight, outs of mind" brain. You might already have a huge collection of paper stacks but not knowing it. A waste of an investment. And besides, it is always a good practice to get organized to really know what your resources are.

We can't forever buy papers and store them in disarray. And buy another set and go on with that same process. Somehow, clutter must stop.

We cannot exactly provide you with strict guidelines of storage. In scrapbooking, so long as the methods fits you, it will work. Let's move out from the box and do our own things in our own ways.

We have covered some general techniques here, which you may apply. Only you have to fill in the gaps if you require some modifications.

Most scrappers find it hard to know their organizing style. In general, you have two options. One, that is horizontal stacking and the other, vertical. It ill always be your preference to choose. There is no best way for everyone and you can do whatever fits your case.

Most stores keep their papers in horizontal stacking, either by racks or by shelves. This is largely because they are equipped with much space to work with. Unfortunately, most of us don't have that enough space so the best solution would be to furnish snap top cases for better organization. Not only are these cases great for paper stacking, they also work well for storing other scrapbooking materials that you normally or presently use.

If you have no other option but to store your papers in horizontal formats, you may always try using vertical solutions.  Storing papers vertically works best for cardstocks and for papers that you often use. Storage papers for vertical positioning normally comes with dividers, thus the capacity to store multiple files all at the same place. Just be reminded though that this method will require you tall shelves.

Second, you must know what kind of scrapbooker are you when it comes to shopping papers. There are again, two types. One, the organized people and the other are those that adhere with any-thing-goes principles.

The organized group are those buyers ho take time to bring with them photos and memorabilias as reference for when buying. They browse aisles by aisle and choose specific types of papers according to their immediate needs, matching their choices with the materials that they have.

And these people will most likely gather sample die cuts and embellishments and stick-ons for each planned page. Thus, they tend to choose the right pieces together for their possible layouts. At the end, they will collect other stiffs that will match their themes.

The unorganized group though is the exact opposite. They arrive at the store with hardly an idea to focus to. They would grab random kinds of scrapbooking papers depending on what catches their eye. While tossing cool and pretty papers, they would soon realize that the cardstocks at the next eye "might" be of future use. Lastly, they'll run to the register and the whole thing is over. Once they start the project, they'll soon discover that several things are missing.

The second attitude is easier to do, however you must learn to accept the risks. The first one obviously will require you to plan prior to shopping but will create lesser chances of committing mistakes. If you are dealing with scrapbooking papers, it will always prove best to choose the latter one.

Organization of papers will require you to pay attention to details. The more chaotic your files get, the more attention you will have to invest. It is far less time consuming in the end to start organizing stuffs and keep things that way than to organize and reorganize over and over again. Besides, when your papers are arranged, you would have better pictures of what are available to you and you will be able to work on them better.

Scrapbooking Page Ideas

Where to Get Scrapbooking Page Ideas

by EdySutio

Scrapbooking is an activity that requires some inspiration and a lot of effort. Now, we all know that every person can make the effort to be creative. However, inspiration is hard to come by. Inspiration is that one little spark that guides you where to direct your efforts.

Scrapbooking page ideas can be hard to come by. They can be sought after, yet never found. They can be ignored, yet just pop up in your mind. However, there are a lot of places where you can get scrapbooking page ideas. Here are some of them:

1) Conversations - sometimes, just talking to another person can help you get a scrapbooking page idea. By engaging in conversations, you can often catch glimpses of a person's soul, and that can serve as your inspiration.

There are two ways to get scrapbooking page ideas from conversations:

a) Directly - you could try asking for other people for some scrapbooking page ideas directly. You could discuss different scrapbooking page ideas and talk about the virtues and disadvantages of each one. By asking people for ideas, you save yourself the trouble of having to find an overall theme. However, by doing so, you cannot really claim a scrapbook as your own, since the idea came from somewhere else.

b) Indirectly -this happens when you are talking to a person about something unrelated to scrapbooking and suddenly, you gleam from a certain word or phrase, a scrapbooking page idea. Getting a scrapbooking page idea this way can be quite hard, as you will be focusing on two things: the idea and the conversation.

Sometimes, a conversation can actually help free your creative spirit and actually unleash the scrapbooking page idea within you.

2) The environment - look around you. There are many things out there which can give you different scrapbooking page ideas. What can the environment give you?

a) Overall theme - One good scrapbooking page idea is capturing the beauty of the sunset in the overall theme of your scrapbook. In fact, there are many other things besides nature that you can use as great scrapbooking page ideas. This way, you actually tie the different pages of your scrapbook together.

b) Specifics - by looking at your environment, you can also gain specific scrapbooking page ideas. This means that you can enhance the little details of your scrapbook using your inspiration from outside. The details may mean something to you alone, or may also broadcast a page's significance to the world.

c) Materials - by observing your environment, you can also get scrapbooking page ideas about what materials to use. Remember that, in a scrapbook, materials say so much about your personality. In doing so, you open yourself up to the possibility of recycling.

3) Yourself. -look inside yourself for any scrapbooking page ideas which you might want to try out. Remember that only you can best judge what you want. Look towards your personality and get inspiration from it. One activity you can do is listing on a piece of paper your different traits. This would give you some scrapbooking page ideas on how to best present your scrapbook. By looking within you, you can try to convey to the readers your personality and how you feel about a certain event and page in your scrapbook.

4) Mass media - You can also take several scrapbooking page ideas from the mass media today. This includes:

a) Television - Admit it: you love watching television. So why not try to take inspiration from it? By taking scrapbooking page ideas from your favorite TV shows, you can actually try to incorporate another facet of your personality into the scrapbook.

The television also allows you to see different types of visual themes and this can give you a very good idea as to how your scrapbook should look like.

b) Music - getting scrapbooking page ideas from music can be a bit hard, since only a few can really translate emotions form words into visual information. However, if you are able to do so, you can actually come up with a pretty deep message. You might also have your friends guessing as to how a page relates to the song.

c) Computer - of course, you could also get scrapbooking page ideas from the computer. Do you wish to portray a game? Do you want to incorporate a theme from the internet? By using the computer, you can access a ton of information to give you scrapbooking page ideas.

Scrapbooking Materials

Know What to Buy

by EduySutio

Originally, it was quite hard to find suppliers and retail stores that would sell you scrapbooking materials. But with enthusiasts settling their own local scrapbooking stores and with online vendors that would sell you everything and anything in between, the hard part becomes the choosing.

Many beginners find it confusing to choose the basic materials once they get into the store. This is of course due to the fact that there simply are too many choices. Add to it the excitement of seeing various colors and designs, samples and layouts and concepts and ideas that will overpower your initial choice of materials.

This is a common mistake. However it must be understood that for beginners, there are only several things that you must buy. In fact, you need not buy them all at once. It is best to check several pieces and test the grounds if scrapbooking lifestyle would work for you.

Planning what must be bought and what must be reserved for other days usually work well when shopping for scrapbooking materials. Many times, the beginner's excitement plus the array of overwhelming choices without enough knowledge on them overshadow a scraper's best judgement in the selection of materials. And later, this would be dealt with regret.

Even veterans fall into this common mistake. And many of us, at one time or another have found ourselves in situations when we were faced with a good sale. We might not need the stuff for the present or might not use them at all yet the urge to buy is harder than our willingness to subdue the impulse.

To help lessen this possibility, it is best to have a definite plan of what materials to buy. In this article, we will tackle about the major scrapbooking material that will prove useful even to the end of your activity.

Album
The most important scrapbooking material and the one that completes the stuff is the album. For album alone, you may already find hundreds of various designs, formats and sizes that would lead you to deciding which would best fit you. We would not discuss the many types of albums here, we'll just provide an overview for some of the basic choices.

Conventional albums appear in 8½×11" or 12"×12" pages. However, smaller albums have become more popular with the integration of newer scrapbooking formats. Other smaller sizes appear in 6"×6" to 8"×8".

Page protectors
The main function that page protectors serve is to help lessen the susceptibility of your photos, memorabilia and the pages, as a whole to damages and tears. And the added value of holding them inn place to avoid stick-on from falling out. There are basically two choices when it comes to protectors; a) clear protectors that let you retain the normal hues of the layout and, b) non-glare protectors that appeal easier to the onlookers.

Paper
Many scrappers turn to papers when it comes to adding designs and choosing the background of their layouts. Patterned papers are among the main choices. For background, however, it is best to use papers with subtle colors so as to help focus the eye's attention on the photos rather than on the background.

Cardstock
A staple in the scrapbooking world, cardstocks are more like cardboards than papers. These are effective in securing the foundations when placing memorabilia, embellishments and photos.

Adhesives
Well these materials simply hold everything together. These are widely available but be careful in choosing one though. Always look for acid-free adhesives and make sure that they are photo-safe. If they are not, they are most likely to cause oxidation of the pictures, the condition when the colors of the paper, photos and other similar stuffs fade.

Paper cutter
This material normally completes scrapbooking as they tend to add the finishing touches. Many scrappers find it hard to keep away from overdecoration., this normally is the case when using paper cutters and especially true with cutting pictures. Tip: It is always nice to keep the edges of photos straight. Reserve the use of paper cutters with papers alone.

Scissors
A definite must-have. Scissors greatly help in manipulating further the designs and additions into the scrapbook. They help transform objects such as fibers, ribbons and fabrics into manageable size that will coordinate with the design you have.

Rulers
Precision, that the rule. Obviously, this material will save time when it comes to drawing clean, straight lines.

There are many other scrapbooking materials that you will find useful. Among them are the following: vellum, exacto knife, self-healing cutting mat, white plastic eraser, glue eraser, lettering and fonts, black pens, colored pens or pencils, grease pencil, photo corners and tote.

Scrapbooking II

Scrapbooking Dos and Don'ts

by EdySutio

Pretty much everyone in the country has had an experience with scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is a way through which we try to connect with our past through different objects and images. Scrapbooks serve as time capsules, preserving our memories for when we have trouble recalling events.

In making a scrapbook, do:

1) Get creative - scrapbooking is an activity meant for you to release your creativity. You see, you have to let the scrapbook take on your personality. Only through this will you be able to create a scrapbook worthy of being called yours.

How do people release their creativity when scrapbooking? Well, you might want to think about the significance of different objects and how they stir your emotions. Try to express those emotions using these factors of the scrapbook:

A. Arrangement -the arrangement of certain objects in scrapbooking can reveal a much deeper message than the object itself. It actually speaks to the beholder how you feel about that certain object. Does it remind you of something painful? Do you feel joy when you see that object? Try to reflect your feelings on the arrangement of the object.

B. Colors -Different colors convey different emotions. Scrapbooking often requires you to add color to different pages in order to get your message across. Through the colors you use in a particular page, you can get your message about a specific event across to the reader.

C. Texture - in scrapbooking, you get to add texture to your creation. Unlike photo albums where only the pictures count, scrapbooking requires lets you get your message across through different textures. Touch is a very important part of scrapbooking. By adding texture to your pages, you can get your point across much better.

2) Gather resources - when scrapbooking, you need to have all materials you could possibly use. This means you have to prepare beforehand. If you do this, you won't waste time trying to find this or that colored pen.

By gathering resources, you free your mind and time to the actual creation of the scrapbook. Making a great scrapbook requires that your concentration be on the scrapbook itself, not on finding stuff you need.

3) Plan - when you are scrapbooking, always make sure that you have a plan as to which item goes where. You need to plan the overall look of your scrapbook and even the little details that go with it. You see, if you take the time to plan your scrapbook, you will be able to scan your ideas and choose which one is the best for you to go with.

Another advantage with planning ahead is the fact that you will be able to limit your budget and buy the stuff you need to make your scrapbook. By planning ahead, you also make putting the scrapbook together easy because of the fact that you do not really have to spend time changing designs.

4) Consider interpretation - Scrapbooking involves pictures and objects. As you may know, symbols can be interpreted in a million different ways, depending on the beholder's perception. In order to avoid your scrapbook from offending anyone, you could try to give clues as to how a certain page is significant to you.

Scrapbooking quotes are always a good option, considering the fact that they are a compromise between narrating events and using vague pictures.

Scrapbooking don'ts:

1) Copy - copying another scrapbook robs you of the self-satisfaction of having a unique creation. Remember that a scrapbook should reflect your personality. As human beings, we are all unique. This means that you have the potential to create a scrapbook that truly shows your soul.

2) Be vague - remember that a scrapbook is supposed to help you remember. It's not supposed to confuse you even more. In scrapbooking, you should learn how to relay your message without resorting to narrating the significance of each item.

3) Change - leave objects as they are, do not try to make an object more significant than it really is. You also cannot try to change events to suit your perception. You see, trying to change bad events into good, or vice versa defeat the whole purpose of scrapbooking. In order for your scrapbook to be effective in keeping your history, you should be honest to yourself.

Scrapbooking Layout

Easy Scrapbooking Layout Tips

by EdySutio

MANY scrapbook starters would find it difficult to create a layout. If you are one of them, then you may have to read the following to get some easy ideas on what are the different types of scrapbook layouts you can use.

·    Patterned paper layout
When using patterned paper as a scrapbook page layout, you should follow the following rules: Never use a paper with a pattern larger than the smallest photographed head; patterned papers are secondary to the photos so never give too much concern if you cannot find the right photos to go on the pattern; and, use plain paper over the pattern as a journal box.

·    Nameplate layout

Use large letter tiles to make bold effect on the layout. You can use stamps to put your name on the page. Stencils would also be a great way to do this. Other methods such as using all sorts of embellishments to spell a name, embroidering the name on the page or using fonts like calligraphy would be great.


·    Handprint layout

Whether you are an artist or not, handprinting the page would give you unique layout. Use acrylic paints, colored pens, watercolors, or crayons to do this.

To come out neat, you can concentrate the large handprints around the borders of the page. Smaller handprints can come in between.

·    Newspaper layout

Create a page that would relatively look like a newspaper’s front page. This would work best if you intent to make a page that focuses on the significant event. Use an Old English font as a heading; somewhat similar to the heading of a newspaper. Then, use a large text for the headline. A Times New Roman font is for the story. Place a photo on the side or at the middle of the page.

·    Rub-on Transfers layout
Using rub-on transfers is both easy and tricky. It is easy in the sense that all you have to do is to rub-on and you have an instant layout. It is tricky in the sense that you have to practice in order to achieve a perfect transfer. If you are using rub-on transfers for the first time, then you might as well start on a smooth surface. Once you get the hang of it, move on to the next level and use the transfer on surfaces such as metal, mesh, ribbon, and glass.

If you prefer to use rub-on transfers to these surfaces, make sure that they are adhere enough to make permanent contact. Some brands are stickier than the other.

·    Z pattern layout

Arrange all the materials you have on a Z pattern. Meaning, the arrangements should start on the top left of the page and move on a Z pattern.

·    Focal point layout

Use one photo as a focal point and move outwards. The focal point can be a large photo. This would give the viewer a starting point on where to begin looking. If you are using 3 or more photos, try to make some arrangements. You can use 3 different photo sizes arranged diagonally, with the focal point on the largest photo. You can also use one large photo with 2 small photos on each side. Or, you can use 3 photos of the same size and make arrangement to highlight a certain point.

·    Aging paper layout

Weathering a paper is a popular technique on creating a layout. There are several ways to do this.

One is by damping the paper and ironing it to dry. This would create all sort of weathered look to the paper.

Another way of aging the paper is by rolling it into a ball to make it look wrinkled. Then, sand it with a finest grained sand paper you can find.

There are more scrapbook ideas you can use but these would be sufficient enough to finish your scrapbook.

If you want to make other types of layouts, you can combine 2 or more mentioned types of layouts to make one unique layout. The thing is, use your imagination and creativity to make a good layout and you can assure yourself that what you have made is truly yours.