A Beginner’s Guide to Scrapbooking

Creating a scrapbook can be a fun and wonderful way to save precious memories for future generations to come. The one problem people run into is they don’t know how to begin a scrapbook. It’s very simple to begin a scrapbook and you don’t have to be a professional artist to create something beautiful and magical. First of all, decide what your scrapbook’s theme is going to be. If you have children, there is many ways to organize your scrapbook. You could start with the day they were born and designate one book for each year of their lives. You could also create scrapbooks by topic. You could have a book that is nothing but your child’s birthdays, another book that is nothing but sporting events, and so on. Once you decide what kind of scrapbook you are going to make, you need to find all of your pictures.

Hopefully you have kept your pictures in an album or a photo box. If not, you have a lot of searching and organizing to do. Let’s say for the sake of this article your scrapbook is going to be your child’s birthdays. You don’t need many supplies to make a nice scrapbook. Once you have been scrap booking for awhile, you can make your books more elaborate. First of all you need a scrapbook. You can go to most any craft store or a store that sells nothing but scrapbook supplies. There are different sized books so just pick whichever one suit you best. I recommend buying some extra pages for your book and page protectors at the same time you purchase your scrapbook. Most books come with pages already in them but you almost always need more pages than what is included in the book. The last thing you want is to be on a roll and then run of pages. The page protectors are a major plus, especially if you have kids.

This way if anything gets spilled on the pages, they won’t stain or destroy your beautiful memories. Once you have your book you need some basic supplies, all of which can be bought at a craft or scrapbook supply store. Your basics include acid free paper, stickers, die cuts, scissors, glue, and pens. Make sure you get acid free paper, since it won’t fade over time. Regular construction paper will fade. Die cuts are pre cut pictures, numbers, or letters. They are very convenient since you don’t have to cut out pictures on your own if you have them. Also, there is glue made specifically for scrapbooks. It’s not anymore expensive then other types of glue and it works great. There are also many types of pens you can use. Just pick whatever you like the best. I suggest starting with a regular black pen. It’s easy and it goes with everything. Here’s a little tip for you. Did you know that you can trace your die cuts on acid free paper and cut them out? This way you can have more die cuts and you don’t have to pay for them at the store. Now it’s time to start your scrapbook.

Remember, we’re using the theme of a birthday party as an example. First, sort out your pictures by what you want on each page. If you have a lot of pictures, you can organize them by putting each set of pictures in an envelope and labeling them by which page they go on. Another tip is to make sure all the pictures on a page go together. Put all of the pictures of the cake on one page and the presents on another. Don’t mix them together. Now, lay out all of your pictures on the page wherever you think they would look the best. Once you have figured that out it’s time to pick out the colors. Find what color seems to be the most prominent throughout all the pictures you have selected for that page. Or you could even pick out a color that is shown the least and you would like to emphasize that color on your page. Whatever color you choose, pick that color paper as your background. You can either cover your whole page in that piece of paper or you can cover only parts of it. If you would like just the corners to have color then cut triangles out and put them in the corners of your page. You can also do half the page in one color and the other half in another. It’s your choice, have fun with it.

Once you have decided what type of background to have, glue down the paper. Once the paper is glued down, put your pictures on the page where you decided they would look nice. You can always change your mind but usually the first instinct is the best. Now is the real fun part. Say your pictures are of your daughter eating a piece of birthday cake. If you have birthday die cuts, take out the die cut of a birthday cake and lay it on the page. If it’s your daughter’s first birthday, take one candle out and lay it somewhere else on the page. If you don’t have a candle die cut just make your own. Cut a piece of paper out that looks like a candle and then use a yellow piece of paper to make a flame. If you have stickers of balloons or presents decide where you would like to place those. Don’t feel like you need to cover the whole page in die cuts and stickers. People want to see the pictures most of all. Once you have decided where to place the die cuts and stickers, it’s time to glue and stick them on the page. Use your imagination and have fun. You know your child better than anyone and you know their personality. Let the page become part of who they are. Finally, take your pen and put the date somewhere on the page. I usually write the date in the upper left hand corner, either going down or across.

You can also label the pictures if you want. Putting the names of distant family members or friends is an easy way to let everyone know who was at the party. This way people won’t be asking you all the time, “Who’s that?” There, you’ve just created your first scrapbook page. Every page gets a little bit easier and as you go you come up with more and more ideas. Once you’re done with a page, front and back, put on your page protector. Once you know it, you’re out of pictures and you’ll start looking for more. Most of all enjoy yourself. These memories will last an eternity and this way everyone can enjoy them.