Scrapbook My Life

As I talked about in yesterday’s post, trends in scrapbooking change on a regular basis. That’s why I think it’s so important to spend some time defining your own personal style. When you have a strong sense of what you like in a scrapbooking layout, you’ll be less likely to feel pressured to keep up with the crowd.

To start defining your style:

• Look through a recent issue of your favorite scrapbook magazine and circle your favorite 10 layouts. Then, look for similarities between them. Do they all use neutral colors? Are they simple or more collage oriented? Do they use one photo or several photos?
• Flip back through your album and see if you can find any patterns in your own work. Do you use a lot of the same company’s products? Do you have a signature technique, such as sanding or inking?

It’s OK if your style keeps evolving. Although I started off a very clean and simple scrapbooker, I’ve lately been interested in making pages with more detail and a slightly artsy/grunge look. Think of scrapbooking as just one small part of your personal creative journey.

Scrapbooking, like fashion and home décor, tends to be an area where trends are constantly changing. First, magazines show us cutesy kids pages. Then, we see vintage artwork and lots of collage type images for books that look like family heirlooms. The tide turns back to clean and simple scrapbooking with an emphasis on graphic-design inspired layouts before Basic Grey introduces the paper crafting world to grunge appeal. What’s a scrapbook enthusiast to do? Keeping up with all these trends can be exhausting!

For me, I’ve personally given up on scrapbooking trends. Even though I scrapbook regularly and edit a scrapbooking Web site, I don’t have time to keep up with every product development. So, I stick to the stuff I like and try not to worry about what everyone else is including in their albums. It’s helpful to remember that unless your family and friends are also obsessive scrapbookers, they probably don’t keep up with trends in the industry either. For them, the photos and journaling will always be the most important part of your layouts. Use the products you love, tell the story of your life, and try not to worry what anyone else thinks!

It’s a proven fact: scrapbookers love to shop. Unfortunately, keeping all of those supplies organized so you can actually find what you need can be a challenging task. Here are my top 3 organizational tips, based on personal experience and expert interviews I’ve conducted through my work as the LoveToKnow Scrapbooking editor:

1. Pick up your supplies after you’re finished with a layout. Getting in the habit of cleaning up after yourself on a regular basis is the easiest way to stay organized.
2. Before you go shopping for supplies, spend some time looking at your current stash to determine what you really need. This will cut down on duplicate items and unnecessary impulse purchases.
3. Be realistic about your organizational system. If you know you’re a bit of a slob, you probably won’t be able to stick with a system that involves sorting paper by size, color, manufacturer, and product line. Keep it simple and you’ll be more likely to remember to put everything in its place.

If you’re not a professional writer, scrapbook journaling can seem like a bit of a chore. However, it’s important not to totally skip over this part of the process.

At the bare minimum, you’ll want to include the following info on your pages:

• Who is in the photos on your page? (Try to include full names of people outside your immediate family, since your memory might fade in the future!)
• What are they doing?
• When were the photos taken?
• Where were you when the photos were taken?
• Why did you choose to include this particular layout in your scrapbook album?
• How would you describe your thoughts and feelings about this particular event?

Pre-made scrapbook journaling aids, such as chipboard titles, vellum quote stacks, and die cut words and phrases, can make it easier to start journaling on your pages. You may also want to get in the habit of carrying a small notebook in your purse so you can jot down notes when you’re taking pictures or happen to think of a funny memory you’d like to include in your scrapbook.

Typography can be a great page embellishment for the frugal scrapbooker. There are so many different free fonts available online that can use a new font on every page in your album without getting bored.

You can find free fonts for scrapbooking online at:

• http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/freefonts.asp
• http://www.smackbomb.com/famousfonts
• http://www.dafont.com
• http://www.fontfreak.com

A few tips to keep in mind when choosing fonts for your scrapbooking layouts.

• Script fonts are a great title treatment, but they can be hard to read in large journaling blocks. Try to choose a simple serif font along the lines of Times New Roman for extensive journaling.
• Contrast is key when mixing and matching fonts in your project. The typefaces you choose should be visibly different from each other so it doesn’t look like you simply made a mistake typing.
• Free fonts are fun to use, but more isn’t always better. In most cases, you should keep it to three fonts or less per scrapbooking layout.
• Dingbats make great decorative accents. Print a large character on a tag and tie a ribbon bow to the top for a cheap page embellishment.

Since it’s the season for graduations, weddings, and baby showers, you probably have lots of presents to come up with in the next few months. Luckily, you don’t need to settle for ordinary trinkets purchased from your local mall. Simply go through your scrapbook supply stash and create a handmade gift that shows just how much you care!

Some gift ideas for the hard-to-buy for people on your list:

• Mini theme scrapbooks
• A book of your favorite recipes, decorated with an attractive cover
• Wall art made from colorful scraps of pretty patterned papers
• A candle holder decorated with floral rub ons
• A mirror accented with a special rub on quote
• Altered composition books
• Personalized stamped stationary
• Decorated marble coasters
• Altered letters to spell out a name or favorite saying
• A decorated desk set, including a pencil holder, calendar and magazine rack
• A scrapbook starter gift (if you think the recipient might enjoy scrapbooking!)

Like many moms, my favorite scrapbook subject is my son. However, I still try to include myself in my albums from time to time. Since part of the reason I scrapbook is to preserve my family’s history, I think it’s important to have pages that reflect me outside of my role as “Logan’s Mommy.”

Here are a few journaling prompts to get you started on your own “All About Me” scrapbook:

• How did you get your name?
• What are your religious, political, and social beliefs? How did you develop these beliefs? In what ways have they influenced your life?
• What do you value? Honesty? Education? Family? Friendship? How do these values influence your life?
• What would you most like to change?
• How did your upbringing influence the person you are today?
• In what ways are you similar to your parents and other family members? In what ways are you different?
• Who is your hero and why? Has it changed over the years?
• What is your motto?
• What are your greatest accomplishments?
• Why do you scrapbook? What other activities do you enjoy?
• What are your favorite and least favorite things?
• What did you want to be when you grew up? How did you choose the career you have now?
• What do you like the most about yourself? How would your friends and family describe you? How would you describe yourself?
• What was the best piece of advice you ever received?
• How is your life different than you thought it would be?

In my opinion, one of the best things about scrapbooking is that the process of creating an album encourages you to explore other creative interests. Since I’ve started scrapbooking in 2002, I’ve branched out to exploring projects in card making, rubber stamping, altered art, beading, and jewelry making. One of these days, I hope to learn to knit as well!

Here are a few ways you can challenge yourself creatively as you’re scrapbooking:

• Add crocheted trim to an embellishment tag.
• Use digital design skills to create fun photo effects for your layout.
• Make a beaded bracelet to use as a dimensional accent for your page.
• Write a poem to use in your journaling.
• Sculpt your own embellishments from modeling clay.
• Sew a decorative border and a few buttons on your page.
• Hand paint watercolor paper to use as a background.
• Doodle a fun frame around your favorite photo.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m afraid my photography skills are nothing exceptional. While I do occasionally manage to get photos I love, I have a lot of images that are personally meaningful but lack the “pizzazz” needed for a great scrapbook layout.

A few tricks I’ve found to make ordinary photos seem more appealing:

• Experiment with the various filters available in Photoshop Elements and other image editing software.
• Have photos developed in sepia tones to create a warm, vintage feel for your pages.
• If the bright colors in a photo are distracting, consider having the photo reprinted in black and white.
• Create an interesting image by cutting a photo into strips and piercing it back together, leaving thin margins between the strips.
• Create a photo mosaic by cutting the photo into a random pattern and piercing it back together in the same manner.
• Accent photos by adhering letter stickers directly to the prints to create simple photo captions.
• If you love the look of torn photos but hesitate at the thought of tearing your prints, tear a hole in your background paper and mount the photo behind the hole. Use patterned paper or cardstock with a white core to mimic the photo paper. Fold or curl the torn edges, then chalk them for added texture.
• Print a photo on canvas or textured cardstock to lend a “portrait” quality to an informal snapshot.

I must admit that I am one of those people who tends not to include a whole lot of photos on my scrapbook layouts. My albums have several layouts with only two or three pictures, as well as a number of one photo layouts.

In my opinion, there are several advantages to not stuffing my scrapbook albums full of pictures.

• I hate to crop photos.
• When my photos are printed small, I can’t see the important details.
• Gluing 10-15 pictures on a page drives me crazy because I can never get anything to line up correctly.
• A lot of my pictures really aren’t that great. Until my photography skills improve, I scrapbook what I love and leave the rest safely store away on my computer.
• I’m a scrapbook supply junkie. For me, scrapbooking is as much about having a creative outlet as it is about preserving my family’s memories. So, layouts with one or two photos give me much more room to play with pretty papers and embellishments!