Scrapbook My Life

While a paper trimmer works great for cropping photos and cutting chunks of patterned paper, every scrapbooker needs a quality pair of scissors at her disposal. Scissors are very important for detail work. Without a sharp pair of scissors, creating a great layout is next to impossible.

I’ve tried many different types of scissors over the years, but my personal favorite is still the yellow Cutterbees from EK Success. For less than $10, they’re an absolute must-have. Just be careful not to accidentally poke yourself with the blade—they really are quite sharp!

Here’s another helpful scissor tip: if adhesive residue gums up your scissor blades, keep individually wrapped rubbing alcohol preps at your work area and wipe down the blades when they start to get sticky. The preps remove the gummy adhesive, and any remaining alcohol on the blades evaporates quickly as well.

Can’t find the perfect background paper for your scrapbook layout? Try one of these fun ideas:

• Use rubber stamps and Versamark ink to create a custom watermarked background for your layout.
• Paint your own background on cardstock using chalks, watercolors, acrylic paint, or walnut ink. Use it to simply alter the look of existing cardstock or patterned paper or be unique and paint your own abstract design!
• Create a simple geometric background by layering circles or squares of different sizes and colors over your cardstock.
• Scan or color copy a piece of pretty piece of fabric and print your own custom patterned paper.
• Repeat simple journaling such as names and dates across cardstock for a unique and meaningful text background. Experiment with different fonts and ink colors for a variety of looks.
• Love the look of texture in your background cardstock? Create a grid by folding your paper and letting the creases add texture & dimension to your layout. Press down on the new creases for definition and add chalk or ink to enhance out the look.
• Cover your page in photos cropped with a small square punch to create a unique title page for your album.

Stamping can be a great way to add frugal embellishments to your scrapbook layout. Invest in a set of alphabet stamps and some general floral or geometric designs to create an endless amount of looks for your scrapbooking projects.

Unfortunately, the technique of scrapbooking and rubber stamping does require a bit of practice. Stamping directly on your layout can be a nerve wracking experience. For this reason, I still prefer to stamp on a separate piece of cardstock, then glue it to my sheet. Then, if I make a mistake, I haven’t destroyed the entire project.

However, if you would like to include stamping on a layout but aren’t sure of the proper placement, apply chalk to the stamp and stamp where you’d like your image to appear. If you like what you see, use your regular inkpads. If not, just erase the image and start over!

As someone with one son and no daughters, I must admit I used to be incredibly annoyed by the lack of cute scrapbook supplies with masculine themes. While glittery butterflies, pastel flowers, and cute pink ribbon bows are easy to find, searching for papers and embellishments to complete a boy’s scrapbook can be a much more challenging task.

Here are a few tips I’ve used when making pages for my son:

• Rough up your plain cardstock by inking the edges with brown charcoal ink.
• Try sanding white cord cardstock for a distressed look.
• Alter the colors of digital scrapbooking supplies in your favorite image editing software to make a feminine kit look more appropriate for your boy’s album.
• Look for companies such as Basic Grey that make scrapbook supplies that aren’t overly frilly and fussy.

If you’re dying to try some of the more feminine scrapbooking trends, such as floral embellishments, add them to your pages in a more gender neutral way. For example, a single dark brown felt flower is perfectly acceptable on a layout of your son playing in his sandbox on a bright spring day. However, a big bouquet of pink silk flowers could definitely be considered overkill.

In scrapbooking, rules are made to be broken. Part of the fun of creating a special book to document your personal history is that your work is totally unique. Your scrapbook should be an expression of your thoughts, feelings, and talents – not a carbon copy of some idea that happens to be trendy at the moment.

Novice scrapbookers are often under the impression that there are certain guidelines one must follow to make a layout. I’ve heard people say you can’t mix one and two page layouts in the same album, that every page must have both a title and journaling, and that all of your photos must be matted. This is completely not true. There are many different ways to scrapbook. If you love a fresh and contemporary look, you can make graphic designed inspired pages that look like hip advertisements. However, if you prefer vintage charm, there are plenty of options for old-fashioned pages as well. The only “right” way to scrapbook is to do what makes you happy!

Setting eyelets into your layout is a great way to relieve stress, but you may want to consider investing in a few brads if you’re sick of all that hammering! Brads are available in almost every color under the sun, including patterned and shaped options that work well for seasonal or themed layouts.

Brads are easy to use, even if you’re new to scrapbooking. Simply poke a hole in your page and bend the prongs on the brad pack. Making a slit with a craft knife first is a great idea, especially when going through more than one layer.

To keep brads from moving and having the clasp on the back shift into view or poke through the side of your page protector, place a photo split on top of the clasp to hold it in place. Just don’t forget to leave the backing on, so the back of your page won’t be sticky.

If you want to use brads on your layout but don’t want to put holes in your page, bend the tips back and forth until they snap off. (You shouldn’t need wire cutters for this.) Attach the brad to your page with a small glue dot.

Although photo corners were created as a way to attach a picture to your scrapbook layout without using a glue stick or some other form of permanent adhesive, they also work well as a subtle page embellishment. Here are a few ideas to consider:

• A date stamped on a strip of vellum provides a fun and functional photo corner.
• Fashion custom photo corners by stitching buttons to cardstock triangles.
• Create the illusion of photo corners by attaching clusters of three eyelets or brads to opposite corners of a photo mat.
• String beads on a length of wire and wrap around a special photo.
• Dangle charms from a small safety pin to create a cute corner for a baby-themed page.
• Using small stickers, punches, or die cuts to decorate a pre-made photo corner is an easy way to reinforce the theme of a page.
• Dried flowers woven through a strip of mesh provide a natural accent for outdoor photos.
• Trim scraps of printed paper with decorative scissors and adhere to the tops of pre-made photo corners.
• Heritage photos look elegant with photo corners wrapped in antique lace.

If you’re new to the world of scrapbooking, you’ll need to decide what size of layouts you want to start making.

The 12×12 size is the most common format in the scrapbooking world. Papers and embellishments are widely available and it’s easy to find albums to fit almost any design preference. However, 8 ½ x 11 scrapbooks tend to be cheaper to create because you’re using fewer supplies and it’s easier to incorporate digital scrapbook kit elements and free scrapbook printables into your designs. If you don’t mind a bit of cutting time, you can even use 12×12 papers in your 8 ½ x 11 pages.

Personally, I scrapbook in the 12×12 size almost exclusively. I hate cutting and trimming my papers, so I prefer to simply work with papers that are widely available at my local craft store. I also enjoy the freedom of having a larger “canvas” on which to create my page. But, if I needed to start over, I would be seriously considering the 8 ½ x 11 scrapbook method just because the albums are much easier to store. After six years of scrapbooking, my collection of finished books takes up quite a bit of space. They’re family treasures, but still quite a pain to move!

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.

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.