Beginners Guide to Scrapbooking: Layout Design

A fun and proper title along with coordinating embellishments tell the story of your photos. You will create the title based on the photos that will be used for your scrapbook layout. Colors and embellishments will also be chosen by looking at the photos to be used for the scrapbook layout.

How do I chose the colors and/or theme of my scrapbook?
The theme and colors of your scrapbook layout will be based on your photos. When choosing papers and embellishments take your photos with you to your local scrapbook store. Use the photos to coordinate colors and chose embellishments that enhance your pictures.

What type of embellishments can I use?
There are thousands of different products to chose from at your local scrapbook store. Here is a breakdown of the mosy widely available embellishments and what they are.

Diecuts - A flat cardstock that is a shaped or printed image.

Stickers - Stickers have evolved over the last few years into more than just a flat printed image. You can now find embossed, glittered, and 3-D stickers.

Rub-ons - A seamless "sticker" that is rubbed into place. The new technology in rub-on's makes them even easier to use than ever.

Brads - Shaped and colored paper fasteners that can be used as accents and/or to hold layers together.

Eyelets - Available in many shapes, colors, and sizes used as accents or to hold layers together. Requires special tools to set the eyelets into place.

Rubberstamps - Stamps can be used to decorate a layout or use stamps to create your title.

What are the different types of papers?
Cardstock - A medium-weight paper that is usually a solid color. Cardstock may also have a texture or sheen. Used for backgrounds, photo mats, journaling, and more.

Patterned Paper - A light-weight paper that has a pattern on one or both sides. Patterned papers, just like cardstock, are used for backgrounds and photo mats.

Mulberry - Mulberry is a fiberous paper that is used often for formal invitations. In scrapbooking Mulberry is most often used by lightly wetting the edge and pulling to create a feathered edge that looks great behind photos and titles.

Vellum - Vellum is a semi transparent paper that can be plain, patterned, or metallic. Do to it's transparent aspect vellum requires a special adhesive that does not show through.

So now that you know how to chose your colors and theme and what supplies to use we can move onto photo cropping.