The Basics of Scrapbooking

My aunt and mother-in-law made a beautiful scrapbook for my husband and me last year to celebrate our wedding. The scrapbook contained pages for pre-wedding events, the actual wedding, reception, father/daughter dance, the toasting, and other related themes that tie in with weddings. Each page was detailed, coordinated, and professionally done. Recently, my husband and I decided to try and conceive to begin our little family. One of the first projects, other than creating a very early baby registry, was making a baby scrapbook. At first, I was completely lost, because I have never made a scrapbook before and the options are overwhelming. Every time I tried to do research online, the only information I could find was examples of other people's scrapbooks and sites that sell scrapbook-related items. Being the determined future mother-to-be I am, I took it upon myself to make a scrapbook, gain that experience, and write an article to provide prospective 'scrap bookers' ideas on how to begin their projects and eventually complete a beautiful book in which to store memories and mementos from life of your choosing.

The first thing that must be done is choosing a theme. Do you want to make a scrapbook dedicated to your beloved pet? Maybe it's a baby-themed book that you want to give a mother-to-be for her baby shower. Whatever theme you decide on, write down sub-divisions for these themes. What kind of pages do you want to have within your scrapbook? If, for example, you want to make a scrapbook on your dog, these are a few sub-divisions you could consider: you can make a page dedicated to the first day your dog friend came home. Or you can make a few pages where you want to put pictures of you playing with your dog in the summer, or pages to include pictures of your dog dressed in winter clothes during December. There are many sub-divisions you can consider. For my baby scrapbook, some of the sub-themes I included were bath time, baby's first Christmas/Halloween, welcome home pages, expecting mother pages...where I could include pictures of me being pregnant and results of the sonogram. Make a pretty good sized list of sub-themes for your major theme. The list should give you an idea of how many pages your scrapbook is going to be.

When you're done making your list, find scrap booking stores in your area. In San Antonio, I found Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart very satisfying. Wal-Mart doesn't have a huge selection, but the few things they have are well-priced and great for starters. I found great little scrapbook kits at Wal-Mart that catered to different themes such as travel, baby (boy, girl, or neutral), and many others. Hobby Lobby was excellent to visit for scrap booking because they have three-four aisles dedicated to it. Like I mentioned earlier, the options can be overwhelming to a beginning scrapbook artist. Once you have found a few places that you plan on visiting, there are a few things that are necessary. First, choose a scrap booking binder. A twelve by twelve is a great choice because there are many page color options available for that size, and there are more twelve by twelve binder designs to choose from. The binders should have plastic page holders within them. If there are twenty empty page plastic holders, that means that your scrapbook will retain forty pages, since each plastic holder will retain two pages, back to back.

After you choose your perfect binder, it's time to choose the pages. There are so many themes and colors available. Choose colors and designs that will complement your scrapbook theme. For my baby scrapbook, I chose neutral baby colors and patterns since I don't know the sex There was a neutral baby color/pattern kit at Wal-Mart that I was very pleased with which included colors such as green, white, yellow, and coordinated designs that included bubbles and stripes, just to name a few. Choose as many pages as your binder will allow, unless you plan on adding more plastic page holders to your binder. When you finishing choosing the paper, now you can move over to the fun part...the decorations! As far as decorations go, there are stickers, 3D items, decorative tags, brads, stamps...the options are limitless. I love using the mini-brads. They come in many colors and shapes, and add a pretty touch to your pages. To use them, you push the brad through the paper in the area you want to apply them to, turn the paper over, and secure the brads by separating the little flexible metal pieces in opposite directions. You can also buy ribbons to attach to page borders, or you can fashion little bows out of them to decorate the page. Stickers with letters on them are very useful. I find that scrapbook pages are more vibrant when these stickers are used. For example, if you are making a scrapbook where the theme is Travel, and one of the pages that you want to make is dedicated to your adventures in Germany, it would be visually appealing to have the words: Adventures in EUROPE across the page in decorative calligraphy stickers. Go through your list of sub-themes and choose stickers and other decorations accordingly. For my baby bath time page, I had a blue background with yellow 3D duck stickers, which came with cardboard bubbles. I also made a page for the baby's first zoo adventure; therefore, I added 3D zoo animals on a zebra stripe patterned page. Let your imagination go wild and have fun choosing the decorations.

To make your pages less cluttered, use cardstock in sizes that are usual for pictures. Cardstock is like construction paper which can be cut, or may already be cut, to glue on scrapbook pages. The pictures that you want to put on these pages will go on the cardstock. Choose colors that match your previous 12x12 pages. For my zoo page, since the background is zebra patterned, which is white with black, I cut three black cardstock in sizes 4X3, 4X6, and 5X7. You'll find different varieties and sizes of cardstock. Make sure you get enough for your pages. Get a little extra if necessary.

After the cardstock, get your supplies. There are scissors that cut in pretty designs, there's regular scissors, glue sticks, tacky glue...which is good for attaching ribbons to the pages. There are many supplies, but the most important are scissors and glue that says it's safe for acid-free projects. It's important to get everything you purchase to be "acid-free", because over time, the acid will deteriorate the pages and cause a big mess.
When assembling your scrapbook, put the pages in the order you would like them to appear but don't put them in the plastic holders yet. Begin with the first page, and with the first sub-topic on your theme list. Cut the cardstock for each page. If your page is designed with red, white, and pink stripes, you can use red, white or pink cardstock to place upon the page where the pictures are supposed to go. Decorate around the cardstock, remembering to always leave space for the pictures. After you finish the cardstock for each page, you may begin decorating.

Just to give you a few tips, remember to let the pages dry before you put them in the binder. Make sure the pages are in some kind of chronological order so that they don't seem garbled and confused. If you are going to attach tiny objects like baby buttons to a page, use glue that dries clear under and over the baby buttons to ensure that they won't fall off at a later time. This is going to take a little longer to dry, but the end result is worth it. Also, try not use markers to write on the page unless you have good handwriting. This could cause the pages to look very messy. If that's the effect you're trying to create, or if you have included areas on the cardstock that require writing, then go for it. If you do choose to write on the page, make sure the markers are acid-free.

Once the pages are dry, completed, and in a good order, begin putting them in the plastic page holder back to back. I have included a few pictures of the scrapbook I completed to give you an idea on how to decorate around the cardstock, and how to place the cardstock on the page. The end result will be absolutely beautiful, and something to be proud of. Hopefully, this guide has been a help to you, and encourages you to become more confident and excited in regards to your pending scrapbook project. Have fun and enjoy!