Scrapbooking for Beginners

Scrapbooking is not a new invention or discovery, precursors of today’s scrapbooks already existed and being used during the 15^th century. “Commonplace Books” as it is earlier called is used to compile diverse information that includes quotes, poems, letters, recipes, and a variety of other things.

Another early form of scrapbook is “Friendship Albums” and became popular during the 16^th century. These albums would normally contain names, messages, and poetry of patrons and friends of the owner and closely resembles our yearbooks today. These may also include souvenirs and local memorabilia’s of places visited or works of artisans they commissioned during visits to other countries.

Although scrapbooking is generally associated with girls, it is also popular with boys though it largely differs in terms of contents and design. Girls are naturally gifted with exceptional creativity and talent for hand-crafted creations.

The invention of photography in the 18^th century is a major breakthrough in scrapbooking. Photographs became incorporated in scrapbooks as well as newspaper clippings.

For Beginners, scrapbooking may seem so overwhelming and exciting. Beginners usually have many ideas but don’t know where to start. First thing to do is to know of the basic scrapbook elements. These basic elements essentially build the scrapbook.

1. Photo. Photos are generally the essence of the layout of scrapbooks. Most scrapbooks usually used pictures as main subject and center of scrapbook layout.
2. Title. Title can be a famous saying, name, or quotes that summarize the content of the scrapbook and give the reader an idea what the scrapbook contains. There are many ways to present or write the title; the most important thing is that title should catch the attention of the reader.
3. Journaling. Journaling is the term used to the text or that explains or describes the photo and expands the theme of the scrapbook. These writing may vary from names and dates, captions, quotes, song lyrics, poetry, and basic information.
4. Embellishment. Decorative add-ups and accents used in the scrapbooks are called Embellishments. These are used to support and dress up the pages of the scrapbooks and can be some of the following; ribbons, buttons, beads, stickers, brads, eyelets, and many other enhancements.
5. Mat. Mats are layers of patterned papers, paints, cardstocks, cloth and other decorative materials that are placed underneath photos. These serve as decorative borders and add an effect on the photos.
6. Anchor. Anchors are decorative elements that attract attention of the readers to the photos. Anchors also act as photo corners where photos are affixed for easy removal when updating or changing layouts. Embellishments can function as anchors.
7. Border. Borders are accents placed along the outskirts of the layout. They add visual impacts and promote visual interest in support to the main contents of the scrapbook’s pages. You can use a variety of materials in borders like metal, tags, fabric, papers, and a lot more.

These elements are the basics of scrapbooking, although these elements may not be always present in a scrapbook altogether. Combinations of these elements are up to your desired layout.

Now that you know the basics and starting to create scrapbooks, here are some useful tips in scrapbooking. These tips are generally helpful for beginners.

1. Learn from others. Try looking and observing other’s scrapbook. It can give you ideas you can also use and incorporate in your design and layout. You can also learn some insights from their mistakes.
2. Be original. Although it is helpful to occasionally copy other’s ideas, modify it and imprint some of your own creativity on it.
3. Organize your ideas and photos. Sort your photos and ideas accordingly; it could be by chronological order, by importance, or by themes. Make sure similar and related photos are grouped together.
4. Use indigent materials. Aside that these materials are abundant and less costly, it can also provide a unique appeal and a peculiar look to your scrapbook.
5. Avoid over-propping. Beginners have too many creative ideas and the tendency to apply these ideas altogether instantly. This results to over-propping the scrapbook. Over-propped scrapbooks are definitely not good to look. It looks very crowded, chaotic, and untidy. Select just few ideas to exploit per scrapbook.

Why Scrapbooking is Fun

The concept of scrapbooking started out as a unique means of preserving and recording memories. Unlike a photo album, a scrapbook is much more substantive because it can be creatively done by placing decorated albums of family or personal pictures. However, photos are just a part of a scrapbook since integration of comments, memorable souvenirs and other small memorabilia such as letters, wedding tokens and baby stuffs in accordance to the photos are placed to enrich the memories and create a much richer artistic impact. A photo album, on the other hand, is just a mere sequential listing of photographs and nothing more.

Prior to the influx of advanced digital media and scanners, the traditional and hard copy scrapbooking existed in the vogue way back the 15^th century where paper is considered an economical commodity. During this time, the majority of the people simply used scrapbooks to write poems, letters, quotes and recipes. Despite the rising cost of pictures, this fad continuously flourished as time went on with the substitution of pictures with handwritten messages from friends and loved ones. Friendship albums turned out to be a popular gift by the 16^th century, similar to our modern-day diaries were a pal can leave a small note or little scribbles upon request of the scrapbook owner. As time moved in by the 18^th and 19^th century, scrapbooks were considered a cherished method for creatively inclined individuals to store visual reminiscences. School scrapbooks were commenced and many schools and college students started using it for documentation of their personalized experiences. It was only during the 21^st century that modern scrapbooking was introduced and the invention of photography and the easy accessibility of cameras paved way for a huge cost reduction in taking photographs. And due to its affordability even to an average person, ingenious scrapbooking took an exponential jump forward.

With the Internet, the development from the original, paper-based method of scrapbooking to the electronically-based digital scrapbooking format was a foreseeable step in the evolution of this craft both to the veterans of this art and to those who are new to this wildly creative pastime. Digital scrapbooking has come out as an incredibly admired occurrence given the endless possibilities of a huge range of online scrapbooking concepts and crafts ubiquitously available on the Internet— no wonder creation of a digital scrapbook of professional quality is within everyone’s reach.

Digital scrapbooking was much sluggish before when the Internet was in its snail’s pace. Its process was more complicated too when it initially hit the market. However, this is not anymore the case, since there is already an improved Internet connection and there is an overabundance of scrapbooking sites available to readily download ideas, tools and other fun embellishments to make your scrapbook one of its kind.

It is never difficult to achieve an enjoyable and fulfilling scrapbook. First, you can decide on a theme or a special event that interests you. It can be broad one like Wedding, Baptism, Christmas, Birthdays and Anniversaries. Or you may want to be more specific such as Grandmother’s 80^th Birthday, Abigail’s Farewell Party, Mary learns how to walk, Peter’s first Christmas in Australia, or John and Beth’s 20 years of happy marriage. Then, you can organize and sort out the photos needed. Lastly, you can decorate, select some embellishments, and pick out main color for your background as well as the accent colors considering the event or theme. If the event in the pictures is focusing on girls, you might take into account the color pink or light pink. As for the layout, this task will greatly test your creativity skills. Arrange the pictures in such a way that it will appear beautifully. You can pile them randomly, and in any way you want. Then place the bigger trappings first while the smaller ones last making sure that there is still space for a few journal, enough to tell the person looking at the scrapbook the story behind the pictures. Making use of descriptive words can help give life to your pictures.

There are many things that will motivate you to start scrapbooking such as having an intense desire to preserve and recall your past long after you have forgotten them, augment your present and reveal your own life story with photos and words to prompt hope for forthcoming generations. There is no right or wrong way in doing a scrapbook, as this is your way of expressing yourself. And for as long as you are willing to put time and effort, then your scrapbook will turn out to be beautifully crafted.