Hello Everyone,
Today I wanted to talk a little about the basics of scrapbooking. A “How To Scrapbook” sort of thing. I have been scrapbooking for over 20 years. I’ve tried a lot of products, made plenty of what I consider errors, and learned quite a bit about what seems to work well. When I find something isn’t working for me I adapt and change it up to make it more efficient. You will find as you get started that what works for one person doesn’t work for you. So, this post is about what I find works for me and why.
If you have never scrapbooked before it can be overwhelming to say the least! You are probably thinking, where do I start, there are so many photos, do I scrapbook chronologically or by event… The list goes on. Whatever your struggle is we can work with it and come up with a solution. If you would like to have one on one help please email me (wildflowerscrapbooking@outlook.com) and I will set up a time to meet with you in person or virtually (social distancing guidelines and all).
Scrapbook Theme / Type
There are so many! I could go on with this topic for a long time. For the purposes of this post I will keep it simple. There are a few general types I'd like to go over today.
Chronological – Starting in January and ending in December. Depending on how many photos you include it can end up as 1-4 albums for the year. I do take excessive pictures since I love photography, but I don’t know that everyone ends up with more than one album in a year. I like to include most of my photos. Not just the ones that are special, so my yearly set of albums is almost always two or more.
Event – You can choose to make a scrapbook for a specific event. Weddings, Baby Showers, Birthdays, Holidays, you name it. Event scrapbooks are focused on just that specific event or string of events. I used to have a special album for Christmas only. I would include some pictures in the yearly albums but then I would create a specific album just for Christmas over the years. As you flip through it you can see each Christmas and how the kids had grown, etc. I don’t do that any longer now that the kids are older, but it was a fun way to see all the Christmas memories in one spot.
Travel – With this type of scrapbook you document one journey or multiple journeys in a scrapbook and it’s a fun one to keep out on the coffee table. It’s a great conversation starter when you have guests over.
For Children – Some people like to make specific albums for their children. They print photos for all their kids and then put them in scrapbooks for each child. The concept with this is that generally when they move out they get their scrapbooks to take with them. When they are missing home they can pull them out and be a little less homesick. It may even induce them to call a bit more *wink, wink*.
Gift – A gift for someone. If you want to give someone a special scrapbook you would think of what you want the theme to be and go with it. I have created albums for people who have just had a baby so they can just put in two photos each month for the year, little encouragement albums (no photos), albums that highlight them and what they love, etc. These are so fun to make and generally because you aren’t using a bunch of photos, but using the best of them, they don’t take long to complete.
In the end whatever type of scrapbook you want to work on, you will likely need photos which brings me to the next topic.
Photos
When you know what type of scrapbook you want to do the next step is printing photos. There are so many ways to do this. I personally use SnapFish. I have always had wonderful customer service and only one order in 15 years was damaged, which they replaced in full at no charge and I got to keep the original order – kids loved having the pics, they didn’t care they had a yellow tint. I used to get matte finish; however they have changed how or what they use to print their photos over the years and I now only get glossy. The matte finish can make the pictures look a little blurry in my opinion. You also want to uncheck the color correction box before you upload your photos. This can change the color drastically from what you see on the computer and I don’t recommend checking that box. SnapFish has options to pick up your order from a local store for a slightly higher fee or ship to home which I love. Watch out for deals and specials too! You can get free shipping, % off your order, etc. They are awesome about offering specials. If you decide to print your own photos please note they may not last as long. I have done some tests with high quality photo paper and inks, but in the end they have all faded fast and the commercial ones don’t. You can print every single photo you take. Leave the extras you won’t scrap for the kids or relatives, etc. or you can print only those photos you like the most. It really is up to you. I use my scrapbooks like a photo album. I print most photos and put quite a few on every page leaving a space to journal and put the date and sometimes a title. Then when I get to a special photo or group of photos I will showcase them with a pretty layout. Some people only scrapbook their favorite photos and every page is a showcase. Some put as many pics on a page that they can while still journaling and adding titles. It is all about you and what you want to achieve as well as what you like! You can change it, keep it the same, etc. They are yours and there really is no wrong way to do it. So, print out those photos and we’ll move on to the next step.
Okay! You have your photos! I have learned that when my photos come in it’s the best time to organize them for scrapbooking. If I don’t, then I end up having a harder time later. Since I just printed them the events are all a bit more fresh in my mind which makes organizing them a little easier. Since you have already picked a theme this should be pretty quick. Regardless of the theme you are likely going to scrapbook from start to end. Getting your photos in that order will be helpful. If you are scrapbooking chronologically then you may want to use a divider (scrap paper) between dates/months, etc. I take all the photos that come in (I generally print 1000 at a time) and get them in order by month. Once I have them in order by month I sit down with a blank 12x12 sheet of paper and start deciding which ones will be scrapped and which ones don’t make the cut. At this point you do want to think of what size your album will be. I use 12x12 for most of my albums. I have an 8.5x11 for high school and a few smaller fun ones that are 8x8 and 4x6 (photos are cut down quite a bit in the 4x6 album). My daughter scrapbooks with 8x8 or 8.5x11. Once I sit down with my blank paper I will lay out photos on the page to see what I have and what I want to scrap. I decide which ones get their own pages for a showcase, which ones will be on pages where there is no background showing, and which ones are going to get a small space for scrapbook fun. You can cut and crop pictures to get more on the pages if you want and getting rid of negative space on photos is visually appealing. As you figure out which photos you want on each page put a divider (scrap paper) in-between. Add notes to it if you want, like the date or something you don’t want to forget later when you scrapbook it. Even notes about how you want to lay it out on the page can be put down. All of these things make it easier when you sit down to scrapbook. You might be wondering why I add this step. I do it because over the years I found that if I go to a crop or scrapbook anywhere other than home I have photos that are ready and I don’t have to spend time trying to figure out what the dates are. I already know because of my notes and organization. If that doesn’t matter to you this whole step can be skipped. I used to get photos printed and started scrapping away. I found that they don’t always send the photos in order and sometimes there was a random print in the complete wrong place. This organization avoided any issues like that and made scrapping away from home easier for me. When I am talking with my friends it would take me longer to figure out what I wanted on a page because I couldn’t focus completely on it. I was enjoying my conversation too much to pay complete attention to my page. Lol!
Tip for Scrapbook Crops: Not only put the photos in order with notes, but add the background paper and even accent paper to an empty page protector. You can then put your photos in order from start to finish of the album and you already have your paper picked out. If you use Cricut for titles or any other title making process you can add your titles to the page protector too. When you get to your crop you only have to pull out the contents for each side of the protector and add all the little touches like embellishments, journaling, etc and glue it all down. Once you have it all organized or not if you are skipping this step we move on to supplies.
Oh there are so many gidgets and gadgets you can purchase for scrapbooking. I think it’s what drew me to it in the first place. You can stamp, stitch, paint, you name it. I personally only work with mediums in my scrapbook that I can complete without waiting for anything to dry and don’t add much dimension. When you store a scrapbook and you have a bead or other item poking out it can indent the pages on either side like finding a rock in the middle of a dictionary. I just don’t like it. I want archival safe pages and if they are bent or indented it damages my photos in my opinion. Even with a binder style scrapbook that sits upright your pages can become indented with protruding items. You can judge for yourself how much you want your pages to stick out. It really is a personal preference for each of us. I wont be talking about every type of supply you can have. In future posts I may highlight some of the extras, but today I want to go over the simple and basic of supplies.
Album & Page Protectors – There are different types. Strap Hinge, Post Bound, Binder Style, Spiral, Book Style, Handmade Binding, and more. I use two types. Binder style from Close To My Heart are the best! They are very sturdy, hold lots of pages and they last. This brand and style is the one I use for almost everything other than gift albums as I don’t normally do a huge album for a gift. The other type I randomly use is the strap hinge style. It isn’t for everyone and I use it for only specific events. You can use post bound and if you do, Close To My Heart is definitely the brand to go with. I have used many, many others and though I don’t like dealing with the posts and the binding on them if I did I would only use CTMH ones. They have a single long post with an option to get an extended post and they are built to last. Any of the ones I have purchased before were not the same quality and the one decent brand you used to be able to get at the box retail stores is no longer available. I don’t recommend box retailer for any brand. WeRMemory Keeper Binder Style is a decent one, but I can no longer find them in retail stores and online they are the same price as the CTMH ones so I go with CTMH since the quality is better. Close To My Heart also has a 90 day guarantee against defects! Make sure to get page protectors that work with the album you pick. You don’t want to find out that the pages stick out or not to fit inside the album.
Paper Trimmer – Fiskars is a great brand. Close To My Heart sells a few of the Fiskars brand trimmers and replacement blades. I like a trimmer I can use for everything. I go through blades faster than maybe the average person because my photos and paper are all being cut by the same trimmer. You can get a specific photo trimmer and it my save your paper trimmer blade. I do have one and there are times I will pull it out. I also let my daughter use it. I have tried a few other brand paper trimmers and they just don’t seem to perform as well.
Scissors – A good pair of non-stick precision point scissors is a must. You will find you pull them out for random things and if you are a stamper you will want them to fussy cut around your stamped images.
Adhesive – This comes down to safety for your photos and personal preference. If you want archival you would need to use plastic photo corners for your pictures so no adhesive gets on them and you can remove photos easily if necessary. I actually use the Close To My Heart Runner Adhesives. They are Acid Free, PAT Tested, & Photo Safe. If I need to stick something like ribbon or another medium that isn’t paper I will use Glue Dots in the smallest size I can. I never use glue that needs to sit overnight. I don’t like to have to wait to put the pages in their protectors. I don’t want pages sitting around the house to dry on surfaces either. We have kids, cats and a dog. Not the greatest combo for keeping pages safe on surfaces to dry. I have used the dual tip permanent glue for small words or titles that the runners would make a mess of.
Paper – Oh the paper! Solid cardstock, patterned, vellum, there are many styles and types to choose from. I like to have a variety. It is nice when a patterned paper pack has a coordinating cardstock to make color matching easy. Whatever you choose you do want to be sure you have a main piece of paper the size of your album. The main piece becomes the one all the others are adhered to. You can start with plain cardstock and build off that or you can start with patterned paper and go from there. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Find paper you like and go from there. The best types are Acid Free, Lignin Free, and Buffered. Close To My Heart Paper has these qualities.
Acid Free - Acid content in a paper is the best indicator of its life expectancy. Acid free means that the paper’s pH is 7.0 (neutral) or higher (alkaline). Acid free papers will last up to 200 years under normal use and storage conditions.
Lignin Free - Lignin is a naturally occurring acid that is often present in the wood pulp slurry used to create the paper. The yellowing and brittleness of old papers is due to lignin and other residual acids becoming “activated” by humidity and temperature in a process that often ends up destroying the paper itself.
Buffered - Buffered paper products have an alkaline reserve, or buffering agent, added during production to alter the pH. Buffering protects the photos against migrating acids from other items on the page.
Pens – The best pens to use would be pigment pens. Close To My Heart has them as well as some other brands. Pigment pens use ink that is fade resistant and won’t disappear as quickly as others. They can also be used with water based paint if you are using water brushes for any of your scrapbooking layouts.
There you have it. To recap the basics are:
· Scissors
· Adhesive
· Paper
· Pens
You can find all these things and more at my website. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you!