Lots Of Things You Need To Know If You Are A Beginner In Scrap Booking

Holding on to memories and saving them in a tangible way is something most people are wont to do because it is an indigenous part of our human makeup. One of the best ways to save those memories and protect them from damage and aging from exposure over the years is to take photos and save them in a scrapbook that will retell the story over and over again. If you have never done this, then a short course on beginner scrap booking is just the thing for you.

The first step in getting your photos and snippets of memories in order is to break them down in a chronological order; starting with decades and then years; or you could start with a certain theme and put everything relating to that theme in the same spot; or certain individuals go together; or maybe an occasion that you are highlighting—-put all the photos and memorabilia that go with that occasion together in a pile so you have them at your finger tips to work with easily. Now you have the ability to create and tell a story with all the bits of info you have, and you can let that info lead the way and tell the story; you just make it look good on the page by arranging it in a way that looks good to you.

Before you start a scrapbook page, have an overall image in mind of what that page will look like when you are through with it. Think of what photos you want to group together and what you want to write on the page to add a little emotion to it and give life to the story you are telling on the page. Choose a central photo as your focal point and work around it. This way you will have a central theme and a central “looking point” on the page and every photo or snippet of verse or whatever you want to write yourself that you place on the page, will complement that central focus photo and give the page continuity and flow.

One of the hardest parts of being a beginner in scrap booking, is to work with colors. Colors should be chosen to complement the colors that already exist in the photos without overwhelming them and drowning out the visual effect of the photo itself. Don’t use too many colors because then you have a “noisy” page and the overall effect is to drown out the impact of the central photo and the emotion it could convey. In this case, less is more; and the more focused you can keep your color palette, the more positive the end results will be.

Another thing that is good to get a handle on when you are just starting out and still consider yourself a beginner in scrap booking; is the art of matting and that of cropping photos. Matting is nothing more than using contrasting colored paper or some other material (cloth, foil) to make a background to mount your photos on, and make them seem more crisp and clear, and stand away from the paper they are mounted on. A photo just glued down to the scrapbook page seems dull and lifeless, but when you put a mat behind it that accentuates one of the colors in the photo (even black or white); then suddenly that photo has life and seems to jump out at you from the page. That’s the idea; make it talk. Then there is the art of cropping; or drawing out the main features of the photo and getting rid of the unneeded background that only takes up space and detracts from the main characters in the photo. For example, you have taken a shot of Susie at the beach building a sand castle; and in the background are all these blurred tourists strolling along the surf line. The strollers are superfluous to the main focal point which is Susie and the castle, so get rid of them by cutting them away, or cropping them out of the picture; just be careful not to cut away too many details—-you still want viewers of the shot to see that Susie is at the beach and not in the backyard.

A major factor in getting started with scrap booking, is to have the necessary supplies and equipment on hand so that you can do the job well. You will need for basics, an acid free album and a supply of album refills; acid free printed papers; straight cut scissors and some glue; black ink pens, for journaling in the scrap book and adding notes to the finished pages, and card stock. As a beginner in scrap booking, you can get away with the minimum in supplies for a while; but eventually, as you become more proficient at it, you will want to branch out and go a little wild and crazy and let your creativity flow. You can amass gold and silver pens or copper ones for accentuating pages and adding notes; or get fancy, glittery papers for matting; or colored glitter, sequins—-embossed papers and all kinds of rubber stamps to add cute effects—-there’s no end to the fun, color, and excitement you can create for your memory pages.

There’s nothing stopping you from becoming a beginner in scrap booking except your own feelings of insecurity—–but take another look at those piles of photos just crying out to be put on display for all to see and enjoy, and a few more years down the road, if you don’t get busy and start putting them into a scrapbook, you will be kicking yourself for not getting on the ball and doing it. Putting together a scrapbook is nothing but pure fun; and if you follow the guidelines and your own little flow of creativity, you can pull it off and create a storytelling means that will impress your family and friends and make you quite satisfied with a job well done.