4 Quick Scrapbooking Tips by Sharon Tulley

Scrapbooking can be a great way to share the memories of your family and friends by taking advantage of a creative medium and organizing them in a pleasing way. For many of us, the problem is getting organized in the first place!

A scrapbook is like a photo album on crack (or steroids, if you prefer to go with something less illegal. Or Red Bull, if less illicit). With a scrapbook, you’re not limited to photos; anything you have that you want to save and/or display, as long as it will fit reasonably, can be included. All of your favorite knicknacks, trinkets, and other memorabilia can make great additions to a scrapbook.

• You Need Help (Or Could Use Some) It might take hours to go through the items you want to include, but this can be one of the most fun parts of the process. You can make it even more fun if you manage to convince your significant other, spouse, parents or kids to help you.

• Theme It! The next step in scrapbooking (or “scrapping,” as some like to call it) is to design a theme or layout – there could be a recurring theme throughout the book with a different layout for each page, or you could theme every new page independently of the others – the beauty is that it’s completely up to you. Your theme can be as simple or as involved as you want it, but remember not to be overzealous; less is more in many cases.

• Use Your Tools Grab anything and everything you can think of that might be of help. Odd shapes make good stencils or borders, and trying several types of adhesives and writing implements will allow you to get the best results with your materials. You can never have too much colored paper, either!

• Get A Second Opinion This isn’t medical plan 101, I’m talking about actually asking for input from your friends on what they think. It’s hard sometimes to have tough skin and deal with any critiques or criticism someone might have, but I’m sorry to say that it’s part of being a designer! The visual appeal you are trying to create can always benefit from a second set of eyes, no matter what the application.

It is true to say that a lot of people begin to get the scrapping bug after their child/children are born and usually their first attempt at scrapbooking is making a baby album.

Having a child is one of the most important events in our lives and baby first year is a busy, lively, ever changing journey of discovery. It is full of important milestones.

As parents we want to capture and record all those many memorable moments – preserving them in scrapbooks is a great way to safely keep and cherish those memories for years to come.

One timeless and extremely popular baby scrapbooking idea is to make an album that consists of firsts.

This is a relatively easy and flexible theme to follow, especially for someone new to scrapbooking and is a great way to create enchanting baby scrapbooks.

This kind of album usually consists of a scrapbook arranged in chronological order with individual layouts showing special and notable moments in your baby’s life.

New babies are so photogenic it’s hard to resist capturing all the big and little things that make up their day-to-day lives.

No doubt you will have lots of pictures to sort through; so here a small list of firsts to give you some ideas for organizing your photos:

• sleep/nap
• bottle/breast feed
• diaper change
• dressed in their first outfit
• ride in a car seat
• smiles
• bath
• trip out in the buggy
• solid food
• teeth
• sitting up
• drinking from a cup
• feeding him/herself
• crawling
• walking with the furniture
• steps/walking on their own
• hair cut
• Halloween
• Christmas

To add a little more interest to your album try and vary the layouts, for instance make some events into double page spreads. Such as coming home from the hospital or bath-time, which always presents an opportunity for some great photos!

Give your pages a personal touch by adding some memorabilia, using a pocket envelope, to your layouts – like the birth announcement or maybe a lock of hair from their first hair cut.

If you are new to scrapbooking and you’re unsure about starting out on your new album then a good choice would be to buy yourself a baby scrapbook kit. These kits contain everything you will need to begin scrapbooking and are a great shortcut to creating super layouts that you can be proud of.

You can also enhance your pages with some of the many baby-related products that are available on the market. Decorate your layout with an adorable or cute baby scrapbook paper.

Then, embellish your page with some charming baby scrapbook stickers like rattles, booties, bibs, bottles etc and when they’re done display all of your beautiful pages in a lovely baby scrapbook album.

Go on give it a go. Make yourself a baby scrapbook to savor and keep all those incredible memories. You’ll find it’s much more than just a scrapbook; it will become a precious family keepsake that you’ll treasure forever.