Archive for June, 2009

Scrapbooking for Cousins: Recording Family History

Monday, June 29th, 2009

You cant be further from the truth if you say that scrapbooking are for kids. Well, it is still the same thing. Only that scrapbooking is for kids age 7 to 99.

Scrapbooking has set the trend for keeping memories and memorabilias, which obviously came from the past. And the past as we know will always retain its state for there is no other way to have it wheel back. The things that we did with our time given in the past will always be shelved in our recollections.

And with the latest photographs coming, what would you want to do with them. As you flip through the faces of people who remain close to your heart, families and friends that has revolved around your memories and the relatives and cousins that caused you joy, you cant fight the urge of smiling. Remembering all the fun you had when you were actually at the moment of doing the memories.

You won’t keep those precious memories in the drawers right, or in the box or anything away from the light. All you want to do is to have them face you each moment you want to flip through them again. So never put them in the dark.

Our families are the closest people to us. We may sway away from them at times and wish that we were in a different family. But you see, when all things turn away from us, the only people that we can fall back to are our families. They are literally, the persons we cant get away from.

We Americans are not as family-oriented though as compared with those of the ties that we may see from other cultures. We don’t give as much credit to family extensions and we have ample reasons for that. In many occasions, we may even have lost faith in our families and brought ourselves into destruction and separation. That’s normal for us but this must not be the case. This should never be but its happening.

However, to all things there are exemptions. For some Americans, their foundations on family ties are so solid that they seem to have sprouted from another culture. They’re like Orientals who have grown and lived through life within the boundaries of their family ties.

They have seen grandpa celebrated his 75th year. Or see Uncle Sam wed beautiful Sally. Or has enjoyed the cake that mom baked during cousin Anne’s debut. These memories of family deserve to be preserved, in any fashion that would enhance them and will help leap you back through ages and experiences.

And what can be more special than making a scrapbook album for them?

Then main aim of scrapbooking your family photos is to preserve tokens of the past with your relatives. Everyone has a story to tell and you would be glad that you took time preserving them all for the next members of the family to see.

Once the faces of your cousins, aunts and uncles and everyone are put in an album, they would no longer be forgotten. When they see your work twenty years from now, no one would have to wonder who were the people in the photographs. This normally is the case and you would not want trying to identify that the man in the suit is Uncle Jim and the baby on Grandma’s lap is cousin Jenny.

Scrapbooks can be of any theme, it might be a scrapbook dedicated for your cousins or scrapbooks for your best buddies in the family. It may even be the stuff that will tell stories of a specific events involving your clan.

You need not fear the failure on your first attempt or the failure of disappointing the people you would be putting in you album. If this is your first trial then forgive yourself and do good on your consequent attempts. It is best that you do your first scrapbook with the help of a close relative. Or if you can gather a group of relatives then better. That way, you’ll enjoy saving memories while making new sets.
And some day, when all your family member grows old, you will leaf back through the pages of your scrapbooks. And as you do, smiles will be on your face and laughter would fill the air as you remember how you created those memories and how you created the memory keepers.

Free Scrapbooking Printables

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Free Scrapbooking Printables for Mother?s Day

One of the hardest ideas to come up with is the scrapbooking layout. In fact, scrapbookers usually spend days on conceptualizing the layout that they will employ in the design of the scrapbook that they will be starting with. If you have constantly ventured into scrapbooking, you may already be experiencing a mental block with regards to scrapbooking layout ideas. Such thing comes naturally.

Sometimes people really ran out of ideas not to mention when it comes to ideas about scrapbooking layouts. But then worry not because sooner or later you will be able to come up with one brilliant idea.

As mentioned by most people, scrapbooks are worth to be given as gifts to other people whether they be your family, peers, superiors, and so on. Scrapbooks are for all seasons. These clippings of photos transcend the boundaries of time. Or it can rather represent the time being. For special occasions, scrapbooks can be planned out ahead of time. So when Mother?s Day is about to come, you can beforehand already think about the layout of your scrapbook.

A Gift for Mom

Your mom is naturally one of the most important personas in your life. Aside from being your life-giver, she is also there by your side whenever you need her. She listens to your problems, helps you out with all your ordeals, and supports your every endeavor. During her special day, it is your chance to show her how much you?ve appreciated every little thing she?s done for you. If you?ve got a collection of her photos, you may as well design a scrapbook for her. For sure, she?ll love your gift.

Whatever your gift to her needs not to be expensive. Simple things will exude great thoughts. As the clich?d saying goes, it is always the thought that counts. Aside from less expensive gift ideas such as breakfast in bed, dinner treat, spa get away, and all other ideas, a scrapbook will form a wonderful gift. In this manner, your mom will be able to take a glimpse of the past events in her life through a collection of photographs.

When it comes to the layout for your scrapbook gift, it needs to be something special and fit to the purpose too. You may already be tired of the stereotype layouts basing on the collection of scrapbooks you?ve already made. When you would want to break away from your tradition, you may prefer to do some little research from the internet. As you know, the internet provides several courses of information.

You surely will get valuable ideas from it. When scrapbooking layouts are your problem, you can check out several scrapbooking websites wherein there are lots of free scrapbooking printable that are made available. With this, you can simply print them and employ them in your design. Presto! You get rid of the mind-boggling step of thinking so hard for a layout design. In fact, special occasions such as Mother?s Day always have free scrapbook printable available in the internet.

If you still want to put on some touch of originality from your own self, better improve the free scrapbooking printable that you?ve gained access from the internet. You can redesign it, add some accents and embellishments, and then scan it. After which you may print it all over and make use of the newly designed layout format for your scrapbook.

A Tip to Consider

When redesigning a free scrapbooking printable you?ve got from the net, remember to use colors that will not mess up the entire concept. You can likewise add some more artistic touch to the borders but then not messing up the original form in a sense that it will already look crowded or displeasing to the eyes.

In truth, mothers love most the handmaid items crafted by their very own children. This act brings severe joy to their hearts. They likely appreciate personally crafted things rather than the materials which have been readily made and bought from the department stores. Creating a scrapbook for Mother?s Day is one unique way of valuing the events in your mother?s life. The internet is a great source of free scrapbooking printable for a gift on Mother?s Day.

Different Types of Scrapbooking Templates

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Here are some different types of scrapbooking templates which you might think about using:

1) Environmental ? These scrapbooking templates incorporate the design of nature in their theme. These templates often include motifs of plants and animals and are designed to showcase the natural beauty of the earth. This type of scrapbooking template is ideal when you are planning to use nature-oriented materials in your scrapbook. This scrapbooking template can be useful if you are planning to include that pebble you brought home as a memory of a walk in the beach, that piece of leaf that serves as a reminder of a very eventful autumn day, and any other organic materials.

This scrapbooking template may also prove valuable when you are trying to put together a scrapbook of different types of ?nature trips? such as hiking activities and jungle safaris.

2) Technological ? You could also go with a technological scrapbooking template and try to showcase the distance which civilization has come. Technological scrapbooking themes incorporate images you associate with technology. This includes (but is not limited to): computers, microchips, cellular phones, vehicles, gadgets and all other types of symbols used in the world of technology today.

By using technological scrapbooking templates, you actually show to the people how up to date you are on the modern world. You also show a certain mindset that comes with being techno-savvy. By using this type of scrapbooking template, you show that you are open to the evolution of civilization and that your mind can take new ideas. For, in essence, that?s what technology is all about.

3) Sports ? Probably one of the most popular types of scrapbooking templates, sports are more often chosen by men to be the overall theme for a scrapbook. This may be because of their upbringing or it may be just because of the fact that it is what society expects them to choose. Sports scrapbooking templates can be divided into three categories:

a) Persona ? This type of scrapbooking template showcases different sports personalities and are most often chosen by avid fans. By using this scrapbooking template you actually show your support for a certain player, no matter what current team he or she is playing for. This is also popular for those who follow individual sports, as these sports tend to make celebrities out of the different players.

b) Team ? This type of scrapbooking template can be based on a team symbol or team ideal. Images of different team members are also sometimes used in the different pages of the scrapbook. Sometimes, this type of team scrapbooking template is used to signify the unity of a single group. More often, though, this type of scrapbooking template is used to show support for a team or an institution.

This type of scrapbooking template is often supported by alumni of certain schools or residents of certain states.

c) Equipment ? This type of sports scrapbooking template showcases the different types of equipment used in a game. This actually is used to signify the virtues of the game as a whole. Whatever game the maker favors can be portrayed using the different equipment used in that game.

Another option is to use different types of equipment to signify sports as a whole. This showcases the athleticism of a scrapbook enthusiast and shows his or her passion for any sport.

4) Emotions ? There are actually different scrapbooking templates that use emotion as a base. These templates often signify the chosen emotion through different manners. Here are some of them:

a) Colors ? The brightness and darkness of the hues used sometimes show the emotion within the scrapbooking template. If you observe, we sometimes associate different emotions with different colors. Some scrapbooking templates take this further by separating each color into shades and showing the intensity of the emotion vary with the shade.

b) Characters ? Different characters are also used to portray different types of emotions. Some characters may be shown with facial expressions that transmit the different emotions. They can also be shown doing different activities, depending on the mood of the scrapbook. Background drawings can also be used to try and reflect on the character what the person is feeling. A rain, for example, can show sorrow or sadness.

Firefighter Scrapbooking

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

The Virtues of Firefighter Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is one of those activities that, while relying around a central theme, allow the person freedom to express him or her self. What does this signify? Well, scrapbooking revolves around one principle: organized chaos. This means that while you can practically put anything in a scrapbook, you should do it in a way that lets the objects relate to one another.

However, inanimate objects cannot really ?relate? can they? What you need to do is build bridges between these objects as to let the viewer experience the bigger picture. You need to have a central theme upon which the chaos is based. For chaos that revolves around chaos is just plain, dare I say it, chaotic.

One popular theme among young boys is the firefighter. You see, these true to life heroes are admired by many people. Young boys are not the only ones fascinated by the idea of being a firefighter. In fact, many adults still find themselves wishing that they achieve their childhood dreams of being a firefighter.

Firefighter scrapbooking is probably the closest you can get to the real thing. What does one need to keep in mind when firefighter scrapbooking? Well, you have different factors to consider, and these factors need thorough thinking in order to come together in a scrapbook.

Here are the factors that affect firefighter scrapbooking:

1) Color ? There are different types of colors that you can use for firefighter scrapbooking. There is, of course, the standard combination of brilliant red with white. This is the most recognizable, thanks to its being the standard color of fire trucks everywhere. In using this color combination, you need to take care to make the red very distinct and the white should not dominate the theme because doing coloring it so would turn your theme into an ambulance.

Another popular color combination for firefighter scrapbooking would be a red, coupled with spotted white. This actually honors the Dalmatian, since it is known as the traditional dog of the firefighter. People really have little idea why the Dalmatian was chosen as a mascot for such work, but hey, it works.

You may also think of choosing a color combination of red and orange, signifying the flames that the firefighter puts out. However, in order to keep up with the theme of firefighter scrapbooking, you may try to do different colors for different pages, beginning with the colors of the flame and ending with the color blue for water. This would not only be a great firefighter scrapbooking idea, but it can also signify the yin and the yang. Balance is shown by the different colors and the different elements, and if there?s one thing every person needs in his or her memories, it is balance.
2) Imagery ? You might also like to be more straightforward with your theme and use different pictures and images for your firefighter scrapbooking. This means you can use popular symbol associated with firefighting.

Here are some symbols you might want to think about using:

a) Fire engine ? This popular vehicle enjoys immense popularity in different types of crafting media. What makes this image so popular is the fact that it is easily recognizable. It is also of a very distinct shade of red which is aptly labeled ?fire engine red?. The basic construction of this vehicle is so familiar that even children recognize it.

b) Firefighter ? The firefighter is also one of the most recognizable images you can use for firefighter scrapbooking. Ideally, since the scrapbook is actually based on the character, this should be the logical choice. Given the popularity of the vehicle, however, you can understand why most people prefer it.

The firefighter also gains its popularity because of the distinctive look of the uniform. In fact, that protective hat of the firefighter is distinctive enough to stand as a symbol on its own.

c) Hydrant ? This is also one of the distinct images that people associate with firefighting. Despite the fact that many people actually use fire hydrants for personal purposes the hydrant still remains to be a distinctive symbol of firefighting. Be careful, however, as the hydrant is also associated with dogs mainly because of the fact that many people think that hydrants are dogs? comfort rooms.

Free Scapbooking Layout

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Samples of Free Scrapbooking Layout Plans

Scrapbooking is no longer the simple collection of magazine cutouts which we happen to find interesting. Or the bare collection of photos with minimal designs bounded together in a book.

In fact, this hobby has already become a craze and believe it or not, its popularity has exceeded golf. At a conservative measure, there are four scrapbookers in every American family while there are only three golfers who could play golf in each household.

Its popularity was added by multi-level marketing enterprises, which seemed to have raised the overwhelming collections of scrapbooking materials. Add to this the fact the myriad of collectors and vendors who seem to have their entire lives with scrapbooking.

While it already has evolved into a pool of vendors, collectors, traders and buyers we should still have to trace back the origin of scrapbooking.

It of course has started as a hobby. But with entrepreneurs seeing the lucrative prospects from scrapbooking, many has now toughed the tides and made this a billion dollar industry.

From scrapbooking product designs to product selling. From scrapbooking softwares to the nitti-gritties like charms, stickers, stick-ons and everything in between, there surely is some place for tactics that would help better the industry. And that including the free bees that we normally get from the web.

Well, the free scrapbooking layouts here that we are talking about are not the exact layouts that you would use step by step. Instead, we have prepared free scrapbooking layout plans that will contribute largely with the development of your craft and your own style. After all, scrapbooking is one good way for your personality to radiate.

Here are the following layout plans:

The newspaper style
One of the most obvious mediums by which we can see effective layouting are from the newspapers. There no boundaries in making the layouts for your scrapbooking, anything and everything is possible. Now if you would want to layout your family pictures or personal photos in tabloid form, you may choose to lay them on columns. Just like the ones you see posted in tabloids. Birthdays, weddings an sporting events all fit well in this type of formatting. For optimized results, you may use an old English font for the script and Times New Roman for the titles.

Try the handprints
This works best with an album for your child. You may trace his hand print or his foot print and do whatever that pleases you. You may have it traced on the cardstock or the paper itself. For an alternative, you may mount a picture of your child on any traced medium and make use of the area around the page.

Use the rub on transfer technique
Rub-ons for long, had been the favorite among both amateur and veteran scrappers. They create pretty effects that make layouts extra special. There are plenty of ways for which you may use rub-ons. The most common of which is to apply them on the cardstock, photos or any sort of papers, may it be patterned or plain.

Rub-ons need some learning curve. It might even take time before you master the technique. They come in helpful tools though like a rubbing would for easy design transfer. However, once you have mastered the craft, you would be able to use it even to trickier mediums like ribbons, glass, mesh, and ribbons. Please assure to it that when doing the techniques on these materials, the rub-ons are adhesive enough so as to create better effects.

Chalk solutions for your scrapbooking layouts
Texture, color and dimension?that are what chalks do. chalks appeal to most surfaces especially those that are paper-based so there really is no problem when using chalks. The soft color that they add makes baby albums a bit more babyish and solemn albums a bit more solemn. Somehow, chalks intensifies that concept in ways that cant be doe with any other medium.

However using chalks would mean that you have to prepare for messy works. Nevertheless, it’s all worth it.

There. Now you have more ideas from our free scrapbooking layout designs. They can be combined with other techniques to complement for the concepts and for intensifying the design on minimal degree or to make them as the general idea for your layout concepts.

Where to Get Scrapbooking Page Ideas

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Scrapbooking is an activity that requires some inspiration and a lot of effort. Now, we all know that every person can make the effort to be creative. However, inspiration is hard to come by. Inspiration is that one little spark that guides you where to direct your efforts.

Scrapbooking page ideas can be hard to come by. They can be sought after, yet never found. They can be ignored, yet just pop up in your mind. However, there are a lot of places where you can get scrapbooking page ideas. Here are some of them:

1) Conversations – sometimes, just talking to another person can help you get a scrapbooking page idea. By engaging in conversations, you can often catch glimpses of a person’s soul, and that can serve as your inspiration.

There are two ways to get scrapbooking page ideas from conversations:

a) Directly – you could try asking for other people for some scrapbooking page ideas directly. You could discuss different scrapbooking page ideas and talk about the virtues and disadvantages of each one. By asking people for ideas, you save yourself the trouble of having to find an overall theme. However, by doing so, you cannot really claim a scrapbook as your own, since the idea came from somewhere else.

b) Indirectly -this happens when you are talking to a person about something unrelated to scrapbooking and suddenly, you gleam from a certain word or phrase, a scrapbooking page idea. Getting a scrapbooking page idea this way can be quite hard, as you will be focusing on two things: the idea and the conversation.

Sometimes, a conversation can actually help free your creative spirit and actually unleash the scrapbooking page idea within you.

2) The environment – look around you. There are many things out there which can give you different scrapbooking page ideas. What can the environment give you?

a) Overall theme – One good scrapbooking page idea is capturing the beauty of the sunset in the overall theme of your scrapbook. In fact, there are many other things besides nature that you can use as great scrapbooking page ideas. This way, you actually tie the different pages of your scrapbook together.

b) Specifics – by looking at your environment, you can also gain specific scrapbooking page ideas. This means that you can enhance the little details of your scrapbook using your inspiration from outside. The details may mean something to you alone, or may also broadcast a page’s significance to the world.

c) Materials – by observing your environment, you can also get scrapbooking page ideas about what materials to use. Remember that, in a scrapbook, materials say so much about your personality. In doing so, you open yourself up to the possibility of recycling.

3) Yourself. -look inside yourself for any scrapbooking page ideas which you might want to try out. Remember that only you can best judge what you want. Look towards your personality and get inspiration from it. One activity you can do is listing on a piece of paper your different traits. This would give you some scrapbooking page ideas on how to best present your scrapbook. By looking within you, you can try to convey to the readers your personality and how you feel about a certain event and page in your scrapbook.

4) Mass media – You can also take several scrapbooking page ideas from the mass media today. This includes:

a) Television – Admit it: you love watching television. So why not try to take inspiration from it? By taking scrapbooking page ideas from your favorite TV shows, you can actually try to incorporate another facet of your personality into the scrapbook.

The television also allows you to see different types of visual themes and this can give you a very good idea as to how your scrapbook should look like.

b) Music – getting scrapbooking page ideas from music can be a bit hard, since only a few can really translate emotions form words into visual information. However, if you are able to do so, you can actually come up with a pretty deep message. You might also have your friends guessing as to how a page relates to the song.

c) Computer – of course, you could also get scrapbooking page ideas from the computer. Do you wish to portray a game? Do you want to incorporate a theme from the internet? By using the computer, you can access a ton of information to give you scrapbooking page ideas.

Scrapbooking Mistakes

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Scrapbooking Mistakes Continues: Are you one of the perpetrators?

Caught by scrapbooking fever? Well, you are not alone in this hobby. In fact, there are thousands of people who are addicted to it. Scrapbooking is their outlet to express their artistic side at the same time it is their way to give legacy that can be handed down to their descendants.

Scrapbooking has been around for more than a decade now. They are done to keep the memoirs as well as other precious memorabilia. It can be recalled that the first photos were taken in the year 1839. Since then, different attempts were tried to preserve the memories. In today?s modern era, the knowledge to discern safe and destructive materials and methods are already obtainable. Moreover, scrapbook is now made a ?safer haven? for pictures and memorabilia.

If you are still clueless about scrapbooking and everything about it, you can consult reliable scrapbooking sites on the net. If in case you have started a scrapbooking project, you will agree that your first page is the hardest. Nonetheless, it is worth the endeavor. If you are new to scrapbooking, you are susceptible to committing mistakes that can ruin all your effort and determination. To guide you in doing the right thing, scrapbooking references and sources can guide you pretty well.

According to some scrapbooking sites, there are some mistakes that need to be avoided. These mistakes are fatal. To preclude you from doing same mistakes, you must know them by heart before you start a project.

MISTAKES

Mistake #1
Overwhelmed by Pictures

If so many pictures are placed in front of you, the tendency is to be confused or worst fret. This should not be the case. The key factor is organization. Get your photos organized and available without difficulty. You can organize the pictures chronologically. You can start from infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. This way you will leave no stones unturned at the same time, you will not easily be baffled.

Mistake #2
Over-cropping

Cropping is the manner of resizing photos to make it smaller or more focal. Nonetheless, you must not crop anything that is interesting to your concept. Let your creativity flow. You can crop to achieve a silhouette look or to put emphasis on a given matter. Just a word of caution, never cut Polaroid pictures because they will deteriorate or fall apart when you do so. Over-cropping or abundance of photos loses emphasis and control.

Mistake #3
Using horrific albums

There are so many albums available in the market. There are the 3 ring binder albums, strap-bound, spiral bound albums and the expandable strap-bound albums. Choosing an album is like choosing your dress. It reflects your likes and dislikes. Moreover, all the aspects ? from the materials, colors, layouts, methods, embellishments and the like must be considered to give the scrapbook a touch of sophistication. Be sure to get the album that will best boost your scrapbook project.

Mistake #4
Buying Over-priced scrapbooking supplies

You might be a victim of overpricing. Shop around. There are overwhelming supplies in the market. Some are expensive, others not. You can choose discount scrapbooking supplies to save a hefty savings. Price is not the factor to consider in buying supplies, it is the quality.

Before you purchase supplies, know first your ?needs? from ?wants?. Prioritize the former from the latter. Moreover, there are supplies that you need not purchase.

Mistake #5
Staying Clueless

Scrapbooking is a dynamic realm. Hence, trends change and concepts evolve. Even your choices do change, furthermore you have to keep yourself abreast of what?s hot or new. You can get information from your scrapbooking buddies or from magazines and websites about scrapbooking.

SCRAPBOOKING SOURCES

You can turn to scrapbooking books, magazines, books and websites to gain knowledge about your newfound hobby. Here is a list of reliable scrapbooking companies:

1. Best Scrapbooking Sites

2. About

3. Scrapbook Super Center

4. Scrapbook

5. Create For Less

6. Scrapbook Pal

7. KT Craftsscrap Bookshop

8. Crafts Products Australia

9. Creative Scrapbooking

10. Creative Memories

11. A Lifetime of Memories

12. The Mad Crafter

13. Remember Me Scrapbooking

14. Ultimate Scrapbook Page

15. Scrapbooking Resource Center

There are so many sources on scrapbooking. All you have to do is to search for them to be benefited by their wisdom about the craft. The aspects in scrapbooking that come into play must be considered and dealt with to complement your project. Shun mistakes from recurring!

Tickle Your Scrapbooking Idiosyncrasy

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Scrapbook is an essential haven for timeless memories. It can record your family history, celebrations and other gatherings. It is sometimes accompanied with journalizing. Through the same, additional memories will be recollected. A scrapbook can last a lifetime if you know what materials to use and what not to.

Parents often resort to scrap booking when they wanted to personalize their photos. Aside from that, scrap booking is also resorted by parents to keep the artworks, cards, letters and other vital stuffs that their children are giving them. Hence, they preserve the memories and materials without getting overwhelmed. With a scrapbook around, you can do away with memorabilia boxes and other hefty packages.

If you are not busy on a weekend, why not create a scrapbook with your children. Doing an activity like the one mentioned will make you closer to them. Aside from that, you are also honing their creativity and art potentials.

Here are the steps to do a scrapbook of your children?s keepsakes:

1. Create a reduced version of the keepsakes. Paste them on a textured paper or thin mat.

2. Use ribbons, tassles, paper clips, dried flowers, clippings and other tiny objects to embellish the album.

3. Also paste a small piece of paper beside the keepsakes and make a short note to describe them. You can also make a message board for your children to write on.

4. Cut out some letters to be used for the title of the scrapbook. After that you can show the scrapbook to the entire family and reminisce the past.

Scrap booking is not only entertaining and fun to do but also worthy and advantageous. Individuals who are exposing themselves to scrap booking are honing their artistic capabilities. In fact, their works spell sophisticated scrap booking.

Sophisticated scrap booking is doing the thing with elegance, superiority and cleverness. From color combinations, to design, layout and embellishments ? everything must complement and blend.

How do you go about sophisticated scrap booking?

1. Pick materials with classic colors. Examples of which are sepia, black, white, red and navy.

2. Pile or overlap papers to draw an impact and to make elements interact.

3. Use straight lines rather than curves and circles. Straight lines make clean and classic aura. If your scrapbook appears too rigid or linear, soften the lines or make a torn edge.

4. Select photos that will blend naturally with the colors, material and feel of your scrapbook.

5. Shallow dimensions are preferred. Use embellishments that are not that bulky. Moreover, you can use charms, alphabet tiles, foam tape, laces and tassles to emphasize dimension. Nonetheless, do not overdo it so as to distract the photos.

6. If the photos have theme or motif, be sure to dress your scrapbook according to the latter. The theme, color and embellishments must add to the beauty of the scrapbook not the contrary.

Speaking of embellishments, one of the most preferred embellishments that artists use is tassles. Tassles are ornaments consist of loose threads, embroidery floss, yarns, straw, raffia or cords. They are not only best for scrap booking but for knitting projects, scarves, bookmarks, pillows, draperies and afghans as well. You can find tassles ubiquitously. Nonetheless, if you desire to do it personally, tassle-making is pretty much easy.

Here are the simple steps in making tassles:

1. Cut a piece of cardboard based on the size of tassle you want to have.

2. Wrap a piece of yarn (or any of your desired material) around the cardboard. Cut the yarn at the untied end.

3. Wrap the long piece of yarn around the tassle. If you are satisfied with the look and style, insert its end (through a needle) to anchor said tassle.

4. Trim excess ends to give the tassle a clean look.

Now, you have your own version of tassle. You can use it in any art project you have including scrap booking. Just bear in mind that scrap booking represents the individual personality of the creators. Nonetheless, if you want your own version of several things ? you can. You can bend the rules. You can even break them. Its all our bringing out the bet of you and the best of what your personality can give – your piece of idiosyncrasy!

Accordian Album For Scrapbooking

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Give it up to an Accordion Album for Scrapbooking

Each one of you has a set of good and bad memories. Usually those good memories paint smiles on your faces while the bad ones sadden your hearts. Whichever kind of memory it is, these things occur in your life when you least expect them.

Keeping pictures of whatever event in your life with whoever the persona is with you is one way of keeping those memories alive. Most people love to take pictures during field trips, holidays, vacations, birthdays, graduations, weddings, and many other occasions. With these photos, the memory is kept to be lingering in the minds of those who get to take a glimpse of those. But would you rather let your photos lie still in plain and traditionally-looking photo albums? Don?t you want to spice them up? Why not work on scrapbooks?

You need not be an expert photographer or an experienced artist to create scrapbooks. All you need is the concept of the design and layout for the scrapbook plus of course the photos which you want to include.

Have you ever heard of the term accordion albums? You may have encountered these things or you likely keep one in your bedroom. An accordion album is not that standard photo album size. It is smaller. Accordion albums are also best for keeping alive those memories of your loved ones. Love relationship accordion albums are the most common of all. As lovers, you have certainly spent several good times together and you would want such memory to live on forever. In this way, creating an accordion album for scrapbooking will work out just perfect!

The number of photos to be included in the scrapbook determines the size and layout to be employed in your accordion album for scrapbooking. To keep the memories more alive, you can make use of poems, quotes, love songs, or simple statements expressing your love to the person as captions for the photos. In this way, the intimate feeling will be manifested in your work of art.

When writing down the journal, you can recall some funny or memorable incidents about the photo in order to make the caption more expressive and alive. The colors will also have to play a great role in the journal. Softer colors such as cream and blue or silver and gold are mostly used. These colors make the pages of the scrapbook more attractive and lively.

Worthy Topics for the Accordion Album

Among the topics which you can employ for your accordion album include the ?Ten Things I Love about You? or ?The History of Our Relationship?. Whichever more personal topic you would want to employ can be as long as it will make an intimate impression on your scrapbook.

More so, the accordion album for scrapbooking may also serve as a memorabilia of the items such as cards, love letters, restaurant menu dined at, concerts attended, dried flowers, and many other things which both of you have given for each other. You may likewise have a question and answer portion that both of you will answer. The questions may revolve around your favorite food, pet peeves, traditions, future goals, favorite pastimes, and the things which you mostly agree and disagree on.

The Importance of the Accordion Album for Scrapbooking

The accordion album for scrapbooking is one quick and easy way of recording special memories that you and your lover share. Doing it entails a lot of fun too. You can even laugh by yourself as you remember particular incidents associated with the pictures. As you show it to your partner, rest assured that he or she would also be very happy with your output.

Some Valuable Steps to Follow

Before finally starting with the scrapbooking, first get all the pictures that you will include in the craft. Sort them out according to events and according to chronology. Before pasting the photos, make sure that you?ve already conceptualized the sequence of those as they will appear in the pages. Once in a while, put in artistic embellishments to the pages. Never fail to include the captions too. Do this all throughout the pages of the scrapbook. By carefully following the ins and outs of the steps, you are on your way to a desirable accordion album for scrapbooking!

Princess Scrapbooking

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Tips on Princess Scrapbooking

Are you the type who enjoys reading stories about princesses and their adventures? Perhaps you are the type who can relate to the image of the princess in the tower, waiting for a prince to rescue her? Maybe, you can relate yourself to warrior princesses and imagine yourself as the heroine of an epic.

Well then, that would explain your inclination for princess scrapbooking. Perhaps you are a parent, wanting to create a princess scrapbook for your daughter. We all know how much little girls love to identify themselves with princesses.

You may have grown into adulthood and you may have forgotten about being a princess because of the complexities of life, but hey, isn’t the dream of being a princess still within you? You know that hidden within the scars created by reality, the heart that beats within you remains that of a princess.

Princess scrapbooking is one way of showing the world that part of you that deserves to be treated like a princess. But what inspiration should you use for princess scrapbooking?

Here are some tips for you:

1) In princess scrapbooking, you should try to choose a princess that fits your personality. You can’t just pick an inspiration because of the color of their dress. You should choose someone that fits your ideals.

This way, you actually incorporate someone who you can relate to. When basing your scrapbooking on Princesses, you should be able to relate to other people about the reason why you chose a particular princess.

2) The first tip leads to this next tip. When princess scrapbooking, you should do some research about the particular character you intend to use. You see, many people tend to create scrapbooks based on popular figures only to find out that the figure contradicted a crucial part of their personality.

How do you research on fictional characters? You see, fictional princesses often have some background information which not many people know about. Yes, fictional characters have something more to them than what the general public can see. One tip is looking up the “canonical” traits of a character. This means looking up the “official” portrayals of the character. Whenever a writer comes up with a new character, he or she creates a whole life for that character. This is so when that character is re-used, nothing the character does will contradict what the original writer planned.

3) Balance is very important. Overdoing your use of a princess on scrapbooking can actually take the focus away from the contents of the scrapbook itself. You do not want to distract the reader from the contents of the scrapbook in order to promote the princess. Remember that large companies already make billions of dollars because of fictional characters. You don’t really want to be giving them the attention you deserve for creating the scrapbook.

4) Princess scrapbooking also needs creativity. Although you already have the general theme taken care of, it is still up to you to make it work. Remember that on a scrapbook, all the little details matter. Adding other elements to your scrapbook is a must and will help you balance out if the scrapbook turns out to be “too princess-y.”

5) Princess scrapbooking also involves interpretations. Remember that vague symbols can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, depending on the beholder. You need to make sure that your message comes across and not any others. If it helps, you should make sure that you do not use any themes or characters that could be very offensive to other people.

6) Symbols are just that: symbols. If you happen to choose a princess that offends someone, remind yourself that the scrapbook you made means something to you. You should not let any interpretations by “experts” confuse you into thinking you did something wrong. It is, after all, your experiences that are being chronicled in princess scrapbooking. This means that the focus should be in your life and not on the symbolic interpretations of your scrapbook.

There you go: those are just some of the tips you can use on princess scrapbooking. In order to get more information, you should try to do a little research on the internet. In princess scrapbooking, you only need to remember one thing: Have fun!