Make A Unique Scrapbook - Tips For Beginners And Experienced Scrapbookers

Scrapbooks are the perfect place for preserving your timeless memories. They can document your family history and preserve the joy of celebrations and gatherings. They can include your descriptions of events and people, adding to the personal nature of a scrapbook. And they can last a lifetime or two if you use the proper materials.

Parents use scrapbooks to record their children's early years by collecting photos, report cards, artwork, letters, articles, and announcements that tell the child's story. They assemble precious treasures in one place, eliminating the need for chaotic shoe boxes full of memorabilia mixed with junk.

If you have some time, why not make scrapbooking a family project. It will give you hours of conversation talking about events that your photos and memories recall. It will fine-tune everyone's creativity and imagination. It will bring you closer together in a world where busy schedules often drive you apart.


Ideas for Your First Scrapbooking Project

If you want to create a scrapbook around your child's keepsakes, here are the steps you'll want to follow:

1. Go through your keepsakes to select the special ones you want to keep forever. Toss what you don't want to keep, and mount your treasures on textured paper, a thin mat, or heavy-weight fabric.

2. Get some paper clips, ribbons, tassels, buttons, dried flowers, and other small objects to use to embellish your pages.

3. Attach a note to each keepsake that describes it. What event does it represent? Who gave it to them? How was it used? As your children to add their own notes about it.

4. Make a title for the scrapbook using your own handmade cut-out letters or find stencils or stick-on letters. Use it for the cover of the scrapbook and for special pages you want to highlight.

5. Now, order your photos and memorabilia the way you want to present it in your scrapbook. You may want to keep things in chronological order, or you may want to group them according to some other theme like your child's favorite subjects or talents.

6. After you know what order you want things in, decide on how you want to lay them out. Page by page, just place them without glue until you find the perfect arrangement. To make it more fun for the whole family, let people try different things and then vote on the "best" arrangement.

7. Now, glue the items onto your pages. Let them sit for a while to ensure the glue dries properly, and then assemble them in your album.

Your finished product is a wonderful story-telling scrapbook that tells your children how important they really are to you. It's a treasure of memories you'll want to revisit time and time again. When your child goes to college or gets married, it will be a precious special gift of love.

After you have some experience with scrapbooking, you'll want to move on to more sophisticated methods. You can use a wide variety of items to decorate and add interest to your pages. Your theme, color scheme, design, layout, and embellishments will tie your memorabilia together in a beautiful elegant format.


Creating a More Sophisticated Scrapbook

When you're ready to move on to your next project, here are some things you'll need to remember to create a sophisticated, elegant scrapbook:

1. Choose materials that reflect a classic color scheme. Your color scheme can reflect a theme (like red, white, and blue for patriots; beige, sand, turquoise, and salmon for that Santa Fe look; or different shades of blue for the sky or ocean). The combinations are limited only by your imagination. Be sure that the entire scrapbook maintains your color scheme, including your embellishments like buttons, die-cuts, and stick-ons.

2. Layer your papers and fabrics to add interest and impact and to create a fluid, interactive effect.

3. Use straight classic lines to create a balanced, organized effect. Or use curves and classic shapes to soften your pages. Whichever you choose, be consistent. Don't use straight lines on one page and curves on the next.

4. Be sure your colors blend well with the photos and memorabilia to maintain a unified look and feel.

5. Don't overload your pages with bulky embellishments. Keep as shallow a dimension as you can without letting your scrapbook become boring. You can use charms, thin foam, lace, ribbons, alphabet tiles, and tassels to add dimension. But don't overdo it. You don't want to detract from the main pieces - your photos and memorabilia.

6. If your photos already have a common theme or design, be sure that your scrapbook reflects the same theme. Your added touches should complement your memories, not distract viewers from them.


Making Tassels to Brighten Up your Scrapbook

Tassels are favorite scrapbooking embellishments. Used often by those with the artistic touch, they include embroidery thread, yarns, loose threads, straw, cords, or raffia. They're great for scrapbooking, and they're perfect for other projects like scarves, bookmarks, knitting, pillows, afghans, and draperies. You can find tassels at home craft or fabric stores, but you can make them yourself to assure they're unique. To make your own tassels, follow these simple steps:

1. Get a piece of cardboard cut to the size you want for your tassel.

2. Wrap your tassel material (thread, yarn, etc.) around the cardboard many times. Make it as thick or as thin as you want your finished tassel to be. Use materials consistent with your color theme. You can mix colors or use only one.

3. Use a long piece of yarn (or ribbon or thread) around the cardboard, about an inch from one end of the cardboard, and tie it off loosely.

4. Gently remove the cardboard and draw the long tie off up to make a tight knot. Now, wrap more of your material around the knotted tie-off to give it strength and texture.

5. Use a thread to tie off the 1" end of the tassel and attach to an anchor or hook.

6. Clip the folded long end of the tassel to create loose threads, and trim the ends to give a clean, even look.

You have created your own tassel. For using in y our scrapbook, you'll want your tassel to be thinner, enough to create dimension without being bulky. For other projects, the thickness is up to you!

We've outlined the basic steps to creating a basic scrapbook and to bring it up a notch. We've shown you how to create your own tassels. Keep in mind that these are basic steps and suggestions, not hard-and-fast rules.

Scrapbooking is an individual art, an expression of your personality. If you want to bend or even break these rules, feel free! The point is creating an object of beauty that expresses your personal uniqueness and that presents your memories in a well-coordinated beautiful package.