Scrap Booking Made Easy

Scrap Booking-A Learning Experience

Number one: Go somewhere interesting! Ha! and take pictures to document your experience.

There are tutorials online, but since everyone adds their own flare, it is not necessary to watch them. It's really just, throw some wallpaper, borders, pictures, stickers, embellishments and thoughts onto your pages, in whatever order you please. Exercise your creativity. Purchase an album specifically for scrap booking. Blank pages without plastic cover sheets.

Use your itinerary sheet to help you remember places visited on what day, and activities. Even though the Canada trip is still pretty fresh in my mind, I had trouble remembering the order of things, and names of places. I had to refer back to the itinerary many times. I wanted it to be an accurate account for future reference. I have my husband to thank for printing it out, was his idea to include it in the scrap book. 

Use what you brought back from your trip, gift wrapping / decorative bags, post cards, paper money (I used some Canadian Coins-glued them on with a generous wallop of Elmer's Glue, and they held nicely), brochures, maps, certificates, patches, etc. I wish I'd thought about this in advance, would have kept / brought home more items specifically for scrap booking. Will do this the next time I go on vacation, for sure!

I needed more stickers!! When I ran out I felt sad. I purchased one large sheet of really cute Canada stickers from Scrapbooking.com. They are a lot of fun to use and I could have used more! They are a great way to spruce up your album. For my Hawaii scrap book I will purchase double the amount of stickers. (Tip) check eBay, they have very decent prices on their stickers and free shipping. 

Don't bother purchasing Washi Tape (decorative tape for framing pages and photographs), unless it's your thing and you enjoy using it. I personally don't have the patience for it, it's not very user friendly and takes too much time to apply. I used red Washi tape to boarder several pages in the album. It did give it a nice POP! of color. However, I found it was easier to line (frame) the pages and sometimes photographs, with colored markers. When I felt like being a little more decorative I used construction paper for framing. One pad contains all the colors you need.

For wallpaper, use wrapping paper, maps, gift bag paper, color the page with colored pencils, etc. They sell sheets of decorative and themed wall paper online, some as part of a set. As well as inexpensive digital art wall paper (and embellishments), that you can download and print out from home. 

Don't be afraid to trim your photographs so they fit well as a group on the page. For some of the photos I even cut certain parts out for embellishment (a statue, a totem pole, etc.). Use the extra pieces to write on, for the blogging portion of the scrap book. Paste a horizontal piece underneath a photograph to title it, write a brief description, memory. Use a larger piece between photographs for more in depth  memories. You can also use construction paper for bubble thoughts. 

Glue sticks work wonders! You have back up copies of all photographs you will use in your album. You needn't purchase those four corner stick on's for them. They are inexpensive, but I just used a glue stick (Staples, large glue stick), and pressed them down firmly. They remain in place, never come loose. 

Finally, I recommend scrap booking when you feel inspired to. That's when you will create your best work.

Expect to become addicted to the process and Have fun!