So you’re into scrapbooking now after following some of the great free resources and tutorials on the web and you’re wondering what the rules of scrapbooking are? Great! I’m here to fill you in on the precious sport of scrapbooking. Believe it or not, there are some rules (though not hard and fast ones) when it comes to immortalizing your photos and memories.

First of all, you need to buy only pages and papers that are Lignin and acid free. When we talk about acid free, we mean a PH number of seven. That way the acid doesn’t eat up your pictures over time and you end up with bits an pieces in 20 years. That would be very sad for you and your family! Also, buying Lignin free paper ensures that your photos won’t turn yellow like you see all the old photos from years ago. All scrapbooking and craft stores sell these types of paper, and it’s very affordable and worth the investment.

Over the years we spend tons of money on the best of the best in cameras, film, and everything in between, only to stow away the photo in an album with no meaning. Sure, photo albums are nice, but when generations below you look through them, they have no idea what is special about the picture or what it means to your family. Scrapbooks allow you to document and journal the entire photo set, and put a true meaning and story behind the event that you made special. I wish my parents and grandparents would have done that for the dozens, if not hundreds of family photo albums we have from years past! But it’s never too late to start for your family, so that your kids, grandkids, and great grandkids can get a true feel of why the photos are special.

So once you stick to the basic rules of scrapbooking (which really, there is only one major one, and that is the paper issue), then the rest is up to you and your creative side of your brain. Scrapbooking can be a therapeutic and fun activity for you and your family, and you’ll be glad you have those 30 years down the road when everyone is older and wants to take a trip down memory lane. Enjoy!

The first thing you’ll need is an actual scrapbook album. Maybe you have one laying around the house, but if not, head over to your favorite crafts store or look online at one of the many scrapbooking stores for a 12″x12″ album that you feel would capture the look and feel you’re going for. They come in many different “flavors”, and you could spend an hour or two just picking out the best one for the moment! That’s half the fun, so make sure you get a good one that suits you.

The next thing you’ll need is scrapbook paper. It’s perhaps the most important part of the entire process, because without pages you have no scrapbook, right? There are thousands of different types and designs out there, so you might need a while to find the right one for the job, but again, that’s part of the fun! Just make sure you pick up more than you think you need, because especially if you’re new to scrapbooking, you’re bound to make a few mistakes here and there, and you want the album to be perfect. Also make sure you get acid free paper, that way it will not harm your pictures over time.

Stickers, although not as important as the above items, are also fun and usually essential to any good scrapbook. As you’re probably aware of – there are millions of different stickers out there, and they even make sticker machines that you can get to turn your regular photos into stickers! It’s great fun for the kids and yourself, and you can pick up a decent sticker machine for about $30 online.

Now here is where it really gets fun! Adding embellishments is the part of the process that brings magic to the scrapbook. Sprinkles, tags, charms, beads, necklaces, clips and everything else you can imagine could fall under this category. Better yet, you can find tons of stuff laying around the house (check your “junk” drawers!) or you can go to any crafts store, or even Wal-Mart and find thousands of little trinkets and things you can use for embellishing.

Next, using die cuts, which are thicker stock and decorative cardboard, can add another dimension to the pages, and makes things look a lot more “scrapbooky”, more-so than stickers can do alone.

Now for another fun part – markers, pens, calligraphy pens, and other writing utensils are a crucial part of the scrapbooking experience. Whether you decide to use gel pens, colored pencils, or whatever your heart desires, it can add a lot to the experience, and is considered necessary to any scrapbooking adventure. There are some expensive professional pens you can buy, but I wouldn’t recommend them until you’re comfortable with the whole process first.

Also, make sure you pick up some assorted ribbons to decorate the pages. They make great borders, and better yet – dig through your Holiday decorations around the house and you may be surprised at all the fun décor you come up with!

So the above is a general overview on how to get started with your first scrapbook, and remember, patience is a virtue. The more time you have to think about how to craft your book, the happier you’ll be with the end product. Now go have some fun!

Going back to before photographs were even in existence, in Ancient Greece there was a very special notebook called a hypomnemata. This notebook was use to preserve and take record of things they had heard and seen. When materials started to be printed, these notebooks became books where they preserved and archived printed things that they found and though were important enough to save. Sound familiar? So scrapbooking can actually be traced back to Ancient Greece!

If you dive in a take a close look at American history, you’ll also see plenty instances of the same type of material preservation. Speaking of that, some of our most famous and well known early scrapbookers have names like Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain and others. Photographs were invented and were then used in these scrapbooks to document whatever event even better. They even used titles and mounted the pictures with special corners in order to preserve and describe the moment in question. They also contained newspaper clippings, letters, and all sorts of other memorabilia.

Fast forwarding to modern era scrapbooking – it really didn’t get hot again until the 80’s in America. A lady by the name of Marline Christensen was a key person that helped revive the timeless art of scrapbooking, and thankfully so! Back in 1980, she put more than fifty scrapbooks on display at the World Conference on Records in Utah, and not long after opened up her own scrapbooking store. Obviously that set the trend, because you can usually find a scrapbooking store in pretty much every decent sized town or city. With the boom in e-commerce, online scrapbook stores have made it easy for everyone to get involved.

So in conclusion, scrapbooking history is a very interesting and rich one. It’s neat to see how far we’ve come with the exponential growth of technology helping us to better store and preserve our dearest moments with scrapbooking. If you’re intrigued by this, and thinking of starting your own scrapbook with your family, there is no better time than now to take advantage of all of the great free scrapbooking resources on the internet

If you’re thinking about getting into scrapbooking, but not quite sure if you have the budget for it – think again! You don’t have to spend tons of money on supplies in order for it to be a fulfilling and fun family hobby. The cool thing about scrapbooking is that it can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be, and everything in between!

Assuming you’re new to the hobby of scrapbooking, just keep in mind that getting started doesn’t require a large investment. As a matter of fact, you could easily get started for as little as $20 – assuming you have some stuff and general supplies like glue, scissors, and tape laying around the house. All you’ll need is the actual scrapbook, and some pages for it and that surely won’t put you in the hole financially.

First, the most important and vital piece of the entire operation is the actual scrapbook album. This is what holds all your pages together. A good album will be easy to open and flip through, and have a nice thick cover. When picking out an album, make sure you get one that’s big enough to hold everything you plan on putting in, and also for the stuff you didn’t plan on putting in – because once you get going, you’ll be surprised at how much you probably have to cram in there!

The pages for the scrapbook should definitely be acid free, that way it doesn’t eat away over time, and protects your priceless photos. Make sure you also get good ink that won’t bleed through to other pages, or it could turn into quite a messy mess and worst case scenario – ruin your pictures!

One of the bigger investments you’ll make (but oh so worth it) is a sticker machine. These are cool machines that turn your pictures into stickers, and you can have hours and hours of fun with it – not to mention it makes the process a lot easier. These machines are optional, but pretty common with 99% of scrapbookers. You can pick them up for as little as $20 – and if you can afford it, trust me – get it!

If you want to start with a kit, there are many good ones out there, even made by recognizable names like Martha Stewart. You can find these kits at pretty much any craft store around town, and most of the time they’re pretty reasonably priced. I’ve seen them for as low as $5-$10 depending on what size of kit you decide to buy.

The best thing to remember when starting out scrapbooking is to start small. Use decorations and things you have laying around the house before you go and spend $100 on fancy supplies from a store. You’ll find it more exciting and wonderful to use your own supplies anyway. When you get good at it, then you can go out and get the fancy decorations. However you do it, just remember that it can be a great family activity, and have fun at it!

So you’ve been thinking about starting a scrapbooking business? Great! Whichever kind of scrapbooking venture you plan, it would behoove you to set up a website for it. Having a web presence will not only reach a wider audience, but it will also give you a more professional image and really seal the deal to make you look serious about it. For a small investment of your time/money, you can have a website or blog set up that will provide you additional revenue and lasting relationships with like-minded people.

You know, even if your business is on a localized level, and you’re not quite ready to go worldwide – you still need a site! It makes it easy for your local clients to get in touch and also to see what’s new with you. You can post new ideas, thoughts, and tutorials for your clients to view at their convenience, and it makes the client feel like they are dealing with a true professional.

If you’re ready to start a website, here is a rough plan of action that you’ll need to follow. Don’t worry, anyone can do it, and with an unlimited amount of free resources on the internet, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune either!

1. Domain name – Perhaps the most important element of your brand image, the domain name (www.yourdomainname.com) should be relevant to your business. Make sure you use a keyword in your domain name if possible (like scrapbooking, scrapbook, etc…) as it will help your positions in the search engine when someone does a search for that word, and if you want to sound local, put the name of your city or town in it (example – SpringfieldScrapbooking.com) Domain names can be purchased through a registrar like Godaddy, Name.com, Namecheap.com and many others.

2. Hosting – The second thing you’ll need is a good web hosting package. In order for your site to be live on the web, it has to be hosted somewhere. Many registrars that sell domain names also sell hosting packages (like Godaddy), so that makes it easy to maintain everything under one roof. Hosting packages on the level that you’ll need are very cheap (under $10 month), and make sure you get a good company like Godaddy.com or Hostgator.com who offer excellent customer service in the case that you need assistance (and chances are at some point – you will).

3. Build – Chances are if you’re reading this, and somewhat new to starting a website, you probably don’t know HTML, so you probably can’t code a new website from scratch. If you can, that’s great! If not, don’t worry, because most of the big hosting companies offer some kind of DIY website builder where you can just drag and drop and have a website up in a matter of minutes.

If you want something a bit more professional, then you may want to look into hiring someone to build a site for you. There are hundreds of thousands of design companies out there, within all different budgets. If you’re on a lower budget, head over to a site like Elance.com and hire a freelancer to do it – it will usually save you money, and you get the advantage of having a professional designer make you a unique site.

Make sure you shop around before you pick someone, and make sure that they know what you need. For instance, if you’re going to be selling products from your site, you’ll need a shopping cart built in. If you want a blog with your site for your customers to comment on, you’ll need to have that coded in. Giving all the specifics up front can save a lot of money and heart-ache in the future.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start building your site!

Scrapbooking, if you haven’t heard, is definitely all the rage these days. Family albums and memories should be attractive, and scrapbooking pretty much covers that area nicely. The old photo albums have become a thing of the past as more and more families opt for the scrapbook instead. Additionally, soon to be mother’s who are bored with the traditional baby shower games are having scrapbook parties instead. Baby shower scrapbooking is a blast, and will give the child a lasting piece of family history for the rest of their life.

So scrapbooking shops and consultants quickly realized how popular baby scrapbooking was becoming, and started putting together and selling very cute kits that offer a nice range of variety. You can find them in soft baby colors (baby pink, yellow, baby blue, etc…), and with cute frills or other items attached to the corners of the pages. The kits are really easy to use, and you don’t need much effort to put together something nice that everyone will enjoy looking at. If you know the sex of the coming baby – you can purchase the kits accordingly (pink or blue) and for those parents that don’t know or don’t want to know, there are plenty of gender neutral options available as well.

Typically, a 12 x 12 scrapbook would be perfect to document your new one’s beginning of life. Even better, you can find books with pages that are cut in the shape of clouds, balloons, flowers and all kinds of neat stuff. There is nothing wrong with keeping it plain, but adding little character to it will be something that your child can enjoy for years to come. Be sure to use a high quality, acid free adhesive for your photos and everything else, as it will last longer, which is very important for later on in life. You want something that your child can enjoy for a lifetime, right? Also, get creative with your designs; use different markers, colors, and patterns, because the more creative you are now, the more you can enjoy it 20 years down the road.

Another cool thing to add to your baby scrapbook is something called “baby photo advice”. This is a place for loved ones and friends to jot down their advice and thoughts for the child to cherish as he/she grows up. It’s a very heartwarming thing that you can do to really add to the book, and the child will fully appreciate it later on in life. Also, if you’re a religious family, there are great religion based themes you can use for the book, which will have a very special meaning for the child all through life.

A couple more fun things you can do to enhance your baby scrapbook is add borders for pictures, which you can either make yourself out of stuff lying around the house, or you can buy sets of them that you just cut out and fit to the picture. Match up the border of each picture to the tone and mood of the picture for full effect. Remember, adding borders and pasting photos should be the last few steps of the album, it’s important to get everything else in place first!

Having a baby is obviously an occasion worth remembering, and the more time and love you put into your babies scrapbook, the more you and your child will cherish it over the years. Most importantly, have fun doing it, and always be safe!

Putting together a scrapbook, or scrapbooking, is a timeless and fun way to remember all of your family’s memories forever. Not only is it full of your memories and fun times, but better yet, it acts as a sort of journal for the times you’ve had. What really makes the memories come to life years later are the way you journaled them and made them each a special moment in your life. Our kids love looking through the early years of their life, and for the rest of their years, they can regain that special feeling time and time again.

The cool thing about scrapbooking is that you don’t have to be an artist or creative type, absolutely anyone can learn to scrapbook. As long as you can express your feelings, write some catchy words to capture the moment, and put your love into it, you’re totally cut out for a scrapbooking adventure! Better yet – thanks to the internet, scrapbooking help is only a click away!

In this article, we’ll talk about the traditional and genuine way of scrapbooking. There is nothing wrong with digital scrapbooking, but in my opinion, it doesn’t give you and your loved ones the chance to have as much fun in the process. Plus, a traditional scrapbook is something your family can cherish even if the power goes out, for a lifetime.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Things you need:

An actual scrapbook – check out your local Wal-Mart or craft store to pick up the starting piece of the adventure. If you’re a serious scrapbooker and want to take it to the next level, you can go to a scrapbooking store and even hire a scrapbooking consultant! You can also find a wonderful assortment of scrapbooks and pages online.

Cloth Material – Check out all your old clothes, baby clothes, kids clothes, dish towels, blankets, and any other piece of cloth you can use for your scrapbook – you’d be surprised at what’s laying around the house.

Old Jewelry – Dig up old necklaces that may be broken, and old earrings that maybe are missing one in the pair – it can all be used on your pages.

Pens, Stickers, Markers – You’ll definitely need something to write with for your scrapbooking adventure, so gather up some creative writing instruments to decorate all of your pages.

Note: Try to always use acid free products on your pages so your pictures are protected.

Memorabilia – Have old concert tickets? Movie stubs? Check out your junk drawer (or if you’re like me, ALL 4 junk drawers!) and see what you can dig up from the past. It’s so much fun, and you get to clean out your junk at the same time and put it to good use!

Miscellaneous – Also, go through all of your decorations for each holiday, find bows, ribbons, and other cute things you can use for your pages. Again, you’ll probably be absolutely amazed at what all you can dig up!

The above items should get you started in your scrapbooking adventure, and the next thing you should do is go online or look through magazines to start getting ideas of how to put everything in place. There are literally a million things you can do to make your scrapbook unique, and as long as you enlist the help of your kids or other loved ones, the ideas should flow with no problem.

Have fun!!

Luckily there is an answer to your dilemma! Introducing – the mini scrapbook. With its 6×6 size (half the size of a standard scrapbook) you can immortalize your special event in about half the time! With less embellishments and time requirements, you can finish it up in half the time or less than a regular scrapbook.

You have a few choices with mini scrapbooks – you can either buy one for the fastest option, or you can make your own. Of course, before you get started, you should have a theme in mind – whether you’re making one for your beach trip or for a new born baby. Making a mini scrapbook isn’t difficult, but since the entire point of doing it is to save time, it’s probably best to just purchase a pre-made mini scrapbook from your favorite craft shop.

Here are some steps you can take to prepare your mini scrapbooking adventure:

1. Get your pictures together, and organize them all.

2. Have a theme in mind and a general layout.

3. Gather the different embellishments you want to use.

4. Have the actual album and the pages ready to go.

Again, you can either go to your favorite crafts store, or you can order a mini scrapbook online to get started. There are many awesome scrapbooking supply stores online, and if you find the ones with special shipping deals, you can usually end up with a greater selection and cheaper prices as opposed to going to a physical store.

Once you have the scrapbook and everything ready from above, here are the six simple steps you should follow:

1. Get the pages in order of how you want them to look
2. Design the background and borders
3. Start cropping and/or matting your pictures
4. Put the pictures into the scrapbook
5. Add your text, headlines, titles, sub-titles, and all of that stuff
6. Embellish away!

So there you have it – a simple way to get started with mini scrapbooking. It’s a very easy, quick, and fun process that makes for a great family hobby or even a fantastic gift for a friend. Enjoy

Did you ever think it was possible to earn money from Scrapbooking?

Turn your hobby into cash with these four most popular methods:

1. Make Scrapbooks for other according to their specifications

Comprehensive kits are available that will allow you to create albums with various different themes for your client. Sue DiFranco from the company Fun Facts Publishing (http://www.funfactspublishing.com) has written a book about making money from scrapbooking labeled, “Make Money Making Scrapbooks for Others.” This straightforward name does exactly what it says it will. This book is especially helpful in letting you figure out how much to charge for your service. To get more help making money making scrapbooks, check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scrapping4Others.

2. Become a Scrapbook Affiliate

Becoming a Scrapbook Affiliate basically means that you will sell products for scrapbooking companies. These companies allow you to earn a commission for each product that you sell to others. These products can be sold in classes, to your friends, or in any event. Becoming a affiliate is beneficial for you also as you get a discount on any supply that you might need to buy for yourself. Better yet you could combine option 1 and 2 and buy cheap materials to make for others!

3. Teach others how to make Scrapbooks

Make money heading classes in stores or community centers teaching students how to make scrapbooks. These classes can be specific to certain things such as card making, mini albums, rubber stamping, etc. or you could go ahead and just call it Scrapbooking 101. You could also offer classes at events such as baby showers. You could attend a baby shower and help guests and the client learn how to make scrapbooks to treasure these moments while you still remember them. Using relationship and major events in other people’s lives is a great way to make money!

4. Set up a Scrapbooking Store Online

Are you a techy? Become an affiliate of an online scrapbooking store and sell there products in your store. This is a fun and easy way to make money scrapbooking no matter where you live! All you need is an internet connection. Although making a successful site may cost some initial money, the potential is great.

Start earning money using your scrapbooking skills! A scrapbooking business will help your clients capture their precious moments forever. Enjoy the numerous opportunities of a scrapbooking business.

These days scrapbooking has become a very popular hobby! To start scrapbooking, a theme or several themes are required on which you will base your material. There are many different things to make a scrapbook for, but it is a good decision to use scrapbooks to portray moments that are important in your life.Scrapbooking is becoming a more and more common hobby. Everybody has little mementos of their lives, whether it be a photo of your child’s first birthday or it be a necklace from your grandmother. Scrapbooking is a great way to preserve these memories forever. Finding these special moments of your life shouldn’t be too hard. Just think of good times and first few events you think of are probably it. Many people start their first scrapbooks by mapping out their wedding day and small things that were used on that day such as invitations, or flowers used.

But weddings aren’t the only thing that can be put in a scrapbook. For all parents the birth of a child is extremely precious. Scrapbooking baby showers, invitations, ultrasound pictures, and maybe some congratulation cards can be included in your scrapbook. Any item that brings nostalgic feelings deserves a place in the scrapbook. Many parents continue the scrapbook as the child grows up, putting key events in their child’s life in the scrapbook.

There are still many other things to scrapbook about: an activity or event that you love. Sports and the like are excellent for scrapbooks. Items such as team photos, names of fellow players, medals that you might have won keep a lasting record of your past life forever. You might even get some teammates to ‘autograph’ your scrapbook under or on the team picture!

Family get-togethers are fantastic events to scrapbook. Photos of these reunions, and things that you might have done are especially important to place in your scrapbook to never forget the treasured times. You can even bring the scrapbook from previous reunions to later ones to trigger memories and nostalgia. Keep the scrapbook going for generations by creating a tradition of handing off the scrapbook from the current maker to the youngest each reunion.

There are so many themes for scrapbooking dependant on your life. Job advancements, Parties at work, starting to work for you are all fun to make scrapbooks of. Work related scrapbooks let your tough, uptight, daily routine lighten up a bit by scrapbooking about all the fun things that might have happened at work. Funny photos of members, business cards, silly emails and quotes from coworkers are all good things to put in your scrapbook. Your fellow workers will be impressed and have a bit of a laugh at your efforts.

The plethora of themes about your life for your scrapbook is almost infinite. The one and only requirement for your scrapbook is that you base it on key events of your life. Scrapbooks are designed to become a nostalgic and fun tradition for you and your family. They can start laughs, tears, and allow you to spend time remembering memories about family and friends.