Saturday, January 16, 2010

Beginner Scrapbooking: How to Get Started

Beginner Scrapbooking: How to Get Started


Scrapbooking has become a very popular hobby. Perhaps you've admired a friend's scrapbook and thought about creating one of your own. It can't be that hard, right? But once you walk into a scrapbook supply store and see all of the different supplies that go into creating those pretty pages, you might have second thoughts. But , with a little help Beginner Scrapbooking does not have to present a problem.

Creating a scrapbook isn't a matter of just throwing some pictures on a page. But it's not brain surgery, either. If you can cut and paste, you can scrapbook.

For Beginner Scrapbooking Here's how to get started.

1. Choose Your Photos

The most important element of any scrapbook is the photos. Most scrapbooks follow some sort of theme. They might contain pictures featuring a certain person from childhood through present day, or be centered around a specific event such as a wedding or family vacation.

Once you've come up with a theme and selected your pictures, you'll need to further organize them into sub-topics. For example, for a wedding scrapbook, you could do pages with photos of the bride and groom getting ready for the wedding, pictures of the wedding party, and so on. Getting your photos organized first thing makes the project much easier, and you can always make changes later if needed.

2. Select an Album and Paper

Some scrapbookers buy the album first and then decide which photos to put in it, and that's fine. But for your first album, it may be better to choose the album after you've chosen a theme and photos. That way you can easily choose the right color, style and size for the project.

You'll also need to choose some papers that co-ordinate with your album. You'll need paper for the pages, as well as paper to use in matting photos and creating borders. Try to buy all the paper you'll need before you get started. That way, you won't have to worry about running out mid-project and not being able to find another pack of the same paper.

3. Buy Basic Supplies, Tools and Embellishments

When you're just getting started in scrapbooking, you don't need lots of tools. A pair of scissors and a glue stick are all that you absolutely have to have. But there are certain tools that make things easier and give you more options for customizing your scrapbook. A paper cutter, for instance, will make it quick and easy to cut in a straight line. Other tools to consider include hole punches, pinking shears and eyelet setters.

There are all sorts of embellishments available for scrapbooking. But for your first scrapbook, you'll probably want to keep things fairly simple. Stickers are easy to work with, and they come in just about any motif you could possibly want. You can also buy ready-made paper frames for your photos to add a nice touch without a lot of effort.

Alternatively, you could purchase a scrapbooking kit. Found in most craft stores, these kits include co-ordinating papers and embellishments. This isn't the most original approach, but it eliminates the need to search for matching items separately and lets beginners concentrate on learning the techniques used in scrapbooking.

As with any hobby, it's best to start simple when you're learning to scrapbook. You don't have to use lots of fancy embellishments to create a beautiful page. The basics will do just fine, and you can always learn more as you go.

Beginner Scrapbooking: How to Get Started, as you can see with a few basics  you can do it!

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