Archive for September, 2009
3 Reasons Why You Never Finish A Scrapbook
The Odds Are Against You
So you’ve started a couple scrapbooking projects a while back and right now, you’re out looking for layout ideas so you can jumpstart your creativity and get back to those projects. First, I’ll give you 3 main reasons why you won’t finish your scrapbook projects. Then I’ll explain how you can overcome these tremendous obstacles easily to help you enjoy scrapbooking again.
1. You’re Just Too Busy
Scrapbooking is a lot of fun! When you don’t have kids screaming, laundry piling up, mouths to feed, and don’t forget the job! Right now, you probably think that in order to get any real progress made on a scrapping project, you need a big chunk of time where you can sit down, uninterrupted, and work on just that. Like there is such a thing… You’re just too busy! Later, I’ll tell you why you don’t need huge blocks of time to complete a scrapbook.
2. Scrapper’s Block
The second reason why you never finish a scrapbook is because you run out of layouts and design ideas. You may have already run out of layouts and design ideas. That’s how you found this site in the first place! Let me tell you from experience, it doesn’t matter how creative you are, everyone experiences scrapper’s block. It’s okay. This site has some pretty cool ideas for jumpstarting your creativity.
3. It takes too long
The third reason why you won’t finish a scrapbooking project is because it takes a very long time to complete. So let’s say you have 20 pages in your book and you’re trying to fill them all. If it takes you 2 hours to do a page, it’ll take you 40 hours to get the whole book filled. 40 Hours?! But I have a job! I have kids! I have to run errands, clean the house, and make dinner! I don’t have 40 hours to spare!
Don’t give up just yet!
So you agree with me now. You’ll never finish your scrapbook. WRONG! All you need is a little encouragement and some really great scrapbooking layout ideas. Really good scrappers (the kind that do it for a living and pretty much always finish their projects) use what are called sketches. A sketch is like having a scrapbook pattern. It’s a drawing of a scrapbook page with placements allocated for pictures, trim, embellishments, titles, journal sections, and so on. The best sketches can be used several times in the same scrapbook without anyone ever noticing that it’s the same layout, just with different paper, colors, trim, and other embellishments.
Maximize your time
Scrapbook sketches help you to make the most out of the little time that you have. You don’t have to waste your time pushing around embellishments trying to find the best layout. Just choose your pictures and embellishments, pick a layout, and set your design according to the sketch. You could cut your time by up to 75% just by using the sketches! So now instead of 2 hours per page, you’re spending 30 minutes!
No more scrapper’s block!
When you use scrapbooking sketches to design your scrapbooks, you don’t have to worry about coming up with a new design every time you start a new page. I used to spend most of my time staring at a blank page trying to get ideas to come to me. I don’t have that problem anymore. I can sort my pictures ahead of time and when I get a free moment, I open up an ebook I bought called 500 Scrapbooking Sketches. The book is sorted by number of pictures. So if I have 3 pictures in my set, I just go to the section of the book that contains layout sketches for 3 pictures. I usually don’t spend too much time staring at them. They’re just black and white drawings. Until you put them together with pretty paper, stickers, rub-ons, titles, and of course, the pictures, they’re not much to look at. But once you get it all together, it just comes to life! The pages look very professional.
You don’t have to have huge chunks of time
When you’re using a sketch, you don’t need to do the whole page in the same block of time. When I choose a sketch, I just leave it up on my computer screen. Then I can come and go frequently. As long as I have the sketch to go off of, I can’t lose my place or my train of thought. It’s very easy to leave the room, go run an errand, come back, and pick up right where you left off.
My favorite sketches
Not all sketches are great. Most are okay, but there are some sketches out there that can create wonderful scrapbook pages no matter what the colors or theme. A really great sketch is versitle enough to be used in a baby scrapbook AND a new house scrapbook AND a vacation to Rome scrapbook. These are the kind of sketches you want to hang on to when you find them. They’re what will make you a really fantastic scrapper. 500 Scrapbooking Sketches has more of those really great sketches than I’ve ever seen in one book. Big thanks to the author, Jennifer Gormly. Her sketches are really awesome!
image by: meglet127
Choosing Your Scrapbook Theme
Creating a scrapbook is a way to preserve memories, and choosing a scrapbook theme is the first step in designing something to remember a certain celebration. Here are some scrapbooking ideas to help you begin.
The scrapbook theme can be easy or complex. It could be a special event such as a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding, Christmas, or Halloween. Scrapbook themes may also be customized to the scrapbook recipient’s individual interests. Themes could include sports, fave TV programs, music, the out of doors, or cultural influences.
What is the general purpose for your scrapbook?
Who is the scrapbook for?
Who is the scrapbook regarding?
The feedback to these 3 questions are all factors in selecting an appropriate scrapbook layouts. For instance, the scrapbook you are giving your nephew as he graduates from medical college is maybe different than the grandparent book you send your mother. Your nephew will often enjoy a scrapbook with photos, poems, books, and more masculine embellishments The theme of the scrapbook might be medicine. You could create embellishments that looked like knifes and tweezers around various photos of your nephew during his school years.
Your mom, on the other hand, will like a mess of baby photographs fancifully embellished with flowers, ribbon, and baby fingerprints. This scrapbook theme will generally be your baby. Photographs could include baby and gramps with the baby. A nice journal about your baby’s birth could also add a nice touch
Don’t forget to create a title for your scrapbook. Though adding a title might seem to be apparent or trivial, a title outlines the entire basis of your scrapbook. The title immediately tells the spectator what your page is concerning. In one word or one short phrase, the title tells the reader the scrapbook theme and point.
Titles can be as basic as the date of an event, the name of an individual, or a specific event. They also might be more engaging and exciting. Titles can entail quotes, sayings, fillers, or simple phrases. The best places to have a look for title inspiration are in greeting cards, advertisements, and commercials.
Color choice is also critical. Color coordination and contrast will accent and highlight your scrapbook theme. A well thought out color palette can help define the theme of a page, attract attention to precise items, or detract away from mistakes. Poorly chosen color schemes, on the other hand, may cause your scrapbook page to look bad.
Background color can either be matched, coordinated, or contrasted with the colors in your photographs, or elaborations. Matching colors supplements the continuity of the color palette. Coordinated colors add depth to scrapbook pages. Contrasted colors focus the eye. In this manner, color can be used to make the effect you wish.
A great way to see how colors look combined is to gather and check out color wheels from your local paint or hardware store. Paint wheels are usually attainable free to take away in nearly any paint dep.
Almost all scrapbooks will contain photos. Even the most disinterested reader of your scrapbook will glance at the photos. Photos truly are worth one thousand words. , it’s critical to select footage that are of top quality and obviously illustrate your scrapbook theme.
Any photograph can be employed in a scrapbook. Even instant photographs can be used in scrapbooking. Just take care the chemicals in the picture don’t spill out on the remainder of your scrapbook. Digital footage can easily be printed right onto lignin-free and acid -free paper.
Always keep in mind that scrapbooking is permanent. , it is probably preferable to use copies of your sole image of Great Grandma rather than risk spoiling the photograph forever. Simply scan the picture on your computer scanner and print the photograph on lignin free and acid free paper.
Scrapbooking is enjoyable and delightful. You are creating a scrapbook of momentousmemories that is more impressive than a regular picture album. So select your scrapbook theme, get the basic scrapbooking supplies, choose some photos, and get started.
Tags: Scrapbook, scrapbook themes, scrapbooking, scrapbooking ideas, scrapbooking theme
Scrapbooking Layout Ideas
Looking for Scrapbooking Layout Ideas?
Before I started scrapbooking, I thought of myself as a pretty creative person. To me, putting together a scrapbook looked easy. I used to think, “How hard can it be to take a pile of pictures and put them on the pages with pretty paper and stickers and stuff?”. So if you’ve ever tried it before, you probably know what I’m going to say next. It was a lot harder than I imagined! First of all, you have to decide what pictures to use, that part I found pretty easy. Next, I had to come up with a theme. Then I would spend hours pushing stuff around on the page trying to make it all look good together. I quickly decided that I was no good at it. I needed someone to give me some advice or, at the very least, some scrapbooking layout ideas.
The Book With All The Answers
In my quest to learn all I could about the art of scrapbooking and the many techniques, I came across a pretty magical book. It’s called “500 Scrapbooking Sketches”. At first, I ignored it. How could sketches help me? The idea sounded totally absurd. What I needed was scrapbooking layout ideas. Not sketches!
500 Beautiful Scrapbooking Ideas
So when I saw the book a second time, it talked about creating scrapbooking layouts effortlessly and easily. I payed attention this time and I’m so glad I did! 500 Scrapbooking Sketches is a book that contains 500 fantastic scrapbooking layout ideas for you to use. All you have to do is choose photos, flip through the book to find a suitable layout for your number of pictures, and setup your embellishments like the layout shows. It’s much easier than pushing elements around on a page to see what looks the best.
The Only Book I Need
So every time I need good scrapbooking layout ideas, I just open up 500 Scrapbooking Sketches and there’s hundreds of scrapbooking layout ideas perfectly designed to fit all my pages.
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Pet Page Layout & Theme Ideas
Pet Pages Unleased!: Fetching Ideas for Animal-Inspired Scapbook Pages
Pets are beloved family members and a cherished part of countless events and memories. This inspiring guide offers pet lovers hundreds of creative ideas for immortalizing their favorite animals with specially designed scrapbook pages. Scrapbookers will discover: Hundreds of innovative ideas for creating pages dedicated to domestic pets such as dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, fish, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes and birds. Inspiring journaling prompts for recording special moments with pets. Tips and techniques for creating paw print cast molds. Helpful pointers for taking top-notch pet photos and portraits. Heartfelt ideas for remembering past pets. Fun pet facts and stats for extra inspiration. Pet-loving scrapbookers will love this endearing guide to celebrating the ways their animals enrich their lives.
