Now that you have some of the basics, let’s get into all the details that can bring your scrapbook to life!
10. Patterning
How can you arrange your scrapbook page to best show off your mementos and embellishments? You can place everything in the center of your page, place a single focus item in the center, or divide the page into sections adding items to each section. You may also choose to lay the items out in a standard recipe or calendar layout.
Shapes also make interesting placement patterns. Common shapes include circles, squares, hearts, and stars. However, you can also place items in object patterns such as mountains, trains, or Christmas trees.
The shape you choose for your scrapbook will depend
entirely on your theme. For instance, a logical shape for a wedding or Valentines Day scrapbook is a heart. A nice shape for a Christmas scrapbook is a Christmas tree. You might make a cake pattern for you niece the pastry cook. Let your imagination and creativity be your guide.
Various ready made patterning templates are available on the market.
11. Spacing
Spacing is a difficult matter. There is a fine line between having a balanced scrapbook page and a gaudy mess. If items are too closely spaced your reader will feel overwhelmed. If your items are spaced to far apart your viewer will feel short changed.
Look at your page.
Close your eyes.
Open them again.
Does your page look cluttered?
Does your page have more photographs than background?
Are your embellishments drawing the focus away from your mementos?
Then, you need to simplify your page a bit and increase the spacing between objects. Remember you can always add more pages.
Is your page bare? Is your page uninteresting and colorless?
Then, think about adding some more mementos and colorful embellishments. In this way, you can decrease the spacing between objects making your page more energetic.
12. Mounting
Once your scrapbooking page is laid out to your liking you can begin attaching and gluing your various mementos, text,band titles. Never glue as you go! Not only will glue end up all over the place but you will no doubt find out too late that the title doesn’t go well with the photograph or that the spacing is too tight.
There are several ways to attach items to your scrapbook page.
Some of the best sanity savers include glue dots, glue pens, Xyron adhesives, and two-sided tape. Glue dots and glue are fairly mess free and stick to almost anything made of paper or fiber. Mini glue dots are great for those very small items. Xyron adhesives and two-sided tape works for those larger jobs and work on almost any item type.
13. Getting Rid of Messes and Mistakes
No matter how careful you are, you will undoubtedly find a mistake, mark, or mess on your finished scrapbook page. If you find a mistake, mark, or glue bits on your scrapbook page, just rub it off using a soft white eraser.
Alternately, make the mark into an interesting squiggle or doodle.
For mistakes in journal text, cover the mistake with a sticker the same color as the journal page. Then, just write over the sticker. White out can also be used for white pages.
Fingerprint smudges on your photographs can be removed by rubbing the fingerprints with a piece of flannel or a dry baby wipe.
Excess powder or glitter can be brushed away. This is time consuming and frustrating. The best solution is to reduce static electricity before you add the powder or glitter. Just place a dryer sheet on top of the page before you work.
14. Preservation
You put a great deal of time, thought, and effort into your scrapbook pages. Therefore, you should try to protect and preserve your work.
The most important way to protect your pages is by using lignin free and acid free products. Lignin free and acid free protects will reduce yellowing and crumbling. Also, use colored paper or ink that is resistant to fading due to age, exposure to light, heat, and other unfavorable conditions.
To protect your page from the outside world, use Mylar or page protectors. Special page protectors for three dimensional pages are also available at most craft stores.
These protection pages not only protect your objects but also reduce indentations caused by three-dimensional objects.
15. Making Copies
The great thing about modern technology is that you can make copies of your baby announces, recipes, and calendars without a great deal of hassle. This reduces time and money.
Furthermore, the ability to copy scrapbook pages allows more scrapbooking uses.
Simply scan and print pictures onto paper or vellum.
Then, paste your pictures onto card stock and add a ribbon or other embellishment. Quickly and easily you have another copy of your baby announcement, recipe, or calendar.
16. Newspaper Clippings
A popular addition to scrapbook pages is newspaper
clippings. Newspaper clippings of birth announcements, team photographs, or favorite celebrities add a personal touch to scrapbook pages.
Newspaper contains about 4% lignin. Therefore, yellowing and brittleness of the newspaper paper will eventually occur.
However, since the percentage of lignin is low, newspaper will preserve for many years before this deterioration process begins to occur. To further slow this process, use Mylar or page protectors to protect the newspaper from the outside elements.
17. Graphics and Clipart
Various graphics and clip art are available on the Internet. Many of these items can be downloaded or printed for free.
Downloading and printing images is a good way to find
pictures or photographs of your child’s favorite television character or band for a unique personalized touch.
Print these graphics or clipart directly onto lignin-free and acid-free paper.
18. Kid’s Art
Kids bring home the greatest creations of macaroni, glitter, and finger paint. Unfortunately, the macaroni bits and glitter is soon all over the floor or eaten by the dog.
To save these creations, without the macaroni and glitter mess, simply scan and print your child’s creations for use in your next scrapbook.
Kid’s art is great for use for kid’s rooms, grandparent
scrapbooks, and kid’s scrapbooks. These pictures can be used as backgrounds, as focus items, or as embellishments.
19. Weaving Photographs
For more dramatic results from your photographs, trying weaving two copies of the same photograph together. This technique creates a three-dimensional artist look. This technique would look great on a scrapbook for a graduating art student or a scrapbook for a friend who is quite artist and creative. This technique might also look good on a child’s scrapbook with a kid’s art background giving the whole page an abstract look.
To achieve this technique, first you need two copies of the same photo. On one photograph, draw evenly spaced vertical lines on the back of the picture. Cut along these lines with scissors or an exacto knife. On the other photograph draw and cut along evenly spaced horizontal lines.
Next, using alternate strips, from photograph one and then photograph two, weave the pieces together. To preserve the rectangular shape of the photographs, start your weaving in the center of the piece and work outwards.
20. Collage
Collages are congregations of photographs or news clippings. These items can be placed in any order or pattern. Collages can have a theme such as a single individual or an entire family group combined.
Collages create great funky scrapbook pages. This method is especially useful for surprise scrapbooks meant to overwhelm the reader either with all of their accomplishments or all those that care for them.
In addition to photographs and news clippings, collages can also contain blocks of text or embellishment. These additions can be used to increase the busyness and overwhelming nature of the collage or reduce the effect slightly by distracting the focus away from the collage.
To reduce shifting of the photographs as you select an appropriate collage design, place temporary tape on each photograph or newspaper clipping. Once the display is set, start permanently attaching the collage to the background.