When you are beginning to develop your skill in this area it’ll take a little bit of trial-error to see what you like and what you do not like. All of this info will enable you to build on your skill and develop a style. When you settle into a style, you can focus on your rhythm and then raise your pace without reducing the joys of doing the project.

So where do you start you may be asking. I really like to begin with color and be certain it will be a match for the theme of the scrapbook I want to create. Here are a few ideas that will help you.

There are several colors in nature that can provoke a scrapbook theme. When making preparations to do a scrapbook, look at the magazines, books, go for a walk round the block, browse through catalogs and take a look at photographs that artists have painted. The colors you see in all of the areas can function as a starting point for the colors you will use with the theme you have chosen for your scrapbook.

You can sort the pictures into files that would go with different scrapbook themes so you have got a prepared file of ideas to boost a new project. If possible, save a real picture that you might have cut out of a catalog. Be certain not to try capturing or removing these photographs if it might damage the item you found it in.

Using your camera is a great way to keep the info and leave the current magazine or book intact. There also are some great tools on line to help people put together color mixtures for web sites you can use to play with different color combinations until you find a group which will work with the scrapbook theme theme you have selected as well as giving you colors and combinations that you’ll like working with in the project.

Leave your overly critical eye behind as you are getting the original group of colors together so you can sort and delete as you go farther into the scrapbook project planning phase.

As you build your talents in this area of color, your speed at assembling will also increase. Give yourself some extra room so you aren’t attempting to finish a project on too tight a completion schedule. Rushing with your scrapbook totally reduces your talent and takes all the fun out of the project. On the way you will really start to actually get your rhythm and find your own pace as well as style. Then you can consider doing scrapbooks for others or keeping the joy of doing your own to your self your relatives or your chums.

Learning to be a creative person can permit you to preserve your memories and give extraordinary gifts to your family members or keep for yourself. Scrapbooks are just one of the methods to have the memories saved and do it in such a way as to capture the memories of the events. Studying how to scrapbook really is a fun process if you get the right scrapbook tips and tools to help you. Find more help here to inspire and allow it to help you with your new project or increase your skill.

Marjorie J McDonald loves to keep memories in creative ways with scrapbooking. She shares scrapbook tips and scrapbook tools to help you with your projects.

There are many motifs which are ’standard’ for weddings; doves, rings, shoes, flowers (especially in bouquets) and, of course hearts.

Rings are tricky to cut out, so if you’re looking for a ring embellishment the best thing is to find a suitable rubber stamp. Using gold or silver embossing powder supplies, stamp and emboss the ring on a square of card and if you can, make it look as much like THE ring (wedding or engagement) as you can. Cut the square out, mount on a slightly larger square of contrasting or gold or silver card (preferably textured) possibly using a foam pad for dimension, and you have a basic but effective wedding embellishment.

Wedding scrapbooks are usually full of wedding cake shaped embellishments, but if I can get hold a good wedding cake shape, I like to use them as tags. Every page needs at least one tag, so when working on a full wedding scrapbook instead of a mere layout, it is best to make them by batches. One of the easier things to use is a simple die cut of a wedding cake. These can be easily found on ebay or you can have your own die cutting machine for personal use. If you have the ability to create your own, pearlised card looks lovely, and is usually available in white or ivory as well as shell pink, all fit a wedding theme well. There is a sizzix bigz die which is perfect for this. Cut one from plain paper and one from fancy and write your journaling on the plain version. Make sure you complete that before you set up your tag, it’s not fun afterwards! You could turn the fancy tag into an elaborate cake by simply adding tiny pearly dots from a soufflé pen to give an icing effect and then decorate with the smallest cut out flowers you can find in several toning colors. You can then stick your journaling on the back and add to your page with enough ribbon for someone to turn it if they want to read. Or trim the journaling until it is slightly smaller and mount it on top of the full size cake shape. In either case add a ribbon or fiber so you can add the tag to the page. You can use the same technique to cut out shoes and add some tiny flowers where the buckles would be. Personally I like to finish most things with a little transparent glitter, but not everyone likes glitter as much as I do!

Flower embellishments can be made by cutting out flowers from any flowery paper, such as the le-romantique two sided paper ‘loves labyrinth’. The design features a number of rose pairs. Cut out one entire design to use as a base and then cut out single elements. Add these to the base with a spot of silicone glue and tease into a 3D shape. When dry you can add tiny spots of clear glitter to finish it off. The final product is an embellishment that matches perfectly with a layout made of l-romantique papers, frames and tags.

You can also make flowers from die cuts or even more cheaply using a stencil or template such as ‘20 Blossoms’ from Hot off the Press. A number of acrylic stamps include flower heads that are varied in size. You can stamp these, cut them out and layer them together, gently curling the petals for a 3D effect. For something modern try ‘Mindy’s flowers’ from Mindy Terawasa which provides swirls and stems you can stamp on your scrapbook pages while you add the 3d flower heads you have created. For a truly delicate look, try making your flower head from vellum and add just a tiny amount of sparkle. Then glue several flower heads together to make a simple bouquet.

Tiny 3D flowers look great attached to almost anything, a conventional tag, even one originally designed for a parcel, can be made to look good with a few 3d flowers. But weddings are one place where a heart motif is most definitely appropriate. The good news is that this is usually very easy to find. There are several craft punches that can make different heart configurations, however do not limit yourself to just using cut outs. You can use the heart punches to embellish your wedding pages by cutting a strip of paper, plain if your background is patterned, patterned if your background is plain. Punch the strip and remove the punched out hearts (for use on other pages), then either placing the paper strip back direct over your background, or put a ribbon below it to make a very decorative border. Ribbon can be very useful in creating a contrast of texture as well as color and satin ribbon provides a beautiful shiny surface which looks very luxurious.

A myriad of possibilities are there for you when you are thinking about wedding pages, I am often surprised that some people shy away from them in the belief that there’s little creativity involved. Your scrapbook is what you make it and that’s half the fun. One day create a layout from a design you’ve seen and scrapbook embellishments you’ve bought, the next do it all from scratch and really express yourself. There are no rights and wrongs. Simply go for what you want!

If you are scrapbooking your own wedding, you are creating a historical document. Don’t go for a small format like 8 by 8 for something this important. Buy a good quality scrapbook, letter size or 12 by 12. This will not only give you room for larger pictures, you’ll be able to add copies of documents like the marriage certificate without losing too much space. You will want to copy all the pictures before you start to mess about with them, and of course you can scan and print your documentation at any convenient size.

When you consider the pages, think about what kind of questions your daughter would pose on the topic of your wedding. How long was the engagement? What did your ring look like? When did you know that you were ready to get married? Where did you get your dress? Why did you choose it? How much did you spend? Think about the information you want to leave behind. Your wedding photograph album has the official version, you scrapbook can be as honest as you want it to be. You can tell the whole story of how his mother brought you bridesmaids you didn’t want and didn’t know, or how your mother hated the dress, or you can simply go with the best memories and ignore the ones that aren’t so great.  When it comes to your daughters turn, it may be useful to be able to show her what you went through.

If you are scrapbooking a parent, or grandparents wedding you might like to create some embellishments which have been artificially aged. For example, the pictures for my grandparents’ wedding are in black and white while my parents’ are in sepia. Both of these look a little odd on colorful backgrounds, so I’d suggest creating your own background pages. Find a relatively plain background paper you like and choose two two toning colors of Tom Holtz. Using a mask, such as The Flourish from Tim Holtz, you can create an effect which will be in your chosen colors, but will look printed, and it’s much cheaper than using the ink in your computer printer!

Masks are ideal for wedding pages and very easy to work with. Just put the mask down on the scrapbooking paper – it is adhesive but completely repositionable. With a toning ink begin to dab around the mask using a sponge or blender. Tim Holtz masks are transparent which means that what you see is what you get.  As you color areas of the page with your distress inks, blending and shading as you go, the area under the mask remains the same. Your background can be as subtle or as striking as you like, depending on the colors you choose. Using a fine water spray you can spread and blend the distress ink colors creating one of the mottled paper designs you see in expensive collections, only this time you are in control and can choose the right colors for your photos and layout.  If you plan to put your photos in the middle, concentrate the ink effects towards the edge. It’s easy to shade top to bottom or right to left, when you are in control of the shading! You can use this technique as often as you like – let the ink dry, move the flourish mask and work with another color, or use a different mask entirely. You can create wonderful effects by using masks and stamps together, create delicate, shaded backgrounds and stamp on top in white or grey ink this time, or leave the mask in place and stamp over that. Touches of gleaming gold can create a luxurious effect, and of course you can always add that touch of transparent glitter!

Weddings are intensely personal, and while there are many beautiful wedding papers, tags, frames and embellishments available to buy, nothing is quite the same as creating your own unique pages for your own family wedding.  Once the pictures and other items are added, you not only have a wedding scrapbook, you have a family heirloom, ready to tell your story to generations yet to come.

As Mother’s Day comes around all scrapbookers will want to create a scrapbook layout – but for what purpose? Here are three things you should think about when considering a project like this.

1. Your Mom. Celebrate your Mother in a scrapbook or layout, large or small.

2. Your daughter. Scrapbooks get passed down to daughters. I don’t know why. If you are fortunate enough to have a daughter, think about adding a page to the special scrapbook you keep for her that shows something you and she have done in the past year.

3. You. Add to your own scrapbook special times you’ve spent with your mother, your daughter, or both!

If your mother is a scrapbooker herself, you might want to consider making a layout that she can attach to her own scrapbook. Feature moments or things that you did together within the year, or an event from your joint past. Go for a layout that is simple and uses colors that blend well with the photographs that you have. The relationship between Mother and Daughter can sometimes be quite challenging, so if you are having trouble coming up with just the right words to write you can use something like a rub on to display your feelings, or find a poem or a favorite quotation on quotegarden.com (search for ‘mothers’) that sums up your relationship. One of my favorites is from Milton Berle ‘If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?’

My mother and I have always had fun singing, so the best method for me to design a layout for her is to visualize one line from a song. She is also particularly fond of butterflies, so it’s always easy to find a theme for a page for her, and I enjoy creating colorful butterflies and flowers,  with the Garden Delight or Patterned Bug stamps from Inkadinkadoo. I usually stamp and emboss these onto colored card and cut them out,  but recently I’ve been experimenting with the Suakura embossing glaze pens, a fabulous way to make butterflies almost as colorful as the real thing. My latest page was made from the saying ‘Friends are Flowers in Nature’s Garden’ because I found we had lots of small pictures of our friends. I cut these into circles and made them the center of flowers. It was a two page layout with small 3D flowers along the lower border and stamped bugs and birds flitting among the blooms. A great big tag with the name of each friend finished off the page, tied with a toning ribbon. Flowers are always a safe theme for Mother’s Day, but try to make it as personal as possible by choosing her favorite flower, her favorite animal or at least her favorite color.

If your mother is not into scrapbooking, you can also create an entire scrapbook for her, but there is no need to do this alone yourself. This is a lovely project to do with your siblings, if you can get them interested. If that’s not the case and you have children, ask them what ‘Grandma’ means to them. Children don’t always get the chance to do this. Each one can contribute, if not a page, a picture and tag that says something about what ‘Mother’ or ‘Grandmother’ means to them. The great thing about scrapbooks is that professional portraits and kids drawings can all have equal importance, it’s the personal aspect that counts.

When choosing a theme for the whole scrapbook, how about a word. ‘Busy’ or ‘Creative’ would be just right for my Mom, or a simple color scheme of blues and lilacs; you can try looking for themed papers that can be associated with any of your mom’s interests. A friend of mine has a mother who has collected sheep all her life; cuddly sheep, china sheep, glass sheep, every kind of sheep, so when they put together a scrapbook for her 60th birthday, guess what was the theme! In the past I’ve created an album with a pineapple theme and another for a friend who was seriously into rabbits. Both really enjoyed their personalized scrapbooks, but if there is nothing personal you can think of, try to get inspiration from your Mother’s house. Her taste in decor are great sources for clues.

The things you will need for the entire scrapbook are

• 1 album with page protectors

• 20 good quality pieces of scrapbooking paper/card to use as a background. It’s best to choose background paper that comes in sets, or to make your own, using card, stamps and Distress Inks. You can see how it’s done in our YouTube video Ranger Distress Ink Ideas – just go to youtube and search for Dinglefootdotcom.

• Double sided tape

• 6 or more pages of contrasting papers. You can cut border, mattes and tags from these sheets.

• Assorted brads, stamps and embellishments, for example

• • Amy Butler Fabric Covered Brads ~ K & Company — use these to attach tags and journalling papers

  • Amy Butler Belle Chipboard Alphabet – K & Company – use these to make heading for some pages

  • 20 Blossoms 12″ x 12″ Template ~ Hot Off the Press – use this template to create flower embellishments to add to your pages

  • some Tim Holz Distress Ink pads  – use to create patterns on plain background pages or to stamp and emboss with

• A pen to write your journalling with, unless you plan to do this on a computer.

• Other suggestions would include

• • and ink pad and embossing powder (gold and silver go with everything)

  • a paper punch to create cut outs on border or frames

  • some frames to place over your pictures

  • vellum to create focus on your pages

  • some mattes to place under other pictures

  • ribbon

  • some rubber stamps

  • Scrapbooking can be a good way to use up broken items, broken earrings, left over buttons can all be glued in to pages to make delightful embellishments.

In terms of photographs, you’ll need at least one for each event. Look for photographs that can tell a story about your mom’s life (ask friends and relatives if necessary) or simply concentrate on your life together. You can create an effective two page layout with just one picture on one page and some journalling on the other, but it can be boring if the whole album is the same. Try to vary the layouts and the shapes of the pictures so your pages don’t all look the same, but remember there is no right or wrong. The only opinions that count are yours and your mom’s.

If you don’t have time to create a scrapbook, buy your mother the next best thing, an introduction to scrapbooking as a hobby. A good book, an album to start with and a scrapbooking gift basket may be just the thing to get her started, and who knows what you might get, next year.

This is a digital age filled with people who want things immediately. No longer content to wait for songs, movies or books, people are turning to digital products to get immediate results. Even scrapbook albums have turned into a digital craze. The digital scrapbook album definitely has its advantages over its paper counterpart. Digital scrapbooking means no glue, adhesive or waiting for family or friends to come over to see your scrapbook. Everything is done online and available for viewing with just a click of a mouse.

The first step for digital scrapbooking is to get all of your pictures together and begin loading them onto a digital format. You can do this either through your camera or a high definition scanner. You can also get started on your digital scrapbook by taking in your memory card (if you do not have a memory card reader) into your local photography lab such as Wal-Mart or Walgreens. They can take the images from the card and burn them onto a disc. You simply take the disc home and load it onto your computer.

Next on the agenda is finding the right photo editing software. This will allow you to digitally alter your photographs and enhance some of the features. Once you have done this it will be time to look at scrapbook ideas to create your digital scrapbook. Just as with traditional scrapbooking, you are going to need scrapbook pages to put your photos on. There are great templates on the internet and you can go to www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com for some wonderful ideas.

Once you have either purchased or gotten the layout pages for free, it is time to assemble your album. Take your time and have fun playing with the embellishments and stickers that can be found on free websites. There is plenty of free stuff out there if you take the time to do a simple web search. The final step for your digital scrapbook is to share it with your friends and family. You can make a compact disc, post it on a webpage or even print out the final product for your loved ones to see.

Do you know the best advantage of digital scrapbooking? You can always change up your digital scrapbook album and make it be anything you want it to be without a lot of fuss and hard work. You can email it to friends and family instantly so everyone will have a copy. It is that simple. If you really want a paper copy, then you can always print the pages out and stick them in a scrapbook journal or album.