CREATIVE CRAFTING

Posts Tagged ‘Ideas’

There is no limit to the items you can put into your scrapbook. Extra items can help tell the overall story.

Whether you are doing digital or paper scrapbooks don’t limit yourself to just the purchased embellishments or papers. Did you ever have a scrapbook as a child? Or how about your high school yearbook, did you ever put mementos to remember? I did and so have many others.

Scrapbooks are meant to remind us of a time and place that we were. What we were doing at that time in our history, or what our family was doing.

I have often wondered when talking to other people who scrapbook why they limit themselves to only what they can buy? There are scrapbooking materials all around us in everyday life. There is the newspaper article, the ticket stubs from a concert we went to, even candy wrappers.

With todays’ technology you can preserve anything with the use of a scanner and printer. If you don’t have the actual item or if it is too far gone to be put in a scrapbook. I have a few of those mementos, believe me.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that my husband and I were treated to a trip to Germany recently to visit our daughter who is working over there. Believe me it was a trip of a lifetime and the memories will last that long. But to the point of mementos if you look at the page below you will see sticking out of the back of the actual picture are our airline stubs.

The hardest part of any scrapbooking endeavor is to get your ideas together. For some the scrapbook is considered a work of art while others can slap together a page in a few minutes. It is always hardest, at least for me, at the start. So I came up with a few ideas to help get going on the scrapbook page. I prefer digital scrapbooking, but these principles apply to both digital and traditional scrapbooking.

1. Deciding on a color for the page. This should be the easiest to decide, but for many it is not. I usually try and find a background color to compliment the picture, maybe some obscure color in the picture itself. However, making the scrapbook page out of one color only is not always the best idea. Try laying out a few colors on your table, then laying the picture on top, then pick out which colors “pop” out for you. Don’t be afraid to try different textures too, sometimes a boring color will come alive with a little texture added to it.

2. Have you ever thought of using a literary character as your inspiration for a scrapbook page? If you have a favorite book or author getting ideas from some of their cover art is a great way to incorporate some of your

interest into a page. Taking a character out of your favorite book is another idea. Writers have wonderful imaginations and often portray their hero and heroines as larger than life, incorporate some of those characters into your pages. A scrapbook page, aside from showcasing a picture, should show your character as well.

The title of this book, SCRAPBOOKING OFF THE PAGEàAND ON THE WALL: Off the Page And on the Wall (Scrapbooking) says it all. The projects included within its pages take scrapbooking to a new level, turning your memories into artwork to be displayed on the walls rather than in a book. The project ideas include a variety of themes; Family, travel, vacations, babies, sisters, gardening, children’s special moments, graduation, friends, weddings, heritage, cowgirl, love, sports and pet themes and decorations for holidays and around the house. The unique aspects about the scrapbooking projects in this book are the materials on which the photos are displayed. Among them are canvases, shadow boxes, frames of various shapes and sizes, shutters, an aluminium sheet, particleboard, mat board, a clipboard, ceramic tiles, a wood cabinet door, an artificial evergreen wreath and a small wood screen you assemble yourself.

Scrapbooking is a great passion for a lot of people. The ideas in SCRAPBOOKING OFF THE PAGEàAND ON THE WALL: Off the Page And on the Wall (Scrapbooking) are so exceptional and inspiring they are what makes this book a must have for scrapbookers. The photos are beautifully arranged so they are distinct amongst the embellishments and the relevant memorabilia. I really like how the color combinations from the frame to the papers and embellishments all tie in with the photo in the layout (i.e. the person in the photo of the Cowgirl themed layout is wearing a red sweater and the color of the papers, embellishments and the frame match it as closely as possible). One of my favorite scrapbooking techniques from this book is the use of small frames in combination with big frames either within the layout or hanging from it as part of the embellishment. This technique was used in a couple of the projects in Scrapbooking off the Page … and On the Wall. It was really hard to pick my favorites from the wide variety of layouts because they are all so beautiful and inspiring.