Scrapbook Tips

Christmas Card Album

A quick and easy idea for storing your treasured Christmas cards and letters is to create a Christmas card keepsake album. This handmade scrapbook album will be fun to flip though for many years. You can include cards, postcards, letters and even photographs. A fun way to preserve your pages and make them sturdy is to use decoupage. A clear decoupage or an antique finish works great with scrapbook pages.

You can trim the cards so you can display the front design and inside messages side-by-side. Another idea is to create card collages if you have lots of cards to include. If you get photographs from family and friends include them next to the cards. Be sure to display the year so you can remember when they were sent.

This is a great project for children to be involved in. Let your kids help assemble the cards and pick out any embellishments they want to include on the pages. Store the scrapbook pages in 3-ring scrapbook albums so you can easily add more pages each year.

Scrapbook Board Book Album

Board books can make adorable mini scrapbooks. The key is making sure the material is lignin-free, acid-free and archival-safe so that your “little treasure” will last a lifetime. Board books can be purchased at discount or dollar stores and covered with scrapbook paper and decorated. You can also purchase blank board books at craft stores or online from various retailers. A board book scrapbook mini album can make a great gift for graduation, baby showers, wedding showers or a brag book for Mother's or Father's Day. They are perfect for almost any occasion.

The board book can easily be covered with cardstock or patterned papers. For the best appearance, you should cover the front and back of the book and then wrap the binding separately. Each page inside can be covered and decorated. You should include embellishments like ribbon, chipboard letters, brads and eyelets. Photo mats and space for journaling is another plus.

Scrapbook Album Blunder

The ever-popular magnetic scrapbook albums from the 1980s have proven to be a “big blunder” in the scrapbooking world. These albums are not acid-free or archival safe. Households everywhere are experiencing yellowed pictures and ruined photos in their magnetic albums. Not only will the albums damage the photos by discoloring them, but they make it extremely hard to remove the photographs from the pages. Scrappers beware, always use archival-safe and photo-friendly albums for your precious picture memories.

Using Liquid Applique

There are so many scrapbooking products to choose from that it is hard to decide what to use on your scrapbooking pages. Dimension on your scrapbooking layouts creates a lovely appearance for your pages. If you are looking for some new ideas for scrapbooking then trying a new product can help you come up with some original designs. Using a product called liquid applique will help you achieve dimension on your scrapbook layouts and also add some character to your stamps, letters or die cut shapes.

When using liquid applique on your scrapbook layouts, you should remember to use it sparingly. Gently squeeze the tube on the item or area where you want to apply it. Go over the letters or fill in the shape you desire. Liquid applique works best if you let it dry overnight, but if you can't wait for it to dry you can use a heat embossing tool to dry it instantly.

Liquid applique can help emphasize a certain area of a shape or picture, such as the center of a flower or the candles on a birthday cake. You can color your liquid applique with ink to enhance an element of your scrapbook page. Extra fine scrapbook glitter can be added to the liquid applique for extra sparkle.

Using liquid applique on your scrapbook designs can assist you in making your pages unique. Experimenting with new products will help keep the excitement alive in your scrapbook routine.

Organizing Your Scrapbook Ideas

Ideas for scrapbooking are found through many resources. Serious scrappers subscribe to scrapbook magazines or buy scrapbooking books full of techniques and ideas. Scrapbooking idea books and magazines can pile up if they are not properly organized.

Here are some organization ideas for your scrapbooking magazines and scrapbook idea books:

• Use magazine holders to organize your scrapbook magazines and books. Sort the magazines by month and year so they are easy to reference.

• If you are only interested in saving specific ideas instead of the entire magazine, you can organize your ideas for scrapbooking into 3-ring binders and page protectors

Organizing scrapbooking tips and ideas will help you locate these suggestions when you need them. Keeping an organized scrap space will help you create beautiful layouts more efficiently.