Digital photography has made scrapbooking easier than ever before.
Digital cameras allow you to view your pictures immediately instead of
waiting hours or days for film to be developed.

You will also know if you have captured the perfect shot as soon as you take it and you can discard unwanted pictures right away instead of wasting time and money having your film developed only to discover that half your pictures did not turn out the way you had intended.

Digital photographs can be uploaded to your computer immediately and
most photo editing software includes various borders, cropping tools, and
the ability to include captions.

Digital photos can be stored indefinitely and you may choose to have them made into a CD Rom as an extra measure of safety. You will be able to edit, touch up, and alter your photos as you see fit in just minutes thanks to the convenience of photo editing software.

Digital cameras have become inexpensive and some brands even offer disposable digital cameras that can be used once and developed into pictures or a CD Rom at your local retailers.

Having access to your photos in digital form will allow you to be as
creative as you wish in creating unique scrapbooks.

You may print your photos from your computer using special photo printing paper or create online scrapbooks that you can share with the world in an instant. You will only be limited by your imagination when you use digital photos in your scrapbooks.

For those who have never owned or used a digital camera, have no fear. You can take digital photos with the same ease as a conventional camera, and you will be delighted to see your pictures displayed immediately on your camera screen.

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas for your new baby in her newsletter www.baby-scrapbooking.com

Share This

You can create more scrapbooks in less time of you take a few moments
to organize your thoughts and supplies. Before starting your newest
scrapbooking project, plan out everything you will need and have it close
at hand.

This includes supplies such as tape, glue, and pens, photos
and memorabilia you intend to use, and an idea of how you want your
pages to flow from one to the next.

Effectively organizing your scrapbooking projects includes keeping a
written record of what worked for you in the past and what did not.

Notes of materials and fabrics that worked and those that were difficult to
maneuver, the types of paper and decorations that were the easiest to
attach, and which particular supplies were the most effective will save
you a lot of time when starting a new scrapbooking project.

Basic supplies such as scissors, paper, and page protectors should be kept in a special box or container so they will be within easy reach when you are
ready to begin your next project.

Keeping your family photos and mementos in a central location will make
it much easier to locate the ones you wish to include in your newest
scrapbook. Your calendars and journals should be kept up to date. This
will save you many hours if you don’t have to take time to remember
dates and places.

Make a special effort to keep your information current. Digital photos can be placed into directories according to the special event, the person, and the places in which the photos were taken.

Advance planning and making an effort to keep your scrapbooking items in a
central location are the best ways to keep yourself organized and make
scrapbooking a joy rather than a stressful experience.

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas on her radio show at www.ScrappersTalkRadio.com.

Share This

One-page layouts work well for busy scrapbookers. When you do one page at a time, you will have more time to complete the scrapbook and then have plenty of time to clean up. One-page layouts also have a sense of intimacy because the pictures are placed closely together on the page, along with the journaling and embellishments. You will have an album that is full and complete bursting with color and pictures. Because the layout is smaller, this is also often an easier option for beginning layout designers or for crafters who do not have a large workspace to spread out two pages at a time.

Two-page layouts, on the other hand, create an album that is more spacious. If you have a lot of pictures then it will be almost impossible to put all the pictures on one page. You can split them up over multiple layouts; however, by creating a two-page layout, you give the pictures a sense of togetherness. You will want to spread out the pictures over three or four pages and carry a theme to each page so that there is a consistent design. Two-page layouts also work well when you have a few pictures that cannot be cropped and will therefore not fit onto one page. When you do a larger layout you will be able to place everything you want in the pictures and have plenty of room for writing or doodling.

Either way that you scrapbook, there are disadvantages. You may not want to use just one of the ways exclusively. When it comes to a one page layout you won’t have to worry about having the paper to coordinate into two pages, however, the album may seem to be disconnected as a whole. Meaning, if you have one page of something and one page of another thing, it just won’t flow. You will want to choose the best options for you so that you can make a great scrapbook. You will find that when you have some patience, you will be able to give the pictures a good way to display them so that it all look interesting and fun.

Share This

As a homeschooling mom of 4 girls, scrapbooking for kids has been on my mind alot lately. Let me back up a bit. My 4 year old was quietly playing one day with a roll of stickers. Afraid I was going to later find a bunch of stickers caught in the carpet, I asked her what she intended to do with them. She pondered for awhile and then said, “I am going to put them in a scrapbook. Mom, can I have my own scrapbook?” For some reason, this caught me by surprise, as I thought how wonderful of an experience this could be! So, I started thinking about it more and have come up with some tips and ideas to share with you on scrapbooking for kids.

First of all, I will admit, I am cheap! I wasn’t sure how excited I would be at the thought of my 4 year old and her sisters cutting up my beautiful papers and glueing everything down in sight! I immediately thought of our local dollar store. They have albums that would be perfect for showcasing their creations in for the time being. The dollar store also offers scrapbooking supplies in the form of kits, stickers and embellishments. We have a reward system in place, where the girls can earn a trip to the dollar store to purchase their own scrapbooking supplies to do with as they please. This alleviates the desire to “mess” with my stash while instilling a sense of responsiblity to earn thier reward!

Here are a few more “scrapbooking for kids” cost saving tips:

Have too many pictures to scrap? Let the kids scrap the leftovers.
When developing photos, get double prints. Let the kids scrap with the doubles.
When you complete a project, put the leftovers and unused scraps in a container for them to use. They can create their own embellishments with the scraps. You will be amazed at what they can create!
One thing I do want to mention, when you scrap for the first time with your children, be prepared to help and guide them. Don’t expect to get much done on your own pages until they start to get a feel for what they want to do and accomplish in their own scrapbooks. Now that they are ready to scrap, what should they scrap? Here are a few scrapbooking for kids layout ideas:

Have them scrap a page all about their favorite things at that particular age. (then repeat it for each year and see how their favorites have changed or stayed the same)
Have your kids scrap about their favorite activities or sporting events they are involved in. I’m sure you have plenty of photos!
Turn it into a learning experience and have them interview the subject of the photo. This would be great for older generations.
If there aren’t enough photos, have them draw pictures of people. Then watch how their drawings progress. Each one of my girls have a specific style of how they draw family members. It is interesting and fun to look at.
What about incorporating their artwork and creations? I am very blessed to get cards, pictures and artwork on an almost daily basis from my girls. But what do you do with all of them? Here are a few ideas:

Hang on the refrigerator for all to see. Then once the fridge is full, take a picture of your child in front of their artwork and scrap the photo. You can also incorporate their artwork into the layout.
Color copy and reduce the drawings/projects and use as photos in your layout or as embellishments.
Are you near the end of a roll of film? Use up those last couple of shots of your child’s artwork.
Use pocket pages to “hold” your child’s artwork.
Create a “brag” book and give to grandparents or other family members as a special gift!
Even though I can be anal at times, I still want to incorporate my girls work into my scrapbooks as well. Afterall, they aren’t really my scrapbooks but for all to enjoy! Here are a few “scrapbooking for kids” ideas:

Use child’s drawings as a background paper.
Use their creations as embellishments. You’ll be amazed at what they can create with some paper, scissors and adhesive!
Interview them. Ask them questions about the photo, layout, their mood. This would make for some awesome journaling!
I hope the above tips will give you some ideas on scrapbooking for kids!

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Dawn Stegall is a homeschooling mom of 4 girls and owns www.FaithfullyYours.net a site dedicated to scrapbooking your faith!

Share This

Generation scrapbooking is a wonderful way for different generations of your family to bond and share your family history. Spend some time to get everyone in the family involved in creating scrapbooks. Not only will you share pictures and stories, it will be a wonderful bonding experience as well.

Scrapbook For Your Child
Start a scrapbook for your child and get him or her involved in creating the pages. You can create a new book each year together with your child. Include artwork, homework as well as current pictures of your child and friends. Ask your child to help in creating layouts, choosing embellishments and adding descriptive titles and text. Depending on your child’s age, you may even want to let her do most of the scrapbooking and writing with a little assistance from your of course. You’ll be surprised how much you will learn about your child’s life outside of your home. The two of you will get to spend some quality time together and create a memento to remember it for years to come.

Scrapbook Your Family History
Record your family history in a scrapbook. Put your family’s story on paper for future generations. Create a special generation scrapbook that tells the story of your own childhood, teenage years, or how you and your spouse met. When your children are grown, they will appreciate being able to get a glimpse of what your life was like back then. Keep adding to the scrapbook over the years and get everyone in the family involved in deciding what should be added. You will create a book that everyone in the family will cherish and pass on for years, maybe even generations to come.

Share Old Photo Albums
Go through old photo albums that have been in your family for decades. Spend some time with older family members to look through these albums. You will gain an appreciation for your family history and the life your family members lived long before you were born. You may also want to discuss options to preserve these old pictures.
If you would like to incorporate some of these pictures in your current scrapbooks, have copies made, or scan the pictures in your computer, edit them and then print. You can correct faded color and even some small tears and nicks with modern photo editing software. Plus you will have a digital version of the picture that will last long after the original photo deteriorates.

Grab that fabulous scrapbook that you bought months ago and saved for a special occasion and start generation scrapbooking today about yourself and your family. You will enjoy the process of creating that special book just as much as being able to share it with family members once it is finished.

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas on her radio show at www.ScrappersTalkRadio.com.

Share This

Online photo albums are a great way to preserve your memories and share
them with the world.

Scanning and saving photos to your computer is a simple way to view your pictures and organize them chronologically or according to subject matter.

You can create wonderful photo albums that can be viewed online by your friends and family by utilizing the tools and storage options that are available online.

Online photo albums are inexpensive to create, and some sites will allow you to create and store your albums free of charge. Which software and options you choose will depend on the size of your photo album and what you wish to do with it.

There are many places on the internet that will allow you to store
photos and create albums for free. You simply upload your photos and
organize them as you see fit.

You will be able to send a link to friends and family that will allow them to access your album instantly. Free online album storage will generally contain advertisements or banners, but if this is not an issue for you, free storage is a wonderful way to share your special memories.

Most online photo album sites will provide you with various tools to personalize your pages with text and backgrounds. For the more serious photo and scrapbook enthusiast, thereare numerous album storage options that charge a small to moderate fee and contain many tools and specialfeatures not available through free album storage sites.

Online photo albums are easy to create and allow you to creatively
display your pictures and special memories. You may create albums of any
size and center around any theme you choose. The creative options are
endless and you will be able to share your photos with the world in an
instant.

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas on her radio show at www.ScrappersTalkRadio.com.

Share This

When it comes to thousands of different types of scrap booking papers and other accessories you will find that it can be overwhelming at the supplies place. Since you do have so many options, you will find that it can be difficult for a person to scrapbook when they are in a small apartment or dorm room, but you can get organized and keep things looking good and clean and that will help you to be able to scrapbook more efficiently.

It will take up the most space and time when it comes to getting your papers organized. A good option for this is a paper saver, as made by most of the larger scrap booking companies. These folders are made of plastic most of the time and they can be tagged and hold hundreds of papers. This will help you to categorize your papers. If you find that you do not have enough room in a paper saver, you might also find it useful to invest in a filing cabinet or one of the sets of drawers made especially for scrap booking. You can purchase these in any of the local craft stores or you can go online as well.

Once you own a tool for organization, the next step is to decide how you want to categorize your supplies. You will find that color is most often used, but you can make it into a theme like a certain day or holiday. You may also want to think about making patterns like stripes. You can also use this system to organize flat embellishments, such as die cuts or stickers.

You also need a place to store your tools and embellishments that are not easily filed. You will find that one good way is to use baskets and a shelving system to help your to store and organize your tools and embellishments. Store cutting tools in one basket, glues in another, markers and paint in a third, and so on is a good way of approaching the art of organization. By buying baskets in bulk, you will save more money then if you use photo boxes, and the display will be uniform and attractive. Make sure that you label your baskets or shelving so that you can find everything quickly.

If you need to save space, however, a basket and shelving system may not work for you. You will want to make a kit of some of your most often sued tools and supplies so that you can keep them close and you won’t have to dig or look around. That way when you only have time to do a quick page or two, you can use your kit to complete it and then quickly clean up. However, you can use all of your time in one day and book a whole scrapbook together and also you can pull out the supplies and storage so that you can complete the album.

You will also want to keep in mind that the space that you use to scrapbook is clean and organized. This will allow you to enjoy your time scrap booking. When you learn how to label the storage containers and learn how to organize your papers, you will be able to quickly be able to pull out the tools that you need. You will find that if you really want to get into scrap booking you will take the time to label your storage containers and sort through the mess. Once you have gotten over the mess, you will be able to get comfortable with scrap booking.

Share This

I like to begin by creating a title for each page. You can be plain with the way that you create the journaling for each page like what the party was for or you can get funny or think about something heartfelt to write. Think of your page as a story and then name it. Use big bold letters for the title to draw attention to it, but make sure it does not overwhelm the most important elements of the page – the pictures.

Each picture on your page should have a few words as a caption. You will want to name the people in the pictures or the places that can be seen in the background. This is because you may not be able to remember where the pictures came from or who certain people are years and years down the road. Others who do not know all of your friends will also benefit from these labels. You also want to think about captions as a small element on a page and you may only want to use a caption occasionally and not put a caption on every picture.

You will also want to include text into your page design. I like to keep this text around the same size as the smallest photograph, but of course this depends on the page layout. Many pre-made layouts will already include a space for text. Use this element of the design to record the “story” behind the pictures. Think about it in a way like you would when you look back with a friend. Like what would you say to the friend or what would the friend say to you? All of this information is readily forgotten, so it is important to jot down a few words on a piece of notebook paper and save it with your photographs if you think that you won’t get the chance to create your pages right away. Time just seems to blend the years together. Very few people can remember everything they did by date, but if you include a date or time you will be able to preserve the memories.

Occasionally you may forget your camera at an important event, lose your pictures, or not be allowed to use a camera in the space. Even if you went somewhere and you didn’t take pictures, you can still document that part of your life by using the scrapbook to document. These pages will be mostly journaling. Use descriptive words to take the place of the photographs.

For those who have a fear of using their handwriting to journal, you don’t have to worry because you can use letter stickers and cutouts to help you to journal. However, when you use your own handwriting, even if it is bad, you can use the handwriting to give it some character. However, you can also use your computer to print out some journaling elements on each page. You will want to choose some way of journaling that will allow you to scrapbook in a dramatic way and help create a wonderful album.

Share This

You have a ton of new scrapbook supplies, set up a space, researched scrapbooking techniques and now you’re ready to get started.  Before you can start putting together your first layout, you have to actually choose one.  This seems like a simple task, but there are so many styles and options it’s hard to know where to start.  Here are some great ways to find possible layouts for your scrapbooks.

If you’re looking for possible layouts, the first place you should look is online.  There are hundreds of scrapbooking websites, many with free layouts and how to’s on how to make them.  Simple to complex, budget to expensive; there are ideas for every person and every occasion.

You can also find inspiration from scrapbook galleries and message boards.  People can submit pictures of their layouts, and they do so on a regular basis.  This means there’s a constant supply of new layout ideas one pretty much every topic (and every budget) you can think of.  Plus people are usually nice enough to give you tips and tricks about how they put it together. Two very active places to check out are Scrapbook.com and Two Peas.

Books are a great place to get started while choosing a layout.  With just a little searching, you can find books with hundreds of sample layouts.  But there’s so much more you can gather from books than just layouts to copy.  Many books help get you started on creating your own layouts by sharing scrapbooking philosophies and ways to spark your own imagination.  You may even find inspiration from a book that has nothing to do with scrapbooking, like a beautiful picture, poem, or quote.

If you want more original ideas without pulling them straight from a book, why not have a get together with friends and family who scrapbook?  You can get ideas from their work, or they can give you tips on a layout you’re already working on.  You never know, you may just get inspiration from a random conversation, story, or shared memory.

Sometimes the best layouts don’t come from friends or web pages; they come from you.  Scrapbooks are supposed to showcase your life and interests, so why shouldn’t they come from your very own inspiration.  If you feel like you can’t seem to come up with ideas, just get out your supplies and start playing.  Soon you’ll find yourself with too many ideas for you to make.

Once you start working on layouts, be sure not to get carried away.  You don’t need to have every idea all slammed into a few layouts.  You can start simple with a picture, journal, and a small embellishment, then work your way up as you buy more tools and gain more skill.  Remember that scrapping is an art, and sometime simple is better.

Share This

If you are creating a photo album for your baby for the first time, or
are unsure where to begin in creating a scrapbook of your baby’s first
year, here are some tips to make it quick and easy to preserve your
photos and memories:

Rather than including every photo you take of your baby, organize your
pictures according to the month they were taken and chose a few of your
favorites from each month.

You can make single page or several pages from each particular month and stage of development without having to spend a large amount of time gluing every single photo into your scrapbook.

Be sure and include birth announcements and baby shower invitations as a special touch.

Keep a notebook or calendar within easy reach to record milestones in
your child’s development. You can then coordinate the events on your
calendar with the month-by-month photos.

It is always a good idea to keep an ongoing journal of special times in your baby’s life so that you can include those moments in your scrapbook. It does not have to be elaborate or detailed, just a few special dates and events that you can include as text next to your pictures.

Include a special folder or sleeve behind each page of your scrapbook
to place the unused photos and mementos. This way you can keep them
within easy reach and add pages to your scrapbook easily at a later time.
Make sure you write the date and place the photos were taken on the
back of the picture or on the folder.

When creating each page of your scrapbook, remember that you can add
extra pages containing amusing notes or special occasions as you see fit.
There is no right or wrong way to make a scrapbook of your baby’s first
year.

Include the photos and events that are the most special to you
and keep extras handy in the event you want to add to your scrapbook
later.

Article Source: http://www.scrapventurearticles.com

Vera Raposo has been scrapbooking since her oldest child was 5. With tons of scrapbooking tips and ideas, Vera is now sharing some of her best scrapbooking ideas on her radio show at www.ScrappersTalkRadio.com.

Share This