5 Tips for Scrapbooking

1. Always save souvenirs from outings and special events to use in your scrapbooking pages. These can include tickets stubs, newspaper concert reviews(you will want to photocopy the review because newspaper is highly acidic), theater programs, fair or exhibition calendars of events(or event listings), wedding invitations, programs, etc, etc. These small additions will add interest and variety to your page. They can also help transport you back in time to the actual event and will help you define the feel of your page.

2. Choose an overall look or feel for the page. If the pictures you have chosen are outdoors at the park or the beach, you may want to use bright yellow paper for your borders or the entire background. This will help to create a warm, sunny look and feel to your whole page. On the other hand, if your are If you are planning to do pages that celebrate your newborn baby, a very pale pink, blue or green will probably do just fine. Remember you want your borders and/or backdrop papers to compliment the elements in your pictures, not detract(distract) attention or take away from them.

3. Choose one picture or in some cases two pictures that you would like to be the focal point of the entire page. These are the pictures that you will highlight with special, somtimes multiple borders, and will be placed in the mid-line or slightly above the mid-line of your page. You will want to choose a photo that stands out from the rest in some way such as the unique perspective of the photo. An example of this would be a wedding photo of the bride and groom waving out the back window of their wedding car including the "Just Married" sign and the tin cans, tied to the fender. Other focal point pictures that are very successful are those of family or friends showing their fantastic, winning smiles or even goofy expressions. After you choose your focal point picture or pictures you may then choose the placement for all the pictures you are using on your page.

4. Crop your pictures down to the important elements of the pictures. If half of the picture is sky, you can get rid of most of that without harming your picture's basic elements. Or, if your picture is a very dark, indoor shot with only a friend's face illuminated by the flash, then crop away the rest of the picture. A small, oval tracer will keep your friend but will get rid of the unwanted dark areas. Digital cameras reduce the amount of cropping that needs to be done because you have the freedom to only print the pictures you like. Even if you use a digital camera, you will probably still have a few picture with irrelevant elements in them. re.

5. Add text or prose to your page. The amount of text you use will vary depending on the result you want to achieve but most people find that even minimal text will add interest to any pages. You may want to include detailed accounts of each day's events in diary-like entries on each page (remember to use acid-free markers or pens). A friend of mine did this for her one-in-a lifetime trip to Brazil. Or your may want to only record the names of the people in each picture. Another popular way to incorporate text into your scrapbooking pages is by using large, fancy lettering for event descriptions headings such as "Kim's wedding" or "Ryan's fifth Birthday". These look fantastic on their own or written or glued onto design elements such as hearts, doves, cakes or birthday hats, for example.

My last bit of advice to you is to have fun with your scrapbooking pages. There is no such thing as the "perfect" scrapbooking page and you will find that the style of your pages will evolve over time. Let your pages be a reflection of your own personality and try not to compare your pages with those of your friends. It's OK to glean ideas from magazines and from friends but don't try to duplicate their pages. Remember, scrapbooking is not a competition. If you find it's really stressing you out then take a deep breath, relax and go back to that wonderful feeling of creating.