Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Free Scrapbooking Idea's

Free Scrapbooking Idea's

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Scrapbooking Ideas (and Where to Get Them)

Ideas are valuable. Somehow, it seems that people are always underestimating the power of ideas. However, the world today is slowly realizing the importance of ideas and now thrives on trying to turn those ideas into money. That is just the reason why entrepreneurs are the richest people in the world.

A good idea, however, can be hard to come by. You need ideas to fuel creativity. In scrapbooking, ideas can be crucial factors on whether or not you are able to create a viable scrapbook. It is actually best that you come up with your own idea in creating a scrapbook. However, to give you a bit of help, there are free scrapbooking ideas out there.

Here are some places where you can get free scrapbooking ideas:

1) Other people - of course, we all know that all ideas come from people. What this article is trying to point out, however, is the fact that you can try to ask people directly in conversations for some free scrapbooking ideas. In doing so, you can have a brainstorming session and really get good scrapbooking ideas.

2) The internet - the internet is one big resource for all kinds of free scrapbooking ideas. In the internet, there are a lot of different sites which give you free scrapbooking ideas for your use. By checking out the internet, you access the world. This means you not only have access to ideas per se, but you also get to access different types of inspiration boosters. This means that you can actually produce an idea of your own through the internet.

The internet can also provide you with what other people think of this or that idea. Because of this, you can actually gleam what free scrapbooking ideas can work for you. You also get a lot of advice as to how to implement a certain free scrapbooking idea. Because of this, you will have an easier time designing your scrapbook.

3) Craft magazines - different magazines specialize in crafts and may offer you free scrapbooking ideas. By buying magazines like these, you actually gain access not only to free scrapbooking ideas, but also to ideas for other crafts. Also, these magazines can give you various tips on what to do and what not to do when creating your own scrapbook.

Craft magazines also sometimes come with supplements and materials that you can use in implementing different ideas. This means that you not only have access to the "what?", but also to the "how?" of scrapbooking.

What are the advantages of free scrapbooking ideas?

1) You save money - of course, the word "free" should clue you in to the fact that you do not have to spend anything in order to avail of free scrapbooking ideas. By availing of free scrapbooking ideas, you could even actually make money. Ideas today, especially good ones, can give lead to a very lucrative business venture.

2) You save on your effort - By availing of free scrapbooking ideas, you rid yourself of the hassle of thinking up a theme or a design of the scrapbook. If you have some free scrapbooking ideas, you can actually just get on with the stage of making the scrapbook itself. This saves you a lot of effort, especially if you are the type of person who changes his or her mind constantly.

3) You save time - by availing of free scrapbooking ideas, you can actually skip the whole thinking process and just start getting creative. This advantage is ideal in a world where time equals money and money equals survival.

Disadvantages:

1) Lack of individuality - By availing of free scrapbooking ideas, your scrapbook will lack a certain quality of your personality. By availing of another's idea, you rob yourself of the fulfillment that comes with creating a scrapbook straight from your head.

2) No guarantees of satisfaction - By availing of a free scrapbooking idea, you really have no guarantee that you will be satisfied with the final outcome. Although there really are no guarantees about how a creation will turn out, having your own idea means you know the details as to how to make slight changes to your satisfaction. Remember that knowing more about something can help you succeed in perfecting it.


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Monday, September 22, 2008

Scrapbooking Materials

Scrapbooking Materials: Know What to Buy

Originally, it was quite hard to find suppliers and retail stores that would sell you scrapbooking materials. But with enthusiasts settling their own local scrapbooking stores and with online vendors that would sell you everything and anything in between, the hard part becomes the choosing.

Many beginners find it confusing to choose the basic materials once they get into the store. This is of course due to the fact that there simply are too many choices. Add to it the excitement of seeing various colors and designs, samples and layouts and concepts and ideas that will overpower your initial choice of materials.

This is a common mistake. However it must be understood that for beginners, there are only several things that you must buy. In fact, you need not buy them all at once. It is best to check several pieces and test the grounds if scrapbooking lifestyle would work for you.

Planning what must be bought and what must be reserved for other days usually work well when shopping for scrapbooking materials. Many times, the beginner's excitement plus the array of overwhelming choices without enough knowledge on them overshadow a scraper's best judgement in the selection of materials. And later, this would be dealt with regret.

Even veterans fall into this common mistake. And many of us, at one time or another have found ourselves in situations when we were faced with a good sale. We might not need the stuff for the present or might not use them at all yet the urge to buy is harder than our willingness to subdue the impulse.

To help lessen this possibility, it is best to have a definite plan of what materials to buy. In this article, we will tackle about the major scrapbooking material that will prove useful even to the end of your activity.

Album
The most important scrapbooking material and the one that completes the stuff is the album. For album alone, you may already find hundreds of various designs, formats and sizes that would lead you to deciding which would best fit you. We would not discuss the many types of albums here, we'll just provide an overview for some of the basic choices.

Conventional albums appear in 8½×11" or 12"×12" pages. However, smaller albums have become more popular with the integration of newer scrapbooking formats. Other smaller sizes appear in 6"×6" to 8"×8".

Page protectors
The main function that page protectors serve is to help lessen the susceptibility of your photos, memorabilia and the pages, as a whole to damages and tears. And the added value of holding them inn place to avoid stick-on from falling out. There are basically two choices when it comes to protectors; a) clear protectors that let you retain the normal hues of the layout and, b) non-glare protectors that appeal easier to the onlookers.

Paper
Many scrappers turn to papers when it comes to adding designs and choosing the background of their layouts. Patterned papers are among the main choices. For background, however, it is best to use papers with subtle colors so as to help focus the eye's attention on the photos rather than on the background.

Cardstock
A staple in the scrapbooking world, cardstocks are more like cardboards than papers. These are effective in securing the foundations when placing memorabilia, embellishments and photos.

Adhesives
Well these materials simply hold everything together. These are widely available but be careful in choosing one though. Always look for acid-free adhesives and make sure that they are photo-safe. If they are not, they are most likely to cause oxidation of the pictures, the condition when the colors of the paper, photos and other similar stuffs fade.

Paper cutter
This material normally completes scrapbooking as they tend to add the finishing touches. Many scrappers find it hard to keep away from overdecoration., this normally is the case when using paper cutters and especially true with cutting pictures. Tip: It is always nice to keep the edges of photos straight. Reserve the use of paper cutters with papers alone.

Scissors
A definite must-have. Scissors greatly help in manipulating further the designs and additions into the scrapbook. They help transform objects such as fibers, ribbons and fabrics into manageable size that will coordinate with the design you have.

Rulers
Precision, that the rule. Obviously, this material will save time when it comes to drawing clean, straight lines.

There are many other scrapbooking materials that you will find useful. Among them are the following: vellum, exacto knife, self-healing cutting mat, white plastic eraser, glue eraser, lettering and fonts, black pens, colored pens or pencils, grease pencil, photo corners and tote.


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Friday, September 19, 2008

Tips on Princess Scrapbooking

Are you the type who enjoys reading stories about princesses and their adventures? Perhaps you are the type who can relate to the image of the princess in the tower, waiting for a prince to rescue her? Maybe, you can relate yourself to warrior princesses and imagine yourself as the heroine of an epic.

Well then, that would explain your inclination for princess scrapbooking. Perhaps you are a parent, wanting to create a princess scrapbook for your daughter. We all know how much little girls love to identify themselves with princesses.

You may have grown into adulthood and you may have forgotten about being a princess because of the complexities of life, but hey, isn't the dream of being a princess still within you? You know that hidden within the scars created by reality, the heart that beats within you remains that of a princess.

Princess scrapbooking is one way of showing the world that part of you that deserves to be treated like a princess. But what inspiration should you use for princess scrapbooking?

Here are some tips for you:

1) In princess scrapbooking, you should try to choose a princess that fits your personality. You can't just pick an inspiration because of the color of their dress. You should choose someone that fits your ideals.

This way, you actually incorporate someone who you can relate to. When basing your scrapbooking on Princesses, you should be able to relate to other people about the reason why you chose a particular princess.

2) The first tip leads to this next tip. When princess scrapbooking, you should do some research about the particular character you intend to use. You see, many people tend to create scrapbooks based on popular figures only to find out that the figure contradicted a crucial part of their personality.

How do you research on fictional characters? You see, fictional princesses often have some background information which not many people know about. Yes, fictional characters have something more to them than what the general public can see. One tip is looking up the "canonical" traits of a character. This means looking up the "official" portrayals of the character. Whenever a writer comes up with a new character, he or she creates a whole life for that character. This is so when that character is re-used, nothing the character does will contradict what the original writer planned.

3) Balance is very important. Overdoing your use of a princess on scrapbooking can actually take the focus away from the contents of the scrapbook itself. You do not want to distract the reader from the contents of the scrapbook in order to promote the princess. Remember that large companies already make billions of dollars because of fictional characters. You don't really want to be giving them the attention you deserve for creating the scrapbook.

4) Princess scrapbooking also needs creativity. Although you already have the general theme taken care of, it is still up to you to make it work. Remember that on a scrapbook, all the little details matter. Adding other elements to your scrapbook is a must and will help you balance out if the scrapbook turns out to be "too princess-y."

5) Princess scrapbooking also involves interpretations. Remember that vague symbols can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, depending on the beholder. You need to make sure that your message comes across and not any others. If it helps, you should make sure that you do not use any themes or characters that could be very offensive to other people.

6) Symbols are just that: symbols. If you happen to choose a princess that offends someone, remind yourself that the scrapbook you made means something to you. You should not let any interpretations by "experts" confuse you into thinking you did something wrong. It is, after all, your experiences that are being chronicled in princess scrapbooking. This means that the focus should be in your life and not on the symbolic interpretations of your scrapbook.

There you go: those are just some of the tips you can use on princess scrapbooking. In order to get more information, you should try to do a little research on the internet. In princess scrapbooking, you only need to remember one thing: Have fun!


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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Scrapbooking Tassles

Scrapbook is an essential haven for timeless memories. It can record your family history, celebrations and other gatherings. It is sometimes accompanied with journalizing. Through the same, additional memories will be recollected. A scrapbook can last a lifetime if you know what materials to use and what not to.

Parents often resort to scrap booking when they wanted to personalize their photos. Aside from that, scrap booking is also resorted by parents to keep the artworks, cards, letters and other vital stuffs that their children are giving them. Hence, they preserve the memories and materials without getting overwhelmed. With a scrapbook around, you can do away with memorabilia boxes and other hefty packages.

If you are not busy on a weekend, why not create a scrapbook with your children. Doing an activity like the one mentioned will make you closer to them. Aside from that, you are also honing their creativity and art potentials.

Here are the steps to do a scrapbook of your children’s keepsakes:

1. Create a reduced version of the keepsakes. Paste them on a textured paper or thin mat.
2. Use ribbons, tassles, paper clips, dried flowers, clippings and other tiny objects to embellish the album.
3. Also paste a small piece of paper beside the keepsakes and make a short note to describe them. You can also make a message board for your children to write on.
4. Cut out some letters to be used for the title of the scrapbook. After that you can show the scrapbook to the entire family and reminisce the past.

Scrap booking is not only entertaining and fun to do but also worthy and advantageous. Individuals who are exposing themselves to scrap booking are honing their artistic capabilities. In fact, their works spell sophisticated scrap booking.
Sophisticated scrap booking is doing the thing with elegance, superiority and cleverness. From color combinations, to design, layout and embellishments – everything must complement and blend.

How do you go about sophisticated scrap booking?

1. Pick materials with classic colors. Examples of which are sepia, black, white, red and navy.
2. Pile or overlap papers to draw an impact and to make elements interact.
3. Use straight lines rather than curves and circles. Straight lines make clean and classic aura. If your scrapbook appears too rigid or linear, soften the lines or make a torn edge.
4. Select photos that will blend naturally with the colors, material and feel of your scrapbook.
5. Shallow dimensions are preferred. Use embellishments that are not that bulky. Moreover, you can use charms, alphabet tiles, foam tape, laces and tassles to emphasize dimension. Nonetheless, do not overdo it so as to distract the photos.
6. If the photos have theme or motif, be sure to dress your scrapbook according to the latter.
The theme, color and embellishments must add to the beauty of the scrapbook not the contrary.
Speaking of embellishments, one of the most preferred embellishments that artists use is tassles. Tassles are ornaments consist of loose threads, embroidery floss, yarns, straw, raffia or cords. They are not only best for scrap booking but for knitting projects, scarves, bookmarks, pillows, draperies and afghans as well. You can find tassles ubiquitously. Nonetheless, if you desire to do it personally, tassle-making is pretty much easy.

Here are the simple steps in making tassles:

1. Cut a piece of cardboard based on the size of tassle you want to have.
2. Wrap a piece of yarn (or any of your desired material) around the cardboard. Cut the yarn at the untied end.
3. Wrap the long piece of yarn around the tassle. If you are satisfied with the look and style, insert its end (through a needle) to anchor said tassle.
4. Trim excess ends to give the tassle a clean look.

Now, you have your own version of tassle. You can use it in any art project you have including scrap booking. Just bear in mind that scrap booking represents the individual personality of the creators. Nonetheless, if you want your own version of several things – you can. You can bend the rules. You can even break them. Its all our bringing out the bet of you and the best of what your personality can give - your piece of idiosyncrasy!

Of course, if you REALLY want to make a profit with scrapbooking, more specific tips and techniques are included in my e-book, "How To Make Money Scrapbooking" - available for a limited time at:http://www.craigmcpherson.info/scrapbooking