Well, it's time for another general house cleaning. This is the time when you stumble across those valuable sentimental items you want to keep forever. Pictures of you and your best friends, family gatherings, and those great shots of the kids doing the fantastic recall happy times you never want to lose. Then the idea strikes: How can I keep these in a safe place?
Kids Bookshelves And Storage
This is the perfect time to start building a scrapbook to preserve and protect your favorite memories. Scrapbooking is a fast-growing hobby - so fast, in fact, a new industry is growing up around it. Scrapbooking is a great way to express your individual personality and creativity while creating something your whole family will treasure and enjoy for years to come. It takes time and effort, but it's so worth it!
Kids Bookshelves And Storage
If you're a novice at scrapbooking, you may want to try some free scrapbooking catalogs for your first efforts. You can find free scrapbooking catalogs in local stores and on the Internet. They are full of useful information that will give you a lot of great ideas for your scrapbooking projects. Even better, they outline the basic steps in scrapbooking so that beginners will be able to create beautiful pieces right off the bat.
If you have a shoe box full or a big stack of photos, why not get them organized? Sort them by event or occasion or by specific people. This way, you'll get your photos organized and stimulate your mind to think about how you might want to present them in a scrapbook. A very helpful addition to your photo sorting task is attaching notes to each one. Your notes describe the photo, its context in time and place and its importance to you.
This is a critical step everyone who scrapbooks goes through before they begin a project. Inventorying your materials and pondering the best way to assemble them prepares you for your project and helps you decide what materials you need. And if you can't find a retail supplier nearby, you can order your materials through the catalog or the company's online store.
Free scrapbooking catalogs are a great tool for shopping without getting in the car. They will describe the following steps in more detail, and they will give you images of the kinds of supplies available including decorative papers and paper sets, stick-on borders and alphabets, ribbons and trims, cut-outs and die-cuts, frames, felt flowers and paper blossoms, rubber stamps, glitter pens and cuts, and colorful acid-free pens.
And you'll find all the tools you need in free scrapbooking catalogs: paper cutters, scissors, organizers, brads and clips, and the ever present acid-free glues. These days, you can even find special pieces and embellishments to use on the Internet when you decide to make your first web-based scrapbook!
To get a free scrapbooking catalog, look for one of these three outstanding companies who'll mail you a paper catalog: A.C. Bailey Designs, Times to Cherish, or Creative Express. Of course, there are dozens of online catalogs you can browse while you're surfing the web.
No matter what free scrapbooking catalog you use or what supplies you need, there are some basic first steps involved in scrapbooking.
1. Gather Your Photos and Memorabilia
If you're like most of us, you have photos and other mementos scattered all over the place - ticket stubs in coat pockets, receipts stuffed in pants pockets or purses, invitations stacked with your old bills, confetti from that great New Year's Party, buttons from political events, and many other precious items.
Gather these mementos in one place. Search closets, drawers, the attic, even the garage to find them. Now, just pile them up on a table and start spreading them out so you can see what you have. As you go through them, put them in individual stacks of items that are related to each other. You may have enough treasures to build several scrapbooks!
2. Sort Your Mementos
After you have separated the items into related groups, you'll want to sort through them to figure out which ones to use in a scrapbook, which ones to throw away, and a logical order for the ones you want to keep.
There are several ways to group your photos and memorabilia: by family or family member, by how you're related, by friend or groups of friends, by clubs or associations. Those are a few approaches for sorting by people.
But you can also sort by events and times. Perhaps you have a bunch of memories for a specific wedding, anniversary, or the birth of a new baby. Maybe you want to group them by a time in your life like your college days or your first job. You can also sort them chronologically, showing the passage of time in your life.
3. Label Your Items
It's important to add some information to each piece you plan to use in your scrapbook. Short notes may simply remind you when and where photos were taken or the date and place where a ticket stub was used. You may want to write more about the event or person, though. Detailed notes can be used to give depth and meaning to the items you mount in your scrapbook. Clip or tape your notes to the item for later use.
4. Store Your Treasures
Now that you've got them organized and labeled, you may need a break before starting your scrapbook. This time, you'll protect them from further damage by keeping them cool and dry. You can use any number of organizing systems - bookshelves, filing cabinets, bins. Whatever is most appropriate for your space and the way you operate is best for you. One note: when you use plastic containers or bins, avoid PVC plastic. It's corrosive and can damage your photos and delicate pieces beyond repair. And remember when you prepare your storage space that there are three elements to protect your treasures from: light, humidity, and heat.
5. Plan Your Scrapbook
Now the time has come. You've got your photos and memorabilia nicely organized, and you know what you want to include in your scrapbook. It's time to give some serious thought to your presentation.
Think about the type of scrapbooking album you'll use. The amount of photos and keepsakes will determine the size of your scrapbook. Albums come in a variety of sizes and shapes. The smaller square ones (6x6") are portable and easy to handle. But they won't give you as much space for creative touches and embellishments. The larger ones, usually 8-1/2x11" or a foot square, give you plenty of room to decorate the pages and insert larger mementos.
Now you know what you want to include and what album type you'll use to present your memories. It's time to think about your theme. The theme will determine page layout, color scheme, and the types of embellishments you choose. Themes vary widely. You'll want to think about your memento group and the common thread that ties it all together.
Is your material related to a holiday season? A baby?s first years? Your family's history and heritage? A specific person's whole life? A period in your life? A favorite sport or family activity? A special relationship?
As you can see, the themes you can choose are limitless. The important thing about YOUR theme is that it's personal and meaningful to you. When you've decided on a theme, it's time to get your supplies, and that's where the free scrapbooking catalog will come in very handy.
You can select and coordinate your paper and your decorative touches. You can find or make a scrapbooking template that will be the basic design for each page. You can choose from a wide range of embellishments. You can spend a fortune or stick to a set budget. This may be the most fun part of the scrapbooking project, so enjoy!
See how great it is to use free scrapbooking catalogs?
Free Scrapbooking Catalogs - 5 Tips To Use One To Create Your Own Scrapbook
Kids Bookshelves And Storage
Nov 18, 2011 08:03:44
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