Sentimental Diva

Scrapbooking Page Ideas: Scraps and Your First Layout

Whether you are going for the sentimental scrap book that is “anything goes”, or the structured, almost-professional look, you have to decide which scraps will be worth putting in. Let’s say you bought all your scrapbooking tools (glue gun, cutter, colored paper for origami), set up a space and downloaded scrapbooking techniques. You’re ready to get started, but cannot decide which among your scraps or finds you should put in.

Layout – The first thing to consider is how big your page is and will the scraps be too bulky or too humongous to place there? It’s a good idea to have little pockets built in each page, for very small things that could get lost or damaged by gluing and too frequent pressing.

The Story – An ideal scrapbook tells a story … I saw one scrapbook with pages that contained only hand prints and photos of a child. Up until the child reached 18 years of age. This is a really sentimental way of keeping those precious “growing up memories”.

Your First Layout

There are two ways of finding some great layouts for your scrapbooks.

1. Online Scrapbooking Ideas – The internet exposes us to the lives of millions of people. Usually these people will have blogs, myspace pages and customizable web pages. The really creative ones will adorn their web pages with photos and knick-knacks. The idea is to observe how the pages were built and get ideas. Internet surfing can be very productive, as long as you keep your eyes open and your creative juices flowing.

Alternatively, you can look for sites that SELL scrapbooking pages, print out those that you purchased and use them as ages for your scrapbook. These aren’t expensive if you just buy a few for your scrapbook’s dividers, but if you plan on putting all of these quality and high resolution pages in your scrapbook, it could get very pricey for you.

2. Magazines and Books -Learn from professionals who make a living putting out layouts of magazines and catalogs. See the colorful sales brochures? Where is the text located? How big are the photos? The best resources are sometimes the design magazines and real estate. They take photos of their products at very unique angles.

You can learn a thing or two from these professional publishers.

Inspiration may also be found from a book that has nothing to do with crafts, or an old calendar.Note that the beautiful and scenic photos from calendars can be good materials for your backgrounds.

Maybe you can create your “best memories” scrapbook according to the lyrics of your favorite song, poem, or quotes.

Lastly, you can learn a lot from friends. Why not propose a get together with friends and family who may or may not be into scrapbooking? You can obtain briliant ideas from their handiwork, or they can give you tips on how to improve a layout you’re already working on.

Sentimental About Memories? Start Scrapbooking!

Have you ever felt like photos are not enough to capture the happiness you felt during a particular event? Me too. It’s a good thing that collecting tiny mementos from these events and placing them artfully on a piece of paper has become an artform. Sentimental people need not be ashamed of being mushy about memories anymore because billions of people around the globe feel the same.

Scrapbooking is a wonderful way to spend your free time while preserving those unforgettable memories.

A sentimental movie date goer might want to keep ticket stubs of all her movie dates with her boyfriend. She can start a scrapbook describing what movie they went to, the plot, the freebies, she can even paste some relevant things about a movie, i.e. a pirate ship photo for “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

Is it Expensive?

There is a small amount of money involved in scrapbooking, but if you don’t intend to be a professional scrapbooker (there IS such a thing!), you do not have to worry about spending too much on your sentimental hobby.

What you will need for Basic Scrapbooking:

1. A scrapbooking album for keeping the pages of your scrapbook – The album you will use needs to accommodate everything you want to put there. A normal photo album won’t be able to handle a few pasted beer caps, so you need something that will.

2. A loot jar or box for every occasion – when you become an avid (addicted) scrapbook maker, bringing a bag to collect mementos for your scrapbook when you go to parties or events won’t seem too weird. Make sure to label them properly and store them in a safe place.

Common sense in Scrapbooking

It goes without saying that you cannot preserve unpreservable stuff like food items, and for these at least you will need a camera. Leaves and other organic materials that could decay and attract molds should be properly processed before placement in your pages.

For that last bit, drying leaves in heavy book pages is best. You can press your flowers and then after a few weeks or months, air them out before pasting.

Homemade Sentimental Gifts: Family Traditions

It has always been said that the best gifts are those that come from the heart. Now that crafts websites abound over the net, we know that the best sentimental gifts to give our loved ones are those that we made on our own!

Family crafts are a great way to spend a wonderful way to create a holiday tradition within the family and to preserve memories and love. Our beloved family members, particularly our grandparents will not be with us forever. More and more grandchildren are discovering that the best presents to give them are those that are crafted at home.

Some crafts that we can do with our families include:

1. Hand-painted T-shirts
2. Fancy pillboxes
3. Personalized and painted pillow cases
4. Pinatas for special occasions
5. Greeting cards
6. Garden crafts like lawn decorations and tree houses

Other holiday crafts include Christmas tree decorations, Halloween masks.

Families can designate ‘Family Crafts Day’ on one Sunday afternoon of the month. Materials can be bought from the store early on, and stored in a wooden box (hand-painted, of course). The crafted gifts may be exchanged before dinner and stories of how each gift was created can be discussed over a sumptuous dinner.

This tradition could be passed on from generation to generation, and the kids and their kids can relate the story of how it started, over and over again.