Scrapbooking Basics

Gather ALL your photos (loose and in albums) together. There are some great storage boxes to place all your loose photos in. Then start sorting through the photos and put them in date order (this could be as simple as year order and then month and day order if you can remember the event) While sorting out the photos, have a pad and pen near by so you can jot down any memories of events, feelings and details. Place the note with the photos. (Make sure the paper and boxes are acid free so it does not affect your photos)

 

It is best to start with the most recent events as they should be fresh in your memory. Choose 1 to 5 photos per page for the event Journal the date, event name and feelings or memories of the occasion. There are a few different ways of scrapbooking including the traditional albums where photos are stuck on pages and embellishments are added or albums that have preset shapes that you can cut your photos to size. Also there are digital programs where you upload your photos and arrange them on a “digital page” and then these pages can be printed off to go into albums or can also be created into bound books.

 

After choosing your photos, you need to decide on a background colour and embellishment colours. Look at the photos and co-ordinate your papers to accent things that are within the photo. For example: if you have a photo of your daughter in a pink dress and she is playing in the garden, then choose a soft pink paper for the background and pink and green embellishments.

 

Most Important – if you do not have a copy of the photo (negative or digital version) – do not crop it!!!! If you are desperate to crop it, go to your local Photoshop and get them to make a copy of it and crop that one – not the original.

When cropping, you are basically getting rid of the excess background and drawing attention to the foreground (the object you want to focus on). Remember to use the appropriate shape to accentuate the shape of the object.

 

For example: an oval shape would look good where you have photographed two people standing together.

 

They are many different tools on the market for cropping and if you are a beginner the best thing to buy is a good guillotine and sharp scissors. You can able to create most shapes using these tools and as you progress in this craft, you can start to buy other tools to assist you in cropping photos.

 

If you are unsure how much to crop, cut a few negative templates out of paper and place them over the photo to give you an idea of what the cropped picture would look like.

 

Arrange your photos on the page making sure there is room for your journal notes and a heading. Once you are happy start to arrange the embellishments. Take a quick photo as a reference and then you can start to stick the photos, notes, embellishments etc onto the background page. Insert into the photo album for everyone to enjoy.

 

By Helen Whitfield

Source: Creative Addiction