As far as tools, a cutter or trimmer is a good thing to have, but not necessary. I used scissors for years before buying a trimmer. Once you’re ready to begin, ideally, pick a place you can scrapbook and be able to leave everything out. If this isn’t possible, Ziploc bags are wonderful for storing items until you can get back to your project. Have fun. Everyone scraps a little differently and your style will change over time. Scrapbooking is about creativity, having fun and preserving your memories for generations to come.
Lisa Maxwell uses a cutter to trim paper. photo by Sandy Scott
The history of scrapbooking
Scrapbooking began in the 15th century as a way to keep specific information in one place — recipes, letters, documents and poems. Friendship albums came into vogue in the 16th century and are likened to modern day yearbooks where friends would write their name and short messages to the book’s owner. It didn’t take long for color scenes to be added and the scrapbook evolved once Left page, top to bottom:
Birthdays, holidays and vacations are popular scrapbooking themes. Photo by Marilyn Jones
Anything you want to remember can be made into a scrapbook page. photo by Sandy Scott
You can find scrapbooking supplies in a lot of different places, including aboard a cruise ship. Photo by Marilyn Jones
Remembering the Dallas Zoo. photo by Marilyn Jones
Alabama Living
Budget-worthy scrapbooking ideas
Scrapbooking clubs are a great way to make friends, and share ideas and tools. From left, Lori McCleskey, Lisa Maxwell, Melinda Scott, Elizabeth Brown and Kathy Brown, who meet in Somerville. Photo by Sandy Scott
more to incorporate the owner’s travel memories. There were other uses for scrapbooks as well. In the history of scrapbooking, Thomas Jefferson was one of the first famous American scrapbookers. He created a series of albums filled with newspaper clippings of his presidency for future reference. During the Civil War, Northerners kept scrapbooks to file newspaper clippings that reported Union victories while Confederate sympathizers documented Southern advances in the war. With the advent of photography in 1826, a new dimension was added to scrapbooks, especially with George Eastman’s paper photographs in the late 1800s and the production of the Kodak Brownie camera in 1900. This allowed the average person to begin to incorporate photographs into their scrapbooks. Turn-of-the-last-century scrapbooks contained photos mounted with adhesive corners and notations about the photo. To this, the scrapbooker could add newspaper clippings, letters and other paper memorabilia. What we know as scrapbooking today can be attributed to Marielen Christensen. The Utah resident began designing creative pages for her family’s photo memories, inserting the completed pages into plastic sheet protectors collected in 3-ring binders. By 1980, she had assembled more than 50 volumes and was invited to display them at the World Conference on Records in Salt Lake City. The family history scrapbooks were so well received that Marielen and her husband AJ authored and published a how-to book, Keeping Memories Alive, and opened the first scrapbooking store. Today the scrapbooking industry is a multi-billion dollar business with nearly 2,000 companies supplying everything scrappers could possibly want or need to create their own personal history book. A
Scrapbook adhesives can add up. For most projects all you need is a glue stick. In August when department stores offer excellent back-to-school prices for glue sticks, stock up for the year. Don’t just look for scrapbooking supplies at craft and department stores. Take apart silk flowers, for example, and attach them to the page with brads. Buttons, fabric and ribbon all make excellent embellishments and you can find them at dollar stores, garage sales or your own sewing basket. Being organized is very important. When your papers and embellishments are easy to find, you’ll always know what you have, which means you’ll buy fewer duplicates or too many for a specific project. Use a filing system for sticker categories: holidays, travel, flowers and so on. Baskets are great for organizing bulkier embellishments like brads, ribbon spools, glue sticks and pens. You may want to invest in a paper storage unit just to keep everything in one place and to enable you to sort by color, size and theme. There is a lot of valuable, and free, information on the Internet as well as downloads for fonts and templates. Other resources help you find just the right illustration for your page — just print, trim and glue. Your scanner is another excellent tool. Scan illustrations from magazines, greeting cards, material and logos; the possibilities are limitless. Add tools as you need them. There is no need to start out with more than a cutter or trimmer that allows you to replace only the blade as needed. This is used to trim photographs and paper. Never pay full price. Every major craft store offers percentage-off coupons and has weekly sales on stickers, other embellishments, paper and tools. If you don’t subscribe to a newspaper, go online to the store’s website to view the weekly ad and print the coupons. Start a scrapbooking group so that you can share your tools and embellishments as well as advice. may 2013 21