Can anyone give me some good tips on scrapbooking? My siblings and I are planning to make a Family Scrapbook for our parents and none of us has ever made one before. We have the ideas, but we haven't done the first thing because we don't know what to do. Can any experienced scrappers help us? Appreciate the help.
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Even tho I notice 12x12 size album is recommended here, I personally prefer letter size, 8.5x11, for many reasons. While it is true that most scrapbook products you find are for 12x12, they can be resized smaller, whether paper or digital. One reason for my preference is supplies are far less expensive, far! You can buy a regular 3-ring binder and use it for your scrapping. I put absolutely everything in sheet protectors, and they are less expensive in the smaller size also. This keeps oopsies off of your pages.
Another reason is that you can move your pages in order and even move them from album to album. Since I started scrapping about 10 years ago, I've moved my pages many times, and I've changed my mind about how I want to organize them. You could do it by year, or by topic, or by family group or or or or - whatever you choose. Sometimes I want to extract a few pages of a particular subject and take them to show, and it is very easy to do in the smaller size. Once you put them in the larger albums, most of the time they are difficult to move, or maybe in some cases not even possible. Top loading - absolutely.
Some scrappers are also crafters. If you are, you have the opportunity of making some cute individualized covers for your three ring binders. Since they are inexpensive, you don't mind covering them.
I do think that before you do anything very permanent, you need to determine what size page you want.
Something I learned to do after I had been scrapping a couple of years was a better way to use sheet protectors. Say I went somewhere and picked up a postcard or other souvenir. Also I have a ticket stub, or maybe an airline boarding pass. I put these and any other memorabilia together in my protector until I'm reading to scrap. If I have to wait to get my pictures developed, this is a great way to hold like things together. Maybe I'll even jot down my journaling thoughts while I'm waiting to get the page scrapped. That way I don't forget what I want to say, even if I go back five years later to make the page. If I am using digital pix, I always print out a contact thumbnail sheet of the picture(s) and put it in the protector. Unfortunately, there have been times when I lost the pix on my computer and my little thumbnail is all I had for a picture. As bad as the quality is and as small as it is, it's still better than total wipeout.
