Everyone wants to make their scrapbook unique…to put their own special touch on every page. Here are a few tricks you can use to capture every memory and to make your scrapbook your very own.

One of the great things about scrapbooks is that anything goes. You have the ability to put anything you want in. A good start to a unique scrapbook is to become a collector of your family and friends memorabilia. Now that doesn’t mean memorabilia that we always think of. Be creative. Keep ticket stubs (movies, planes, museums), cards, cartoons, receipts, newspaper articles, pamphlets or brochures. These things may seem plain or unexciting. But when paired with a few pictures, they can bring back some great memories, and they can act as a journal, without having to write anything. When you begin your collection of memorabilia, it is easy to become a ‘pack-rat.’ To avoid this, place one basket on a desk or bookshelf. Whenever you find something you want to keep, just through it in there. This will keep it organized, portable, and accessible. To keep the family involved, have your kids pick something that they want to keep and allow them to put it in the basket on their own.

Another tip to keeping your scrapbook unique is to re-think your picture-taking routine. We often only photograph big events, such as birthdays and holidays. You have few pictures lying around that capture day-to-day life. To make it easy, lay a few disposable cameras around the house. Taking a picture every day will become instinctive. When you flip through your scrapbook, these everyday shots will stand out. They will capture the most precious moments, which are sometimes the easiest to forget.

The final way to make your scrapbook unforgettable is to design each page as a whole. Scrapbook pages look best and are easiest to read when conceived as a whole. For each page or pair of pages facing each other, pick a simple color schemes and an overall title. Lay everything you want to use out before gluing it down to find a balance of images and captions.

To signup for 7 Great Scrapbooking Tips for free, check out http://www.scrapbooking-is-fun.info. Alternatively, check out the book “Creating Stunning Scrapbooks - 101 Handy Tips” at http://www.scrapbooking.learnheaps.com to learn more about scrapbooking.

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You’ve looked over several magazines, websites and books about scrapbooking, and you feel like you’re ready to go. However, in all these articles you’ve looked over, you realize there are a few words that you’ve heard your wedding photographer talk about…words that scare you a little bit…and cause you to doubt yourself with the thought, “I’m not a professional photographer…what have I gotten myself into?” These frightening words you will find aren’t so frightening after all, and putting them into use will really spice up your scrapbook.

The first word is Cropping…which, simply put, is cutting off the boring, messy, or distracting parts of photos. For the most part, photos look best, and professional, when they have straight sides and clean edges, like a square or rectangle. Sometimes even a circle or ovals will work well. Another way to crop photos is to cut along the edges of an object or a person, like an outline, and remove the background altogether. If you’re really feeling creative, cut a portion of an object out of a photo, leaving the rest of the photo intact. This will give you a ‘jack-in-the-box’ effect.

It is important to use the proper tools when cropping your pictures so you get crisp, 90 degree angles. This may mean buying something else when you head to the craft store. There are numerous small, inexpensive paper cutters to help you with this job. Try to avoid cutting photos with the fancy-edged scissors from your child’s craft kit. Your best bet is to cut the photo with smooth edges and use the fancy scissors on a colored paper mat around the photo.

Speaking of mats…that brings up the second intimidating word…matting. Matting is basically giving your photo a background with a separate piece of paper. But, you may think, “Why waste the time doing that?” by having a narrow edge of colored paper around the outside edge of your photo, you can ‘bring out’ a certain color in photos. This can enhance the visual impact of the photo. Try using more than one color mat at a time. Don’t slack off with matting, rather, be creative, and you will find a little cropping and a little matting can really go a long way with your scrapbook.

To signup for 7 Great Scrapbooking Tips for free, check out http://www.scrapbooking-is-fun.info. Alternatively, check out the book “Creating Stunning Scrapbooks - 101 Handy Tips” at http://www.scrapbooking.learnheaps.com to learn more about scrapbooking.

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Have lots of old photos lying around the house? You find one every once in a while in a book or under the bed. Occasionally, you even find those old packets from the developing with a few pictures. Why not start organizing those photos on your way to making an unforgettable scrapbook?

Many people assume that the best way to organize photos is to put them in chronological order. However, if you have many photos that are unlabeled or dated, this may be difficult. Rather than dealing with this, try organizing by theme. There are countless organizational themes including: Christmases, Vacations, Family Reunions, Children’s sports teams, an overseas trip, or a specific time period (college years). Try not to make them so broad that every photo will fit in, but also don’t restrict them too much.

Making a scrapbook of each theme is a great idea because you can put them together fairly rapidly-each page doesn’t have to be completely unique. In fact, you want to create unity between the pages. This will save money because you can use the same colors of background pages and mix and match accessories.

Do a ‘cover page’ for each year or event. If you choose a ‘Sports’ theme, have a section for soccer, one for basketball, etc. Keep the cover page bold and simple-maybe one photo and the date and location. Have a running continuity among the cover pages will bring a nice unity throughout the book.

Themed books are easy and enjoyable to look out and they show how children grow and styles change over the years. Even visitors to your home will enjoy flipping through albums like this, whereas a chronological album might bog them down.

To help yourself stay organized when it comes to all those photos, label a few envelopes with some possible themes. Whenever you develop film or print photos, try to divide them into the proper envelopes. That way whenever you are ready to start your next scrapbook, the photos you need will be ready to go…and you won’t have to search under the bed or in any books!

To signup for 7 Great Scrapbooking Tips for free, check out http://www.scrapbooking-is-fun.info. Alternatively, check out the book “Creating Stunning Scrapbooks - 101 Handy Tips” at http://www.scrapbooking.learnheaps.com to learn more about scrapbooking.

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