Scrap Styles - Knowledge Base ~ Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is the art of combining photos and other forms of memorabilia into a scrapbook album. Scrapbooking has existed in one form or another for as long as people have been collecting photos, but the scrapbooking that is recently becoming so very popular is a new form of the art altogether. As we learn more and more about photographs and their chemical makeup, we are better equipped to store them in a way that will not only display them but also preserve them.

Modern day scrapbookers are taking advantage of the new knowledge available concerning proper methods of photo preservation to make sure that their photos are not just being displayed in a beautiful manner, but that they are in a environment that will help protect them from deterioration and other possible harm.

Due to this revolution in the practical knowledge of photos and how to better preserve them, proceeding generations will not have the faded, yellowed, often times deteriorated photographs of their childhood that many of us possess, rather they will have crisp, clear, and hopefully colorful photos that will preserve their memories well beyond their lifetimes. The sad fact of the matter is that color photographs will not last forever, however, the methods that we use to preserve and store them can lengthen their potential life-span dramatically.

Modern scrapbookers have also taken to scrapbooking as a creative and artistic pastime. Many new scrapbooking techniques and products are in great demand. This increase in scrapbooking in general has led to the development of many new and up and rising scrapbooking related businesses. In very short period of time, scrapbooking has become a extremely lucrative business.
Once you have made the decision to learn or to begin scrapbooking, the first page can be quite a challenge. Picking an album, purchasing supplies, and organizing your photos are just the first steps in many that will preserve your family's most precious memories for years and years to come.

Here are a few quick tips that should get you started and well on your way to becoming an avid scrapbooker:

Choose several selections of colored paper that will be complimentary to your photos.
Organize your photos by theme and select a particular theme to work on.
Select a photo that will be the main area of concentration or focal point.
Crop your photos being sure not to crop too much. Less is always better when it comes to cropping
Mat your photos.
Add titles.
Add a embellishments to set your page off.
Arrange the items on your pages.
Adhere.

Keep these things in mind:
What is the theme of your album you want to create?

Journaling or titling is a very important aspect to keep in mind….pictures tell the story visually and at times just cannot adequately do so by themselves.
Mark before you begin to crop. Excessive cropping can lead to unappealing, small photos that look as if there is something missing.