Organizing a Scrapbook Room

If you ever take on such a task of creating a scrapbook room or organizing a scrapbook room you will find heaven on earth when you are done!

Honestly, there is nothing more amazing than to have properly organized, spacious room devoted to your craft. At least that’s how I feel now that I have done this. Scrapbooking is the craft of peace and tranquility for me. It’s therapy without the tears!

So needless to say when I got started on organizing my scrapbook room – I was feeling a wave of relief coming over me.  In fact, I have been excited ever since the idea popped into my head.

And here’s how it all began.

First, I decided that our toy room had outlived itself. (Thank goodness). The kids are finally at that age where they spend most of their time on education, sports & leisure, entertainment and their arts (drawing, writing, reading and of course the occasion crafts).  They barely touched the toys they had piled up against the walls and all over the floor.

So, we have taken the last year or so to purge the contents of that room. Starting with old toys and ending with old furniture.  All in all, I think we shot out approx 8 garbage bags of toys and well over 6 pieces of fairly large furniture.

Then my dream started to form. I envisioned how I would like to reorganize the room and build a scrapbooking / crafts station out of the space.

I finally took the trip down to ikea and low and behold – in the all inspiring AS IS room were the perfekt items. (Tee hee – - I spelled that wrong for a reason).

The shelf you see here is called PERFEKT; and or course an Ikea origina.  Unlike the image on the left (courtesy of Ikea)  my shelves are white.  Lucky for me however they were discontinuing them at my local Ikea.  So they went down in price from approx $200.00 Canadian to $25.00 a set!!!! (Where else can you buy sturdy shelves for that price now adays!)

The shelves themselves are 30″ x30″ so they are the perfekt height from the ground to create a desktop if properly organized to balance off a  table top.

They had about 8 sets there, and I purchased 5 of them.  I also found a few perfekt sized boards to make for the table top(s) I had in mind.

Then as I was brainstorming how I was going to hide the open shelving in the middle and bottom, some perfekt sized storage bins (fabric – in green and white stripes) caught my eye.  These were exactly the right measurements to slip into the shelves in replace of the rods you see in the photo. (But I didn’t do this for all of them).

I have kept the rods on one of the shelves and used it to house my Scrapbook Papers, Albums and Magazines / Books.  Again, between the two shelves, and the rods the spacing was absolutely perfekt!  The name could not be better!!!!

The next journey on this mission to get organized and have the scrapbook room of my dreams (for now anyhow) is to install the pegboard.  There is nothing better than pegboard I tell you!  I worked in retail for years and I know how versatile this stuff can be.

I got it primarily to organize my ribbons (which by the way the extra rods are going to come in VERY HANDY for). (Perfekt again, I know!!!).  I will also use it to store my embellishments though – as there are so many and I tend to forget them when they are stored away in baskets or bins.

Long story short…

…I am praying you will be inspired by my vision and that you find these shelves as PERFEKT as I do when you wish to get out and organize a scrapbooking room!

Click here for more ideas on organizing a scrapbook room.

Click here to see my before and after shots of the scrapbook room.
Happy organizing to you!

P.S. Thank you IKEAHacker for publishing this story on your site!

Year End Scrapbooking Tips

How to Make a Scrapbook Album from Household Items

A new scrapbooker named Debbie asked this question recently and I thought I would answer it here for EVERYONE’s reference.

This one is fairly simple.  You can use almost any old book (sometimes those children’s books are better because they have less pages) – and you can decorate the book inside and out – in any way you like.

In the end, it all depends on how creative you want to be.  One of the easiest ways is to make a creative scrapbook album – from scratch however is to make a paper bag scrapbook.  The most basic instructions on how to make paper bag scrapbook albums are as follows:

PAPER BAG SCRAPBOOK ALBUMS

Place 2 to 4 paper bags directly on top of each other, alternating open ends so that you have one open, one closed etc. alternating in your book.  (Make sure that the ’slots’ in the bags all face up when folded). Then fold them in half and create the binding.

Options for paper bag binding

With Staples; placed approx 1/2? from the fold. Then cover the staples with a strip of coordinating patterned paper or cardstock.

Eyelets or rivets.

Punch holes and tie with ribbons, fibers, or fabric strips. You can tie knots through each hole or weave the ribbon through the holes.

Sew a straight line straight through the fold.

What to do with the “Open ends” of each paper bag

The open end of each bag makes a wonderful pocket for journaling or more photos, inserting tags or additional cardstock “pages”. You can even create unique embellished pull tabs with ribbons or cardstock tabs.  *To close up the ends, you can punch a hole and tie with ribbon or a make shift latch of your choosing.

“Closed ends” of the paper bag.

You have several choices for the closed end of each bag. Lift the flap and use it for more photos and journaling.
Cut a slit through the fold of the bag and insert a coordinating tag.

Trim the closed end of the bag so it becomes a pocket just as the open end of the bag does.
Completely cover the closed end with paper or cardstock, images, embellishments etc. without trimming.

Then finally, you can decorate the rest of your Paper Bag pages however you like.  With photos, journaling, and embellishments, patterned paper, borders, squares, vellum, transparencies, and other accents like silk flowers, fibers, ribbons, and fabrics.

Paper bags are not acid-free, so make sure to use duplicate photos only

That said…you can also use an old CD holder (you know the one’s with double sided pockets to hold your CD’s?).  You just need to create one TEMPLATE that you can use to match the size of the holder – so that ALL of your scrapbook pages will be the same size and fit perfectly within those pockets.

(If you have a cover that is easy to adhere stuff too – you should decorate the cover as well).

And this it for simple instructions on how to make a scrapbook album.  Hope you get some inspiration out of this.

Make a Scrapbook Album From Scratch

Obviously then…your scrapbook cover must be thicker and harder than the average scrapbook card stock page.

Some materials that can be used to make a scrapbook cover are:

1. Thick card stock (24lbs or harder)
2. Chipboard
3. Cardboard (from home: consider using your cereal box covers!)
4. Vinyl/Plastic
5. Thick Acetate
6. Lexan
7. Acrylic
8. Custom cut chloroplast
9. Wood
10. Leather
11. Stitched Materials (over card stock)

Etc.  (Honestly – as long as the material is thick and durable you can use it to make a scrapbook cover).

Then you have to worry about binding. The easiest approach to binding is to punch wholes in your scrapbook cover materials (and ensure that all of your internal scrapbook pages can be punched in the same way).  *If you are working with rare materials that are not readily available in your home…you will probably want to get a professional shop to punch for you.

(Print shops have many of the supplies (from numbers 1-8)  and should be able to produce the wholes for you as well).

That said…once you have the wholes it’s time to finish.  O’ Rings are the most flexible for sure and will give your scrapbook album and scrapbook covers they need to open and close with ease.  If you tie ribbons around the rings you will “fashion” your scrapbook covers up with just right amount of eye catching material needed to evade the look of those plain silver rings).

Happy Scrapping!

Getting Started with Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking Page Ideas
By: Liz Holloway and Cijaye DePradine

There are so many things to consider when starting your first scrapbook.  Aside from knowing what album type you are using, you also want to know what photo’s will tell the story; you also want to consider the colors, layout, and journal entry you will need.

Here are a few secrets to make the choices a little easier:

Colors – choosing a background page can be a challenge.

Stay away from white backgrounds and instead, try to use color-on-color.

Color-on-color adds dimension without being bold. Too much white will compete with your focal point.

Selecting the right colors  establishes the tone or the theme of your page.

It will reinforce the message you want to send.

When choosing your colors, pick only 2 to 4 colors for a page, one being a neutral color. If you use too many colors on a page, the page can look busy and disorganized.

Bright colors give you high-energy color, whereas, muted colors are low-energy.

The background page color can be inspired by colors in your photos or complimentary to them.

Consider the smallest hue (least amount of colors) for direction here.

Layout – This is one is fairly easy; all you need to do is find a template you like and use it. It is fast and easy, and it maps out your pages immediately without thinking.

But, if you want to get creative; flip that layout horizontally and vertically for differentiation. (ie: one layout, converted to 4 layouts).

And if you want to get even MORE creative – visualize or even sketch a variation of the layout you like so that you can truly make it your own!

Journaling – If you keep in mind that part of your layout should include a journal entry; you will be closer to completion before you even adhere your images.

Writing your journaling by hand gives your scrapbook pages a little more of a personal feel and makes the page more precious.

It also is a record of your handwriting for future generations to see.

You would be surprised at how handwriting styles change over the years and from country-to-country.

Just be sure to use fade resistant waterproof markers whenever you commit your writing to page.

HINT: If you don’t like your handwriting, don’t worry. Journaling can be done in many ways.

With a computer and printer, you need only type up your journaling in a standard word processor.

But again, if you want to get really creative, using a computer will allow you to choose  some of today’s hottest fonts (a lot of which can be downloaded for free).

NOTE: Use laser-printer rather than ink-jet printer. The reason being is that ink-jet printer may fade, bleed and run overtime if it is exposed to moisture. Laser-printer fuses the ink and is more permanent.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Scrapbook Cutters and Tools

Scrapbooking Tools and Supplies; Scissors, Trimmers, Shape Cutters, Punches (Why and How)
By: Liz Holloway and Cijaye DePradine

There are thousands of Scrapbooking Tools on the market today.  Many are available online, through independant sites and eBay. And many are available at your local craft stores or department stores.

However it is very important to note that good quality scissors, trimmers, shape cutters and punches can go a very long way and will almost always guarantee you a perfect cut!

Here are some great reasons and uses you will want to choose a variety of these tools:

Scissors – a good quality scissors is recommended. They can be used for:

• For cutting paper, such as trimming, small scissors for maneuvering
• For cutting your rubber stamps (if you purchase high quality stamps from companies like Stampin’Up!
• For cutting your fabric

Heavy Duty Trimmers – if you are doing a lot of cutting, our recommendation is purchasing a heavy duty one – like fiskars. It can cut more than one sheet at a time, and your cutting blade does not wear down.

Personal Trimmer – is a must. Especially for card making or matting.

Your Paper Trimmer should be light, compact and portable. This way, you can take your personal trimmer everywhere you go. *And when you get really active with Scrapbooking – you will travel to local meetups and workshops with these tools.

Shape Cutters – are not necessary if you are a beginner, but when you get into intermediate and advance levels you may wish to challenge yourself by adding shapes to your pictures.

You can also use these to create shaped matts and outline photos!  It kicks up your scrapbooking look dramatically!

Punches – are always good to have on hand. They can can speed up your Scrapbook Page composition.

Your punches however should be good quality that can stand up to cardstock.

They can be used to create a border for your pages – as well as your photos.

Just remember to keep your scissors, trimmers, shape cutters, and punches sharp and clean.

To do this, periodically cut or punch several times through wax paper and several times through foil paper, then clean it with rubbing alcohol.

The wax keeps the edges of the cutter fresh and the alcohol removes any excess stickiness, the foil keeps the edges sharp.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Printable Scrapbooking Supplies

Printable Scrapbooking Supplies

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Scrapbook.com Discovers a New Way to Deliver Scrapbooking Supplies Scrapbook.com, an online retailer of scrapbooking supplies, has developed a new way to deliver scrapbooking products to their customers: Directly through the internet. “E-Cuts” printable scrapbooking supplies are changing the way scrapbookers shop and create. Mesa, AZ (PRWEB) September 22, 2004 — Scrapbook.com, an online retailer of scrapbooking supplies, has developed a new way to deliver scrapbooking products to their customers: Directly through the internet. “E-Cuts” printable scrapbooking supplies are changing the way scrapbookers shop and create. E-Cuts are high resolution files that can be downloaded from the Scrapbook.com Superstore, printed, cut-out and used on layouts and cards. Each E-Cut contains several coordinating elements such as photo mounts, photo corners, journaling boxes, embellished accents, and more so you can create a beautiful layout in just minutes. The finite precision work is already done for you saving you the hassle and the mess of replicating it yourself. Time consuming techniques such as chalking, inking, setting eyelets and brads, and embossing are included in the E-Cut designs. E-Cuts not only save you time, but they also save you money. Starting at just $.99, E-Cuts are more economical than most scrapbooking supplies on the market. Furthermore, unlike traditional cut-outs, they can be used over and over. You only pay once and you can use them forever. Once you purchase the file you have unlimited access to it and you can print your E-Cut as many times as you wish. It’s no wonder scrapbookers across the globe are referring to Scrapbook.com E-Cuts as “the future of scrapbooking.” Creating beautiful scrapbook pages has never been easier thanks to the innovation and creation of Scrapbook.com E-Cuts. Scrapbook.com currently offers over 300 different E-Cuts and plans to release at least 100 more in the next three months. For additional information, please visit http://store.scrapbook.com/ecuts.html About Scrapbook.com: Scrapbook.com is owned by Scrapbook.com, LLC, an Arizona Limited Liability Company, with offices in Mesa, Arizona.

Photo Scrapbooking for Beginners

Scrapbooking Photo’s – Beginners Guide
By: Liz Holloway and Cijaye DePradine

There is no right or wrong to choose or sort your photos; simply choose an order that makes the most sense to you and your project.

The most common Scrapbook Photo Layouts are outlined by:

• Date/Time order
• Theme order or
• By place or event

Whichever you choose, sorting them  first - with your preffered layout(s) in mind,  will help you survey the scope of the whole project and determine the W5 (who, what, where, when and why) of the page.

So here are some tips to get your Scrapbook photo’s sorted:

1. Determine the theme you would like to imply with your page (ie: before and after, emotions, chronological events etc.)
2. Select only the photos you would LIKE to put in the album (ie – quality, size) first.
3. Then add supplimemtal photos later if you feel that they will compliment the message you will create with your page.Keep photos from one event together in chronological order.
4. As you progress, you will determine which photo’s to set aside for a later job – and if they just don’t FIT with this project – remove them from your site so that you are NOT distracted.
5. If you are sure you want to use a certain photo for an emotion page or album, flag it with a post-it-note on the BACK of the photo. Do not adhere post-it-notes to the fronts of photos. You can always later go back and pull the ones you want. But keep in mind you may change your mind or not use them for a long time so it is best to store them chronologically until you really need them.
6. Make brief notes about what is happening, including names and dates – you can use this for journaling.

Then jump right in and get those perfect Scrapbook Pages started!

Happy Scrapbooking!

New Digital Scrapbooking Newsletter

New Digital Scrapbooking Newsletter For You?

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Scrapbook Groove Provides Inspiration for Digital Scrapbooking Enthusiasts Scrapbook Groove is a new monthly digital scrapbooking newsletter, which along with its website at http://www.scrapbookgroove.com, is designed to inspire and connect the growing community of digital scrapbookers. Scrapbook Groove promotes the joy and creativity of digital scrapbooking by featuring innovative layouts, digital photography advice, design tips, contests, freebies and more. Winnipeg, MB (PRWEB) February 26, 2007 — Scrapbook Groove is a new monthly digital scrapbooking newsletter, which along with its website at http://www.scrapbookgroove.com, is designed to inspire and connect the growing community of digital scrapbookers. Scrapbook Groove promotes the joy and creativity of digital scrapbooking by featuring innovative layouts, digital photography advice, design tips, contests, freebies and more. Providing inspiration for digital scrapbook layouts is the main focus of Scrapbook Groove. You’ll find tips on applying photo effects in your layouts, capturing particular moods and textures, creating custom embellishments, and more. Scrapbook Groove also covers a wide-range of technical topics for maximizing your digital scrapbooking experience. You’ll find helpful tips and tutorials for using popular digital scrapbooking software such as Indigo Rose’s Scrapbook MAX and Adobe’s Photoshop Elements. You’ll also find informative articles on getting the most out of your digital camera. You can just imagine the creativity out there – everyone walks away with exciting new ideas for their scrapbooks! Contributors to Scrapbook Groove include professional digital scrapbook designers and the newsletter’s own subscribers. “Scrapbook Groove is an exciting new link in the digital scrapbooking community,” said Marnie Wilson, co-editor of scrapbookgroove.com. “You can just imagine the creativity out there – everyone walks away with exciting new ideas for their scrapbooks!” Scrapbook Groove’s free monthly newsletter, The Groove, keeps subscribers inspired with even more tips and ideas by turning the spotlight on members of the digital scrapbooking community. For instance, each month The Groove’s ‘Scrapper Profile’ features an outstanding digital scrapbooker for their innovative approach to layout design. The newsletter also hosts a monthly layout design contest based on themes such as ‘Summer Fun’ , ‘Back to School’, and ‘The Holidays’. Winners are featured in the newsletter and receive prizes such as mouse pads and downloadable digital scrapbooking kits. To help generate further enthusiasm for digital scrapbooking, the scrapbookgroove.com website provides free downloadable content to all subscribers. Freeebie packs include items such as embellishments, backgrounds, borders, and word art. A free subscription to Scrapbook Groove is available online at http://www.scrapbookgroove.com Subscriptions include full access to the site, links to free downloadable digital scrapbooking content, and monthly issues of The Groove digital scrapbooking newsletter emailed directly to subscribers in PDF format.

Digital Scrapbooking Lessons

You Really Can Learn to Scrapbook on a Computer For Free

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A little time, a computer and an Internet connection is all you need to learn to scrapbook. Teens to Baby Boomers are finding that computers are the easiest and least expensive way to preserve the past and create new memories at the same time. We’ve found free lessons, free software and even free templates all in one site. Colorado Springs, CO (PRWEB) June 3, 2006 –- You really can learn to scrapbook on a computer for free. We’ve found free lessons, free software and even free templates all in one site. Now, all you need is a little time, a computer and an Internet connection. ComputerScrapbookTraining.com, has taught thousands how to use their home computers and printers to create scrapbook pages. Wes and Kathy, owners of ComputerScrapbookTraining.com, report that they average more than 2500 active users from around the world signed up for the classes on any given day. Learning to use the computer to create scrapbook pages is one of the fastest growing areas in the scrapbook industry worldwide. When asked what he attributed the growth and popularity of computers for creating scrapbooks, Wes had this to say: “Computers offer some significant advantages over the more traditional methods of scrapbooking. Computers take up less space, there’s almost no cleanup and you can start and stop on any schedule. Just hit the save button and come back whenever you are ready. In many foreign countries and rural areas, traditional scrapbook supplies are limited or even nonexistent. With a computer and an Internet connection, anything you need is just a download away. With the price of gasoline at all time highs world wide, one less trip to town is a significant cost savings. But I think the biggest reason so many are turning to computers is that it’s so much easier and takes so much less time to complete each project. With the computer, it’s as simple as picking a template, adding your digital images, a few lines of text (journaling) and you’re done. No cutting, no gluing and no waiting” Carol Weatherholt of Front Royal, VA says: “I was so excited to find your website and take your digital scrapbooking class. I have been trying this for some time but found that the learning curve in other programs were just too much for me. I flew through your course like a breeze – Thank you!” ComputerScrapbookTraining.com takes the new student from a beginner, who knows little about scrapbooking and guides them through a series of self-paced well-illustrated lessons. New students start with basic terminology, are guided through the download, install and setup of free software and then eased into the process of digital scrapbooking and intermediate page design techniques. Wes even shows students a simple technique for changing the colors in their clipart (small digital graphic art) to match their scrapbook theme colors. Students traverse through the course at their own pace using a simple index, menu and navigation system. They can just learn how to enhance their traditional hand scrapped pages with digital art and titles or they can go on to create full pages complete with backgrounds, frames, digital images and personal notes. What the students all find is that with the new digital scrapbook techniques, you can even combine them with the old traditional hand methods of the past and have the best of both worlds. With digital, it’s never an all or nothing proposition. Each scrapbooker is in total control of how much or how little they use. Mary Jo Diehl from Rochester, NY says “I’m getting ready to do my first electronic scrapbook and wouldn’t have had the courage to even try without your help.” In an industry estimated to sell between $3 and $7 billion of goods by next year, it’s a pleasant surprise to find one company that’s giving back to the consumer something of true value. ComputerScrapbookTraining.com is definitely an exception to the – you get what you pay for rule. Easily valued at over $100 dollars, new students get everything with this computer scrapbooking course for free. Let’s see if we can sum this all up. Wes and Kathy have created a totally free online course that teaches new scrapbook students the basics of scrapbooking with computers. It contains everything a new student will need to learn and to get started on their first, all digital, scrapbook. Digital scrapbooking offers some significant advantages over the old traditional hand scrapped pages. It’s faster, simpler to do, takes up less space and can save you a significant amount of money by printing your own pages. It also saves both time and money in the travel to and from the local traditional scrapbook store. The course itself is for beginners and those just learning about using the computer for scrapbook production. It takes the student from basic terminology all the way through a few intermediate computer scrapbook techniques. It’s totally online and self paced. Once a new student signs up, they instantly gain full access to the entire digital scrapbook course. Scrapbooking is currently enjoyed by 1 in every 4 households in America according to Creating Keepsakes magazine and the 2004 “Scrapbooking in America”™ survey. Because of how easy this course is, it has the potential to double that number. For additional information on learning to scrapbook on the computer for free or to sign up for the Computer Scrapbooking 101 Course, contact Wes Waddell or visit www.ComputerScrapbookTraining.com. ComputerScrapbookTraining.com is owned and operated by PrincessCrafts™ and their family of Digital Scrapbook Membership sites. PrincessCrafts™: Digital or computer scrapbook pages, templates elements and embellishments. We don’t sell them one page at a time, we give you the key to the store. Membership lets you download anything you want, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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