Scrapbooking With Kids

“I’m bored.” “There’s nothing to do.” Common complaints in your house? Conquer complaining with a kid-friendly scrapbooking project. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s a great activity for all to enjoy together. Through The Ages The key to successful scrapbooking with kids is tailoring the project to their age level.

Let them pick their own topic for the album and do as much of the hands-on work as possible. Young ones probably shouldn’t be turned loose with sharp scissors, but they can certainly help select pictures, lay out pages, and of course use a glue stick. Nobody’s Perfect If you’ve been scrapbooking for a long time it may be tough to “let go” enough for your kids to create their own masterpiece.

Offer suggestions, gently guide the creative process, but let your child do as much of the work as possible. Don’t worry if the cropping isn’t perfectly straight, or if some words are misspelled, or if the colors don’t exactly go together. The most important thing is for your budding scrapbooker to have fun with the process and end up with an album that truly reflects his or her personality. Use The Right Supplies Older children and teens are capable of working with higher quality scrapbook materials and using more sophisticated techniques, but young ones need materials that are simple and easy to manipulate.

Basic card stock and poster board are good choices, as are three ring binders or individual binder rings. If your child has special treasures that are difficult to glue on paper (such as rocks, shells, etc.) try using plastic bags that seal securely or photo sleeves made for notebooks. Stickers, markers and colored paper also come in handy for decorating both the cover and inside pages. The More The Merrier Scrapbooking with kids is even more fun when you do it together with other parents and children.

Gather the neighbors together or start a scrapbooking group at school or church. Scrapbooks make great school projects, too, so ask your child’s teacher if you and some other parents can help organize an album for each child to fill during the school year. The next time your kids are looking for something to do, think about helping them create their very own scrapbook. It’s a fun and rewarding activity that you can do together. And who knows, maybe they’ll get hooked on scrapbooking and want to do more albums with you!

Scrapbooking Take the Sticky Issues Out of Adhesives

Even if you've been making scrapbooks for a long time, choosing adhesives can be a sticky subject. There are just so many to choose from and often it's hard to know which adhesive works best for which items. These tips will serve as a quick, basic guide to help you choose the adhesive is best for your needs.

1. Glue sticks. These are generally the first thing people think of when it comes to choosing scrapbooking adhesives. And glue sticks are a good, all-around choice when it comes to scrapbooking because they work so well on paper. However, they can be messy and tend to dry out quickly. Also, be sure the glue stick you choose is acid-free.

2. Glue pens. These also work well on items that are not paper and are particularly good on fibers. They generally have a fine point which makes them come in handy when you need to put glue on small accents or in hard to reach places.

3. Adhesive dots. That's a fancy name for clear sticky dots, and they are probably the easiest of all adhesives to use. They come in different sizes, and you simply peel them from a roll. Adhesive dots have the advantage of being usable on anything from jewels to buttons to fibers to fabrics. They can also add a cool, 3-D effect to your scrapbook page.

4. Mounting tabs and photo stickers. These are great because they're so easy to use, and you won't have to worry about getting glue on photographs. They also allow you to move your photos around if you change your mind about where you want them or if you decide to take the photos out of your scrapbook.

5. Glue and tape rollers. These are perfect for adhering photographs and paper because they prevent wrinkling. They're also a good investment because you can buy refills and use them again and again.

6. Vellum adhesive. Vellum adhesive lets you glue all kinds of vellum together without the adhesive showing through-which means you won't have to cover the glue with any sort of embellishment and well worth the cost. Now that you know the basics of adhesives, you can easily choose the type or types that best suit your scrapbooking needs. And the less time you spend shopping for adhesives is more time you can spend shopping for all those fun things your scrapbooking heart desires!

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Scrapbooking Putting The Pieces Together

So you've gathered together your materials and settled on a layout for your scrapbook page. Now what? How do you put the pieces together to create the actual pages to put in your album?
A Place To Work It's important to have a flat space to work. Many people use a kitchen or dining room table for page assembly, but if you do this make sure the surface is very clean. Any leftover bits of food or oil can smudge onto the pages and ruin your work. Good lighting is also important, and it helps to have a garbage can nearby for disposing of scraps.

Little Helpers Kids love to cut and paste and draw, and if they're making their own scrapbook then you will want to let them be very hands on. If your scrapbook is more of a keepsake, though, or you're using delicate materials, then it might be best to do the assembly at a time when the children don't require your immediate supervision.

Gather Your Materials Set out the materials you will need for the page. Paper, pictures, mats, stickers, punches, stamps are just a few of the things you might be using. Mock up the page one last time to make sure everything fits the way you want it to, then begin using your adhesives to secure the pieces together. The order in which you glue things together will depend on how the pieces are layered, so it's a good idea to plan for this as part of your mock up.

Display Your Creation Once your page is complete it's time to put it into the scrapbook. Page protectors are critical to keeping pages intact, so carefully insert your page into the protector. If the page catches on the edge of the protector or starts to bend and go in crooked, some wax paper will help. Simply wrap your page in wax paper, slip the bottom edges of the wax paper inside the protector, and your page will slide right in. Assembling your scrapbook pages is a rewarding experience. After all of the time and energy you've put into this special creation, assembly is the point at which you finally get to admire your handiwork. With a good work space, the right materials, and some advance planning you can be sure that assembling scrapbook pages will be easy and enjoyable.

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Scrapbooking 5 Time-Saving Scrapbooking Tips

When it comes to scrapbooking, there never seems to be enough time to do everything you want to do. After all, you do have eat and sleep and take care of other necessary evils, like your job. These five time-saving tips will help you make the most of the time you do have.

1. Resist the temptation to mat every photo. Choose the main one you want to emphasize and mat it. Let other photographs serve as accents or background images. Also, keep in mind that photos with strong colors or plain backgrounds can easily stand on their own, so matting them isn't always necessary.

2. Handwrite your journal entries. This can save you the enormous amount of time it sometimes takes to place stickers or to stamp individual letters. It also personalizes your scrapbook and makes it more intimate. You can also ask people in the photos what they would like the entry to say, or you can have them write it. This is a great way to make your friends and family members, especially young children, feel even more special.

3. Try "reverse" scrapbooking. With this technique you can theme and build your scrapbook pages, leaving room for photos and journaling to be entered later. This works especially well for scrapbooks that center around a particular event like a vacation. It also gives you the bonus of helping you know ahead of time what sort of shots you want to take if you don't already have particular photographs in mind.

4. Use fewer two-page layouts. This forces you to use only your favorite or best photographs-and has the benefit of giving you more room in your scrapbook to include photos you might otherwise have to leave out. You'll also ultimately have fewer scrapbooks to store or move around!

5. Plan ahead. A little planning can save you oodles of time. Keep a notebook handy to write down ideas and layout sketches for your scrapbook when they come to you. Also, make lists of supplies you need as you run out or think of needing or wanting so when you're ready to order or buy them you won't waste time-which gives you more time to do the fun part, work on your scrapbook!

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